Here we are with the second Pasto Nudo experiment with the happy cheese :-)
The farm that produces it is the same as the other time, and I have to admit this pecorino cheese has been absolutely up to ricotta cheese, placed second in the graduation of the all ones we received from Stefano.

It is the same sweet and spicy Pecorino cheese I used in the zucchini cake, and I had the proof of its superiority when, last summer, I cooked it again with another kind of pecorino cheese (the *real* one was more then finished, ehm), I was really upset with the taste!!! It was quite another thing. It is true: the plainer a recipe is, the more it totally depends on the quality of the ingredients.
So, I have already told you about the farm: pecore sopravissane, from the Abruzzo plateau, maximum of tradition in the work method. You know about Pecorino cheese, classic, from raw milk, obtained from organic agriculture and pasture raised animals, just 7-month ripe.
The sheep milk, raw, is heated up to 36°-38°C; only at that moment, the curdle, natural and of animal origin, is added. After half an hour, the curd is broken, sea salt is added and it is let to ripen.
The dish I cooked follows a quality-dependent recipe: a mini potato cake, crusty outside, soft inside, filled of creamy cheese, small pieces of pear and little honey.
Here it is the link to read the recipe (and to cook it, of course!); as I tell there, it suits fine both as single dish and as… dessert :-)

Here as well, the chef-friend-of-mine’s hand is in there, as I had the good idea of cooking it in his kitchen, and sometimes, I asked for suggestion for this and that (that man has a good stock of patience).

I can’t say if all of that is due to kilometers the sheeps has eaten up, the essential oils they absorbed from the grass eaten, or to the air of the mountain, but the taste of this cheese I believe it will stay forever in my olfactory memory (the tastes are always olfactory, aren’t they?). The trouble is that, from now on, common cheeses seem to me dull, without personality.
I believe it is right to say that pasture cheese are addictive (sigh)…