🧀 Ragusano

Ragusano is a Sicilian cheese made from whole raw cow's milk in the provinces of Ragusa and Siracusa. The name is protected in the EU as a PDO, registered in 1996 (eAmbrosia PDO-IT-1505).

According to the specification, the cows' feed consists mainly of wild plants and herbs of the Ibleo plateau, which may also be made into hay. Rearing, milking, cheesemaking and maturation all take place in the defined area. The specification describes production in the fodder season, November to May, with artisanal cheesemaking using a wooden vat, a tin-lined copper cauldron and wooden moulds. Cheese made only from the milk of Modicana cows may be labelled Ragusano da vacca modicana.

The cheese is a parallelepiped with a square section and rounded corners, with light marks left by the ropes used to hang it during ripening. The sides of the section measure 15-18 cm, the length 43-53 cm and the weight 12-16 kg. The rind is smooth, thin and compact, golden or straw yellow, turning towards brown after long ripening, at most 4 mm thick, and may be coated with olive oil. The paste is compact, white to straw yellow, with occasional holes and possible splitting after long ripening. Table cheese tastes sweet and delicate; long-aged cheese for grating is sharp and very tasty. Fat in dry matter is at least 40 % (38 % for cheese ripened over six months); moisture is at most 42 %.

The cheese ripens for a minimum of three months from moulding, in ventilated premises at 14-16 °C. At the end of the minimum ripening period it is branded on its main face with the PDO marking and the producer's EC number. It may be sold whole, in portions or grated; portions or grated cheese without the branded rind must be packed in the defined area.