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Cheese from Italy, Liguria

SarassoSarazzu

Sarasso is a boundary entry, set by heat and the whey's own acidity, not by microbes. Whey left from making San Stè is filtered and heated with slow stirring to 70–90 °C, sometimes with acid whey, vinegar or lactic acid added. The flakes drain in perforated baskets, are salted with coarse sea salt and dried about a month in a cool cellar into a firm grating ricotta.

Fully documentedCheese30 daysPAT (traditional agri-food product, Liguria)Family: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give the method, not a batch recipe. Each ricotta weighs 1.0–1.5 kg.
Cow whey left from making San StèFiltered through a mesh strainer to remove bits of curd[liguria-pat][onaf-sheet]
Acid whey, vinegar or lactic acid (optional)Helps the whey proteins set[onaf-sheet]
Coarse sea salt[onaf-sheet][liguria-pat]
StarterHeat and the whey's own acidity make the curd.

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: cow whey left from San Stè, strained

Step 1 of 5
Filter the whey
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The whey left from the San Stè curd is strained through a mesh to remove bits of 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

Sarasso is a boundary entry, set by heat and the whey's own acidity, not by microbes. Whey left from making San Stè is filtered and heated with slow stirring to 70–90 °C, sometimes with acid whey, vinegar or lactic acid added. The flakes drain in perforated baskets, are salted with coarse sea salt and dried about a month in a cool cellar into a firm grating ricotta. Made in 5 steps over 30 days. The longest step, dry in a cool cellar, takes 30 days (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main step30 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Dry in a cool cellar
Temperature70–90 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Heat until the flakes rise

What makes this one different

A cow-whey ricotta from the San Stè dairies, salted and dried a month until it can be grated. The name comes from the Provençal serác and the Latin serum, whey.

Rind
Thin, fairly hard, pale straw with whitish mould spots
Size
Cylinder 10–15 cm across and 15–20 cm high
Weight
1.0–1.5 kg (ONAF)
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The whey is heated to 70–90 °C, and the dried ricotta is kept in a cold room at 4 °C.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet and Botto's 2008 article say that salting and ageing the ricotta let it be used long after making, since there were no fridges, and that it was once eaten with polenta. The Liguria page notes that in the Savona area a rarer relative, recheuto, was made from whole milk left to sour, dried in a cloth tube and pressed with salt and pepper.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [liguria-pat] Regione Liguria, agriligurianet, traditional product page 'Sarasso' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Sarasso'web
  3. [botto2008] Botto C. 2008, Il Sarazzu, la ricotta stagionata tipica della Val d'Aveto, Nel Parco (newsletter of the Parco dell'Aveto), reprinted on valdaveto.netweb