Vastedda della valle del Belìce

Appearance & taste

Vastedda della valle del Belìce has the typical shape of a flat round loaf with slightly convex sides, 15 to 17 cm in diameter, an edge 3 to 4 cm high and a weight of 500 to 700 g. It has no rind; the surface is ivory-coloured, smooth and compact, without holes or folds, and a light straw-coloured film is permitted. The paste is evenly white, smooth and without graininess and may show streaks from being worked by hand. It has no holes or only very few.

The cheese has the typical aroma of fresh sheep’s milk and tastes mild and fresh, with slightly sour streaks, but according to the specification never sharp. It contains at least 35 % fat in dry matter and at most 5 % salt in dry matter. According to the specification, it is one of the very few pasta filata sheep’s cheeses. It is intended to be eaten fresh and is rich in native lactic acid bacteria, making it a “living” product that is constantly developing.

Production

The milk comes from sheep of the Valle del Belìce breed from the area. They graze on natural and cultivated pastures and eat fresh fodder, hay and straw from the area, wheat stubble and plant by-products: grass between the rows of vines, olive branches from winter pruning, shoots of prickly pears and vine leaves after the grape harvest. Cereals, pulses and non-genetically modified concentrates may make up to half of the dry matter of the ration; feed of animal origin is prohibited.

Raw whole sheep’s milk with natural fermentation acidity is used. The rennet is prepared by hand, and the cheese curd acidifies in woven rush baskets solely through the natural microflora of the area. Stretching the curd requires particular skill because, according to the specification, sheep’s milk is not especially suited to it. The cheese is then placed in deep ceramic plates to set. Milk and cheese are produced in the area; the cheese is packed in the same dairy in which it was made so that its microbiological state is preserved.

Origin & history

The area has brown calcareous soils, lithosols, regosols and vertisols as well as natural and cultivated pastures with many wild herbs from legumes, grasses and crucifers. According to the specification, these plants influence the chemical and aromatic composition of the milk and cheese. The climate of the Belìce valley differs from other parts of Sicily and brings no abrupt changes that could harm the cheese’s native microflora. This microflora also settles on the historical tools made of wood and rush.

Sheep farming and cheesemaking have a very long tradition in the area, and the sheep are still kept in sheepfolds in the traditional way. The milk of local sheep has always been used for Vastedda, today that of the Valle del Belìce breed. The name comes from the deep ceramic plates, called “Vastedde”, in which the stretched cheese sets and takes on its flat, round shape.