Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Toscana

Pastorella del cerreto di SoranoPastorella del Cerreto

Ewe milk mixed with about a quarter cow milk is pasteurised at 72 °C, soured with thermophilic cultures and set with powdered calf rennet. The soft curd is stoved warm in baskets, brined about 8 hours and ripened three weeks at 10–12 °C. Its rind is then painted with ripe tomato pulp, whose acidity keeps moulds off and turns it brick-red.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts are per 100 litres of milk where the sheets give them. One dairy uses about 100 quintals (10,000 kg) of milk a year for this cheese, and each cheese weighs 0.3–0.5 kg.
Whole ewe milk70–75 %[onaf-sheet]
Whole cow milk25–30 %[onaf-sheet]
Thermophilic cultures (freeze-dried) or whey starterAbout 3 % if whey starter is used[onaf-sheet]
Powdered calf rennet3 g per 100 L of milk[onaf-sheet]
Brine20 % salt[onaf-sheet]
Ripe tomato pulp or fairly thick tomato sauceSpread on the rind[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starterthermophilic freeze-dried cultures or whey starter (about 3 %)

Total time across the recorded steps: 22 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
72 °C

What changes: The ewe and cow milk is heated to 72 °C for 15–20 seconds

Step 1 of 8
Pasteurise the mixed milk
Time
0.2–0.4 min
Reported
Temperature
72 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: pasteurised mixed milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Ewe milk mixed with about a quarter cow milk is pasteurised at 72 °C, soured with thermophilic cultures and set with powdered calf rennet. The soft curd is stoved warm in baskets, brined about 8 hours and ripened three weeks at 10–12 °C. Its rind is then painted with ripe tomato pulp, whose acidity keeps moulds off and turns it brick-red. Made in 8 steps over 22 days. The longest step, ripen with fungal flora, takes 21 days (Regione Toscana / ARSIA) and runs at 10–12 °C (Regione Toscana / ARSIA). Salt is 20 % (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main step21 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen with fungal flora
Temperature10–12 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen with fungal flora
Salt20 %Reported[onaf-sheet]Chill and brine

What makes this one different

It is a mixed ewe and cow caciotta whose rind is painted with ripe tomato. The tomato's acidity keeps moulds off and gives the red colour.

Rind
Thin, soft, smooth, brick-red from rubbing with ripe tomato
Size
0.3–0.5 kg; cylinder
Composition
Fat about 50 % of dry matter; water 41 %
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised at 72 °C; the sheets allow raw milk only when it is microbiologically safe.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The ONAF sheet says the name comes from Veronica Nucci, a twelve-year-old shepherdess who herded sheep at Cerreto, near Sorano, when she saw an apparition of the Madonna on 19 May 1853; a shrine, the Santuario della Madonna Addolorata, stands on the spot. The same sheet says only one dairy still makes the cheese, the Caseificio Sociale di Sorano, a cooperative of about 150 farmers, and that both the cheese and its method are considered at risk. The dairy made a 1930s-style advertisement to promote it. Wikipedia also notes that Cerreto is known for the pastorella cheese and for Veronica Nucci's 1853 apparition.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Toscana / ARSIA, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Pastorella del cerreto di Sorano' (original sheet, Prodotti Agroalimentari Tradizionali della Toscana)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pastorella del cerreto di Sorano'web
  3. [wp-cerreto] Wikipedia, Cerreto, Soranowiki