Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

Provola siciliana

Raw cow milk, mainly from Modicana cows, is set in a wooden vat at 34–37 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste, broken to lentil size and cooked with boiling whey. The curd matures and drains 3–4 hours on wooden boards, then is stretched by hand in water or whey at about 85 °C into tapered pears with a head. It is brined 4–6 hours and hung in pairs to age 1–3 months.

Fully documentedCheese31 days – 3 monthsPAT (traditional food product, Sicilia; list of D.M. 16 February 2018)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts. A cheese weighs about 1 kg.
Raw whole cow milkMainly from Modicana cows; earlier milk is kept at 4 °C and joined with the day's milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lamb and/or kid rennet paste[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Hot whey (scotta) or waterFor cooking and stretching the curd[onaf-sheet]
Saturated brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starterthe raw milk's natural microflora

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 days – 3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
34–37 °C

What changes: Lamb or kid rennet paste sets the raw milk at 34–37 °C

Step 1 of 6
Set in the wooden vat
Time
1–1.3 h
Reported
Temperature
34–37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: curd.

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, mainly from Modicana cows, is set in a wooden vat at 34–37 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste, broken to lentil size and cooked with boiling whey. The curd matures and drains 3–4 hours on wooden boards, then is stretched by hand in water or whey at about 85 °C into tapered pears with a head. It is brined 4–6 hours and hung in pairs to age 1–3 months. Made in 6 steps over 31 days – 3 months. The longest step, hang to age, takes 30 days – 3 months (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…). Natural microflora of the raw cow milk does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[onaf-sheet]Hang to age
Temperature34–37 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Set in the wooden vat

What makes this one different

It is the island-wide provola, mainly from Modicana milk. The regional sheet says it differs from caciocavallo in size and shape and in a shorter salting and ageing.

Rind
Thin, smooth, ivory to amber-yellow
Size
Tapered pear with a small head, about 1 kg
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and its microflora is natural, though the curd is cooked 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 counts provola, with caciocavallo, among the oldest cheeses of Sicily and cites Antonino Uccello's 1980 study of Sicilian dairy culture.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana, Prodotti Agroalimentari Tradizionali (2018, D.M. 16 febbraio 2018), sheet 'Provola Siciliana' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Provola siciliana', PAT Regione Siciliaweb
  3. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Provola siciliana' (id 1222)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov