Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

Provola delle Madonie

Raw cow milk from the evening and morning milkings is set at 37 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste in 45–60 minutes, broken to hazelnut size and heated with boiling whey. The curd ripens 12 hours under the whey, drains, and is sliced and stretched in water or whey at about 85 °C into pears with a round head. After saturated brine the pears are tied in pairs, hung over a pole and matured 10–15 days, sometimes after smoking.

Fully documentedCheese11 days – 16 daysPAT (traditional food product, Sicilia; list of D.M. 16 February 2018); Slow Food PresidiumFamily: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts. A cheese weighs about 1–1.2 kg.
Raw whole cow milkEvening milk chilled to 4 °C, mixed next day with the morning milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lamb rennet paste (ONAF adds kid)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Saturated brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Hot water or whey (scotta) from the ricottaFor heating and stretching the curd[onaf-sheet]
Starterthe natural microflora of the raw milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 11 days – 16 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
4 °C

What changes: Chilled evening milk joins the morning milk and is warmed over a flame

Step 1 of 7
Collect and warm the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
4 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Raw cow milk from the evening and morning milkings is set at 37 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste in 45–60 minutes, broken to hazelnut size and heated with boiling whey. The curd ripens 12 hours under the whey, drains, and is sliced and stretched in water or whey at about 85 °C into pears with a round head. After saturated brine the pears are tied in pairs, hung over a pole and matured 10–15 days, sometimes after smoking. Made in 7 steps over 11 days – 16 days. The longest step, hang to mature, takes 10–15 days (Regione Siciliana 2018).

Key numbers
Main step10–15 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Hang to mature
Temperature4 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Collect and warm the milk

What makes this one different

The curd sours for 12 hours under its own whey before it is stretched, and the pears are tied in pairs and hung over a pole for only 10–15 days. A smoked form has a dark hazel rind.

Rind
A thin, smooth, straw-yellow rind; dark hazel in the smoked type
Size
Pear with a short neck and a round head, about 1–1.2 kg
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Variants

  • AffumicataSmoked in a smoke room before maturing; dark hazel rind and a strong smoky smell.

Safety

The milk is raw and the regional sheet lists its microflora as natural, though the curd is heated with boiling whey and stretched at about 85 °C. ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, the main hazards ANSES names for raw-milk cheeses.

History and sources

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

The regional sheet calls it a historical product of the Madonie and cites accounts of the method by Antonino Uccello (1980) and Mario Giacomarra (1983).

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana, Prodotti Agroalimentari Tradizionali (2018, D.M. 16 febbraio 2018), sheet 'Provola delle Madonie' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Provola delle Madonie', PAT Regione Siciliaweb
  3. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Provola delle Madonie' (id 1221)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov