Pampanella

A typical cheese of Grottaglie is the Pampanella. It is made from cow’s milk or a mixture of cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk. It is prepared as follows: the milk is pasteurised, cooled to 38° and coagulated with natural rennet. After waiting about 20 minutes without breaking, the coagulum is collected with a spatula and placed in a fig leaf, previously soaked in fresh water, and left to settle for a few hours. The fig leaf not only has a coagulating enzyme, which hardens the coagulum, but also gives the cheese the characteristic scent of fig trees, intense but always extremely sweet.