Prosciutto of Siena-Breed Pork

The feeling is like entering a kind of Spielbergian Jurassic Park. Leaving Casole d’Elsa behind, the road becomes narrower, bumpier and more impervious until the paving finally stops, marking the beginning of one of the many white dirt roads in this magnificent part of Tuscany. A drive through couple of kilometers of uncontaminated nature brings you to Marino Garaffi’s farm. Garaffi is one of the saviors, as well as the tutor, of what was considered up until a few years ago an animal destined to be remembered only in the captions of archaeological museums: the cinta senese, or Sienese breed of pig.
This particular breed of "autochthonous" pigs is found only in the area in and around Siena, especially in the Sienese mountains and the nearby Chianti hills. According to a document published by the Compagnia della Cinta, this pig is characterized by a dark coat with a white "belt" (hence cinta) running around the chest, withers, shoulders and front feet. Painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in his The Effects of Good Government fresco (1338-40), this breed is also found in later artworks: on the floor of the Church of San Sebastiano in the Chapel of the Annunciation (1510) as well as in the fresco of Sant’Antonio Abate in the Chapel of Casanuova di Ama (1596).
The "cinto" is always undomesticated; in the winter it eats mostly chestnuts and acorns preferring especially the sweet acorns of the oak trees to the bitter ones of holm-oaks while in the summer it eats grains, tomatoes and apples that Marino buys at the market.
Every winter about forty animals are butchered when they reach the age of 18-22 months and a weight of about 160 kilos. The processing of the meat follows the ancient cycle of making a different product for every season: first sausage, then after two months of maturation the little salame (weighing 700-800 grams); then after three months the larger salame (about one and a half kilos); continuing with sbriciolona, cured shoulder and, after at least ten months, prosciutto.
While Marino recounts tales of war and partisans, his wife Rosa tells me how and when to prepare the prosciutto, offering me slices of a superb 11-month sample, hand cut with expertise. Drunk with the light flavor which is sweeter than Tuscan prosciutto, its intense aroma and lean meat with just a slight rim of fat, I grow more appreciative of her detailed information and the speed with which she cuts the meat and offers it.
To produce a great prosciutto di cinta, the ham is first rubbed with wine vinegar then spread with a paste of garlic, pepper and a layer of salt. At the end of the salting phase which can last between 20 and 28 days, the ham is washed with water and then rubbed with vinegar again. Dried and covered with ground black pepper, the prosciutto is left to "meditate" in the cellar for a period of up to 17 months. Please: don’t set foot in this realm of Marino’s! It is really a circle for gluttons (like the one described by Dante in his Hell) that goes back to Medieval times: with its aromas, it is so tempting that it causes even the most convinced vegetarians to doubt their convictions. .

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PECORINO DI PIENZA and SBURRATA

Prampolini, Marinetti and Fillia, in their manifesto of Futurist Cooking, but also Vernazza with his "perfect spherical balls made of cherries without stems, wrapped in a ricotta pastry" to decorate his cotoletta-tennis, (one of his many "cooking formulas"), could never have imagined that things would go so far. And instead…. Here we have the Caseificio Cooperativa della Valle d’Elsa embodying a projection into the future, the dynamism of modernity, the praise of just those machines that were the essence of the Futurist movement.
The environment is aseptic with its non-conductive and refrigerated tanks, heaters and the lines for the preparation of moulds where the piling of mould blocks is done automatically. Human hands are used only where necessary: to turn and wash the forms or else to fill the moulds. The Valle d’Elsa Cooperative is an example of equilibrium between craftsmanship and technology.
But if Man’s arms are now mechanized, his knowledge still functions as the mind. Every day the cheesemaker’s art is expressed in the moment and in the way of cutting the curd, an operation that cannot be done mechanically. About thirty people work up to five hundred quintals of cheese every day; and yet these are far from the stereotyped and same-tasting products often found on our supermarket shelves.
A lot depends on the milk which the Cooperative collects from the flocks of all its members in Poggibonsi, Casole, Asciano, Radicondoli and other towns in the area. This goes for both the Pienza as well as the Sburrata sheep cheeses, the two characteristic cheeses of this area.
Produced from November to July (although the best quality is made in the spring months) pecorino di Pienza is made exclusively with whole sheep’s milk, salt, veal curd and milk leavens. It can be eaten fresh, after only a twenty day maturation period, or ripened if it is left at least two months. Fresh cheese ranges between white and straw color, it has a soft sweet taste with a slightly spicy flavor. By contrast the ripened cheese is easily recognizable for its crusty rind that is reddish-orange in color if it has been treated with oil and tomato, or brown, if treated with oil and ashes; contrary to fresh pecorino, the ripened variety is more crumbly with a floury, almost chalk-like consistency, and a sharper taste.
Sburrata can be prepared either with just sheep’s milk or with a mixture of sheep and cow’s milk. The cheese is partially cooked and the curd is broken in large pieces. This is a fresh cheese that should be eaten within twenty days or maximum one month from production. It comes in a variable weight between one and one and a half kilos, with a sweet, fresh taste that is an excellent accompaniment to fava or broad beans.

| Montalcino | Colle di Val d'Elsa | Volterra | Casole d'Elsa | San Gimignano | Poggibonsi |