Recipe of the week: bruss cheese

Elixir of Life of pre-Roman Ligurian origins, u brussu or Bruzzu is the staple cheese of Cucina Bianca.  

"Illi barbarians manducant pulmentum vocatur Brutium" said Julius Caesar in De Bello Gallico. The "pulmentum" is the most ancient Italian cheese. Perfect with the Triora bread and fresh tomatoes, as well as with potatoes. Also used to flavor pasta (sugeli, streppa e caccia là, ecc), to prepare vegetable soups and the bruss pie. Delicious with polenta.

Here's the recipe:

Salt the very fragrant and delicate "curd" from goat or sheep milk, add a small glass of anise or grappa, let it ferment for two months in a wooden container and mix to oxygenate once a day until you have a creamy, smooth, easy-to-spread paste. The paste is off-white, almost gray. Put it in glass jars covered with extra virgin olive oil, keep it in the fridge, stir from time to time.

Today the Bruzzu of the Arroscia Valley is a Slow Food Presidium