Primo sale is a fresh Italian cheese – sometimes resembling ricotta or cottage cheese, sometimes aged for a few weeks. It’s traditionally made from sheep’s milk though some versions today use cow’s milk or a mixture of cow, sheep and/or goat’s milk. The name translates to ‘first salt’, referring to the first stage of salting and maturation that cheese wheels undergo before the second salting and longer maturation phase. At Pilu at Freshwater, chef Giovanni Pilu makes a ricotta-like primo sale to serve as a snack with aperitivi. The milk is curdled with calcium lactate, available from health food stores and online; it’s the same substance that often occurs as small crunchy crystals in aged hard cheeses. You’ll need muslin (or a similar thin cloth) to strain the cheese and a probe thermometer is handy too. While this fresh style of primo sale is best eaten the day it’s made, it keeps refrigerated for at least a week (I leave it wrapped in its cheesecloth). If you can’t find calcium lactate or don’t want to make your own cheese, serve a good ricotta in the same way. Especially in summer, I enjoy this primo sale with a simple chilled red, like the Havilah pinot nouveau from Tasmania’s Woodlawn Wine.
Makes about 400g/14oz (serves 6 as a starter)
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