A Tour of Sicily and Naples – Cheese and Tomatoes

Posted on June 22, 2023 by Charlene Giannetti in Living Around

Since arriving in Sicily, we had enjoyed many dinners featuring the foods produced on the island. It was time to get an up close view of what goes into the process. 

Siracusa’s CoRFiLaC Research Center, founded in 1996 in Ragusa, is a dairy research center that analyzes the traditional systems of producing cheese. We were able to watch Italian cheese making and to later sample some of the cheeses. 

If you’ve ever wonderful how the cheeses you enjoy are made, the process displayed at CoRFiLaC would answer your questions. It’s a painstaking process and, at CoRFiLaC their focus is to ensure that the cheese produced is free of anything that could cause problems.

After we watched what is involved from transforming the curd into cheese (the whey is later used to make ricotta), we had the opportunity to hear a lecture by the CoRFiLaC experts and then taste the cheeses paired with suitable wines. Ragusano and Perorino Siciliano were paired with La Segreta – Ill Rosso, while Piacentinu Ennese, was enjoyed with a Nero D’Avola. 

Our next stop was Casa Morano, which produces 300,000 tons of tomatoes each year. We heard from the family that still produces the tomatoes that are transformed into sauces and other products. We then had the opportunity to taste pizzas and pastas which incorporated the sauces.

After our tasting, we watched one of the company’s expert pizza makers fashion a white pizza with no tomato sauce, but topped with mortadella, mozzarella, and a Sicilian pesto sauce. A wonderful change from the pizzas we usually eat.

Although most of the tomatoes had already been harvested, we were able to see the plots of land where the soil is reenergized to guarantee a harvest, and the plots where the temperature, during growing season, reaches more than one hundred degrees. Where there were still plants growing, bees are used to naturally pollinate the plants.

Two tours that increased our appreciation about all the hard work and research that goes into producing two of Italy’s most popular products.

To read Charlene’s other stories from A Tour of Sicily and Naples, go to the Living Around section on Woman Around Town.

About Charlene Giannetti (692 Articles)
Charlene Giannetti, editor of Woman Around Town, is the recipient of seven awards from the New York Press Club for articles that have appeared on the website. A graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Charlene began her career working for a newspaper in Pennsylvania, then wrote for several publications in Washington covering environment and energy policy. In New York, she was an editor at Business Week magazine and her articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines. She is the author of 13 non-fiction books, eight for parents of young adolescents written with Margaret Sagarese, including "The Roller-Coaster Years," "Cliques," and "Boy Crazy." She and Margaret have been keynote speakers at many events and have appeared on the Today Show, CBS Morning, FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and many others. Her last book, "The Plantations of Virginia," written with Jai Williams, was published by Globe Pequot Press in February, 2017. Her podcast, WAT-CAST, interviewing men and women making news, is available on Soundcloud and on iTunes. She is one of the producers for the film "Life After You," focusing on the opioid/heroin crisis that had its premiere at WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, where it won two awards. The film is now available to view on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and other services. Charlene and her husband live in Manhattan.

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