Brocciu

Brocciu is a fresh soft whey cheese of Corsica, made from sheep or goat milk. It belongs to the ricotta family of cheeses — the curd is recovered not from the casein (the main milk protein, coagulated by rennet in most cheeses) but from the albumin and other soluble whey proteins that remain in the liquid after the initial cheesemaking. Brocciu is closely identified with Corsican cuisine and is used both fresh and in cooking; it carries an AOC designation. It is the defining cheese of the island, eaten fresh or baked into traditional dishes such as fiadone, the Corsican brocciu cake, and cannelloni.

A spoonful of fresh brocciu is white, soft, and fragile, with a texture somewhere between ricotta and a creamy fromage blanc. The flavor is fresh, milky, and slightly sweet — clean and delicate, with none of the sharpness of aged cheese. Eaten fresh within days of making, it is the cheese of the Corsican spring; baked into fiadone, it melts into a tender, lemon-scented cake.

Brocciu is a whey cheese, built on the heat-coagulation of soluble whey proteins. After the main cheese is made, the leftover whey still contains albumin and globulin — soluble proteins that rennet did not coagulate. The whey is reheated to near boiling; at this high temperature, these soluble proteins denature and coagulate, rising to the surface as fine white curds that are skimmed off — the same ricotta method, whose Italian name means re-cooked. The recovery is of proteins that would otherwise be lost, which is why brocciu is a cheese of economy as much as of taste. The fresh curd is fragile and high in moisture; it cannot be aged long, so it is eaten fresh or used immediately in cooking.