Today I got to see sheep ricotta made fresh before my very eyes. I'll share the recipe with you. Milk some sheep, dump all the milk into a huge copper vat, heat it up to 83 celsius while stirring it with a big plastic brush, dump in 3 bags of salt, when it curdles- ladle it into big plastic salad spinner looking things and let all the liquid drain away. Then put the curds into bigger salad spinner looking things and put all the baskets into a big wooden barrel. Then pour the extra hot liquid in around the baskets. Cook for 3 hours. Ricotta cheese! I don't think I've ever had so much sheep milk in my body at one time. Tasty but I think I've had enough for a while. I got up early this AM, headed for a dairy farm in a small town about 45 minutes away where they milk 800 sheep, twice a day, every day. That makes a lot of cheese. Baldo taught me all that I just told you. He makes the cheese every day - including Xmas - starting at 6 AM. Think of that when you wake up tomorrow AM, I know I will.
We have been staying here at Gabriella's olive and lemon farm where they make their own olive oil and ship it out all over the world. Their website is http://www.olioverde.it These people are busy! But the house is restful and very comfortable.
I picked a grapefruit off a tree in their field today and peeled it and ate it. They have turtles and fish in the pond that you see above for the boys to feed. And a wonderful cook named Enza who feeds us endlessly every night. She seems amused by the boys antics - at least I hope she is amused. Tomorrow - somewhere new!
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