Nice. This is the adjective that we could use to describe the Preacher, a pecorino cheese made for us by the Maremma di Follonica dairy, a family-run business that has been producing cheeses since the 1960s, which today have become testimonials throughout the world of the Tuscan dairy tradition. .
Pecorino il Predicatore is a cheese produced using only pasteurized sheep’s milk, rennet, lactic ferments and pure Volterra salt.
What differentiates it from other pecorino cheeses is the fact that it is aged, for a period ranging from thirty to sixty days, with red Merlot passito toscano IGT marc.
The maturation takes place all the time inside the barrique and this procedure ensures that its rind at the end is of an intense purple color and is studded with pomace.
Moreover, thanks to this technique, its very compact and white paste tending to straw yellow acquires a balanced but distinct vinous aroma.
Il Pedicatore is the perfect example of a product capable of enhancing and narrating the fruits of a specific territory: the choice of using only local “ingredients” (sheep’s milk, Volterra salt, red Merlot IGT Toscana marc) makes this pecorino a real ambassador of Tuscan gastronomic know-how and the richness of the fruits of our land.
Suitable for a mature audience able to appreciate its pleasant flavor, but full and tasty at the same time, the Predicatore can be enjoyed very well alone, on a cutting board with other cheeses and cured meats for an excellent end of a meal, or inside the buffet. aperitifs.
Try it in combination with a rosé wine or with structured red wines: it will not disappoint even the most demanding and refined palates.
The tradition of “drunk” the cheeses
Il Predicatore, due to the fact that it matures in the pomace of Tuscan red passito IGT Merlot, is rightfully included in the ranks of the so-called “drunken cheeses”. These are very particular cheeses because the drunk or “imbriagatura” technique requires that the freshly made pecorino forms are left to mature in tanks – in the case of our Predicatore in oak barrels that intensify the flavor extremely – in direct contact with the marc fresh that have just been drawn off completely squeezed and therefore still soft and juicy. This process gives the skin a more or less intense purplish-red color and gives the paste a recognizable hint of wine and must which obviously varies according to the type of marc used.
It would seem that this technique was developed during the Great War, in Treviso, after the defeat of Caporetto. In fact, the inhabitants, in order to secure their food supplies from the raids of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers, hid the cheeses under the marc that had already been used for winemaking.
After the threat, when they went to take them out of the “juicy” hiding place, they discovered that the cheeses had not only been saved, but had also been refined and embellished with a new aroma.
Another theory, on the other hand, has it that, in times of war, marc was always used to soften the crust of cheeses because the oil was too expensive and the dairies could not afford it.
Ingredients
Pasteurized sheep’s MILK, Volterra salt, rennet, enzymes, preservative E235, coloring E172, pomace of red Merlot passito Toscana IGT treated on the surface.
Inedible rind.
Store from + 2 ° to + 10 ° C.
Produced and packaged in the IT 09 038 CE factory.
