A gourd-shaped stretched-curd cow's-milk cheese from Agnone, the old craft town of high Molise, hung in pairs to age and used across the region as a table cheese and a cooking cheese. Raw whole milk is curdled, the curd ripened and then stretched in hot water into a smooth, elastic paste that is shaped into a pear with a small head and tied at the neck, two cheeses lashed together and slung astride a beam to dry — the «a cavallo», straddling, that gives the type its name. Young, it is mild, milky and faintly tangy; aged for months it turns firm, straw-yellow and sharp. In Molise it is sliced onto bread, melted, or fried in thick slabs as caciocavallo impanato.
Agnone, perched in the Alto Molise near the Abruzzo border, is an old artisan town — home to the Marinelli pontifical bell foundry, founded by tradition around the year 1040, and to a coppersmiths' quarter that once held scores of workshops. Its caciocavallo belongs to the same pastoral world: stretched-curd cheeses of this kind are an ancient southern-Italian tradition, often traced in popular accounts to the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia and long bound up with transhumance, the seasonal droving of cattle and sheep between the Apennine summer pastures and the Puglian plains. Those deep-time origins are tradition rather than firmly documented fact; what is securely recorded is the cheese's standing today as a recognised traditional agri-food product (PAT) of Molise and an entry in the Slow Food Ark of Taste, made to a defined method with the milk of mountain-pastured cows. The name caciocavallo, «cheese on horseback», is usually explained by the way the paired cheeses are hung astride a pole to age.
A young caciocavallo cuts soft and supple, pale ivory inside with a smooth, almost springy paste and a clean, milky, faintly sour taste that warms into a buttery finish. With age the body tightens and dries to straw-yellow, the flavour deepening to something nutty, savoury and pleasantly sharp, with a granular edge near the rind. Heated, it is at its most seductive: a thick slab put in a hot pan softens to a molten, stringy heart under a browned, crisp crust, smelling of toasted milk. The rind is firm and waxy and usually left behind.
This is a pasta filata, «spun paste», cheese: after the raw milk is set with rennet, the curd is left to ripen until its acidity rises to the point where the casein proteins will stretch rather than crumble, then it is bathed in water near 80°C and worked until it pulls into long, glossy, elastic strands. That stretching aligns the protein into the sheeted, fibrous structure that makes the young cheese pliable and the heated cheese string. Shaping into a sealed pear with a tied neck and hanging it to drain firms the surface into a protective rind; months of cool ageing then drive off moisture and let enzymes break down protein and fat, which is what turns the mild young paste firm, deep-coloured and sharp. When a slab is fried, gentle heat first melts the fat and loosens the protein network so the inside flows, while the dry surface hits Maillard browning and crisps.
Variations
Caciocavallo is eaten across all its ages: fresh and mild as a table cheese with bread and ventricina, half-aged for melting, and well-aged and sharp for grating over pasta or shaving onto cured meats. The most beloved hot preparation is caciocavallo impanato — thick slices crumbed and fried until molten — while caciocavallo all'argentiera melts it with vinegar, oregano and garlic. Closely related straddle-hung stretched-curd cheeses run down the whole southern Apennine, from the prized podolica caciocavallo of the high pastures to the smaller scamorza and provola; the Agnone cheese is distinguished by its town's old dairy tradition and its PAT and Ark of Taste recognition.
On the Palate
Where Caciocavallo di Agnone sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 12How it's made
7 steps · 2 hours
- 140 min
Set raw whole cow's milk with rennet at about 37°C and let the curd form, then cut it and let it settle.
- 2240 min
Drain the curd and leave it to ripen for several hours until its acidity rises and a pulled test-piece stretches smoothly without breaking.
Watch outRipen the curd until a pulled test-piece stretches smoothly without breaking — that's the acidity hitting the point where the casein will spin into strands.
- 330 min
Cut the ripened curd into strips, cover with water near 80°C and work it with a paddle until it pulls into a single glossy, elastic mass.
Watch outWork the strips in water near 80 degrees until they pull into one glossy, elastic mass — too cool and it won't stretch, too hot and it goes greasy.
- 420 min
Knead and stretch the hot paste, then shape it into a pear with a small head, tucking and sealing the surface; tie off the neck with cord.
- 530 min
Tie cheeses together in pairs, dip briefly in cold then in brine, and hang them astride a beam to firm and drain.
- 6129600 min
Age in a cool, humid cellar from a few weeks (mild) to several months (sharp), turning the cheeses as they dry.
- 710 min
To serve hot, cut a thick slab, crumb it or simply lay it in a hot oiled pan, and fry until the crust browns and the centre runs molten.
Watch outFry until the crust browns and the center runs molten — the pasta filata structure is what lets it string and flow when hot.
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