A fresh pulled-curd cheese from the highlands of Alto Molise, made only around Agnone, Capracotta, Carovilli and Vastogirardi in the province of Isernia. Its name comes from stracciare, to tear: two dairymen pull the hot spun curd into a long flat ribbon about five centimetres wide and a centimetre thick, then tear it into folded portions of some four hundred grams. Milky-sweet and barely salted, it keeps only a few days and is eaten in torn strips with prosciutto crudo, bread and oil.
Stracciata took shape in the pastures of Alto Molise and grew distinctive at Agnone from the early twentieth century, a fresh table cheese of the high Apennine dairies. It is bound to the Di Nucci family, dairymen of the transhumance recorded since 1662, who after the Second World War moved down from Capracotta to Agnone and shaped the torn ribbon for the ham rolls served at village weddings, from which it spread to everyday tables. Made from the raw milk of local pasture-fed cows and listed among Molise's traditional products, it was later ranked by Taste Atlas among the world's hundred best cheeses, and the Di Nucci dairy was named Italy's Cheese of the Year in 2017.
Soft and springy, with the clean milky sweetness of very fresh curd and only a whisper of salt. Torn into strips it has a faint squeak and pull, then melts to cream on the tongue; wrapped round a slice of prosciutto, its sweetness sets off the cured ham.
Stracciata is a pasta filata, or spun-curd, cheese. Rennet sets the raw milk into a gel, then the curd is left in its whey while lactic-acid bacteria ferment its lactose to lactic acid, lowering the pH toward about 5.2. At that acidity the calcium bridges holding the casein proteins loosen just enough that, bathed in near-boiling water at around 90°C, the curd turns plastic and can be drawn into long, aligned fibres. Tearing and folding the hot ribbon locks in that layered, stringy grain; because it is barely salted and unripened, the sweet fresh curd stays moist but perishable, good for only a few days.
Variations
There is little to vary in so plain a cheese; the differences are of hand and dairy. Some pull the ribbon wider or thinner, some salt it a touch more, and it runs from milky-white to faintly straw as it ages over its few days. It is close kin to the region's other pasta filata cheeses, the scamorza and the treccia, and is best eaten within a day or two with bread, prosciutto and oil, or torn cold into a summer salad.
On the Palate
Where Stracciata sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
8 steps · 20 min
- 140 min
Warm the raw cow's milk gently to about 37°C, stir in the rennet, and leave it undisturbed until it sets to a clean, firm curd.
- 2180 min
Cut the curd, let it settle, and drain off some whey; leave it to ripen in the warm whey for two to three hours, until a test piece pulls into smooth strands in hot water.
Watch outThe curd's ready when a test piece pulls into smooth strands in hot water — too soon it tears, so let it ripen the full two to three hours.
- 35 min
Pinch off a small piece and dip it in very hot water: when it stretches without breaking, the curd is ready to spin.
- 48 min
Slice the ripened curd into a deep bowl and pour over near-boiling whey, then water at about 90°C, to soften it.
- 515 min
Work the softened curd with a wooden paddle, stretching and folding it in the hot water until it is smooth, glossy and elastic.
Watch outWork it in near-boiling water until glossy and elastic — cool water and it won't stretch into the layered, stringy grain.
- 610 min
Pull the mass into a long, flat ribbon about four to five centimetres wide and one centimetre thick.
- 78 min
Tear the ribbon into lengths of about fifty centimetres and fold each three times into portions of roughly four hundred grams.
- 815 min
Dip briefly in light brine, cool, and eat within a few days with prosciutto, bread and oil.
