|
Typical products of Bronte
The peppered sheep cheese
This ovine cheese, the most ancient in Sicily, was known and
appreciated already by the Greeks.
The one produced in Bronte, a hard paste, compact, raw, with spicy taste and persistent perfume, has a seasoning of about 3-12 months. |
|
It is made with whole
sheep's milk, still with the typical
equipment and natural manufacturing process (adding rennet), in
round forms and used at the table or for grating.
The forms of brontese ovine cheese have a
diameter of
about 40-50 cm with a height of 10-15, and a weight of 10-20
Kg.
On the crust, white yellowish, are impressed the signs of the molding in the wicker baskets
where the still soft paste was
put.
To increase the characteristic spicy taste sometime are added some
curdling black pepper grains. In these last years it is better
appreciated also with the adding of green pistachio of Bronte. |
|
|
When is fresh and not salty, it is called "Tuma". After a first salting is called "Primo Sale", and has a
sweet, delicate and slightly spicy taste.
The seasoning is still carried out in rooms where the cheese ripening is regulated by conditions exclusively or prevalently
natural.
At the end of the seasoning (for a maximum of about 12 months) is called "Tumazzu", reaches the characteristic smell and the unmistakable spicy taste.
 The fresh
fruit
Valuable and of elevated quality also the fresh fruit
production. In Bronte territory, and et5cly in
the high Simeto valley (lower part of town), in less than thirty
years, has developed a fruit growing pole of over
1000 hectares cultivated principally as pear and peach
trees. The origin of this production goes up to 1951 when the baron Francesco
Pace, following the example of what was happening
in Emilia-Romagna, that had started a modern, Italian fruit growing activity,
established the first 36 hectares of pear, peach and apple trees.
 Other farmers followed his example and, during the last fifty
years, the total area planted with pear trees is about 1.000 hectares, with prevalent presence of the variety Coscia (70%) and
Summer Butirra (18%) and also varieties Abate Fetel,
Kaiser, Conference, Decana, Passa Grassana, Butirri and Garofalo. The pears, the peaches (yellow paste or Tabacchiera), the
white nectarine, are well known in the national markets for taste,
scent, color and the particular pulp consistency. |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Between
the dairy products of Bronte we like to
mention the peppered ovine e cheese, the salami cheese, the
cheese and cottage cheese with
added pistachio, with vegetables or chilly, the provola
fresh or seasoned, the cottage cheese (fresh or salted or
baked). |
 |
|
To remember
also some pistachio products as the pesto and the nutella (creamed pistachio nuts), the
legumes and
other cereals, the bread (made with hard wheat flour an baked in
stone ovens), the sweets (fillette, nuvolette, paste of almonds
and pistachio), the olive oil and the wine. |
|
|
A farmers
organization ("Le
Valli dell'Etna"), to promote and make known
the fruit originating in our territory,
uses the brand
"Oro
dell'Etna"(Etna's gold) with the slogan "a volcano
of flavors" to highlight the peculiar organoleptic characteristics
of the pears and peaches of Bronte.
|
 |
|
|
|
.gif){kind=small}
