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Cheese from Italy, Calabria

Farci-provola

Cow milk, half from the evening before and half from the morning, is set with liquid calf rennet; the curd is cut to hazelnut size, drained and left to sour for three to four days at room temperature. The soured curd is stretched in water at 80 °C, shaped into a long hollow casing, filled with a cured Calabrian sausage such as capocollo or soppressata, sealed, cooled and brined about 12 hours. It then hangs a few days in a cool, airy room.

Fully documentedCheese7.5 days – 9.5 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Calabria, product code F-06)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no doses. Each piece weighs 2–4 kg.
Fresh cow milk, half milked the evening before and half the morning of making[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lactic cultures (only when the milk is pasteurised)[onaf-sheet]
Cured Calabrian soppressata or capocollo (PDO)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, as brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starterlactic cultures, added when the milk is pasteurised

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.5 days – 9.5 days

Start
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What changes: Liquid calf rennet goes into the warmed cow milk

Step 1 of 7
Set the milk with calf rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The filtered milk is warmed to setting temperature and liquid calf rennet added.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Cow milk, half from the evening before and half from the morning, is set with liquid calf rennet; the curd is cut to hazelnut size, drained and left to sour for three to four days at room temperature. The soured curd is stretched in water at 80 °C, shaped into a long hollow casing, filled with a cured Calabrian sausage such as capocollo or soppressata, sealed, cooled and brined about 12 hours. It then hangs a few days in a cool, airy room. Made in 7 steps over 7.5 days – 9.5 days. The longest step, hang to mature, takes 4–5 days (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main step4–5 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Hang to mature
Temperature80 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Stretch in hot water

What makes this one different

A pasta filata cheese built as a casing around cured meat. ONAF says it seems to have begun as a way to send Calabrian salumi to emigrants in America past US customs rules on processed meat.

Rind
Very thin, smooth skin, ivory to pale straw
Size
Long, irregular cylinder with rounded ends
Boundary
Holds a cured-meat filling

Related ferments

Safety

ONAF describes the milk as pasteurised but says raw milk is often used today. Raw milk can carry Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria (CDC). The curd sours for three to four days at room temperature, and the cheese matures only 4–5 days.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus (positive in 20 % of 221 samples) and Escherichia coli (positive in 53 %), in Calabrian stretched-curd cow cheeses (provola, caciocavallo, mozzarella, butirro) from Cosenza province, related Calabrian pasta filata cheeses; not farci-provola itself.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

ONAF says the filled form seems to have arisen from a problem of the people of Miglierina and Amato, near Catanzaro, who needed to send salumi to emigrants in America. To avoid the US customs limits on processed meat, the local cheesemakers wrapped their salumi in provola paste so they looked like provole. Calabrian cookery books and popular histories document the product for more than 25 years.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Calabria, Prodotti agro-alimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Farci-provola', product code F-06 (scanned, no text layer; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Farci-provola'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Farci-Provola' (id 1115)web
  4. [mancuso2026] Mancuso G, Mancusi A, Cosentino MG, Cello SD, Malagrinò MC, Mungo F, Palermo P, Casbarra MA, Dini I, Proroga YT, Saini E. 2026, Occurrence of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus in Traditional Meat-Based Foods and Cheeses Produced in Calabria (Southern Italy), International Journal of Microbiology 2026:9978007 (Table 5, stretched curd cheeses made from bovine milk; related cheeses, not this one)paper
  5. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (31 January 2025)gov