Buon giorno!

Toward the end of la settimana scorsa (last week) we embarked on a wet, chilly car ride to Il Secondo Altopiano Goat Farm about 30 minutes from Pulicaro. The weather had switched from stiflingly hot to pouring rain and cold, so luckily our giorno di tempesta (rainy day) was held within the barns and cheese-making facilities of Alessandra and Manuele, two friends of Pulicaro. This is a family-run operation that creates some of the best cheeses in the area, and has won awards for making the best organic goat milk yogurt in Italy.

Manuele gave us a lesson on the basic steps that go into creating different formaggi (cheeses), after which the group got to try their hand at forming some of the fresh cheese.

Similar to Marco and Chiara, the owners of Pulicaro, Alessandra and Manuele run a sustainable, organic farm that focuses on creating a wide variety of artisinal cheeses from latte di capra (goat cheese). We were lucky enough to enjoy a spread of all of the cheeses created by Il Secondo Altopiano. The round stone plate (pictured below) displays the fresh cheeses made with milk from the past couple of days, while the long board of wood (below) held the aged cheeses that are stored in a cave on the property that has been used for cheese-making for hundreds of years.

Buon appetito!

– Liz & Michael