Knives and Cheeses

From Praiano on the Sorrento coast to Frosolone in Molise, it was supposed to take a bit over 3 hours mostly due the windy single lane road along the coastline through Amalfi and to Salerno where we hopped on highways. Alas, I  woke up with a horrible stomach that demanded a doctor's attention. The hotel called Dr. Luigi mario Giordano who is a cardiologist, but practices as a GP on the side with tourists. He announced he was famous for saving a man's life by doing CPR after he was announced dead. He gave me a shot - the Turk had to assist by holding the needle for a few minutes which was pushing it for him. We got some medicine and then were on our way.  The windy road was slow going but beautiful and the turk is a great Italian driver. But then one of the major highways was closed, unbeknownst to our GPS. We ended up following the rest of the traffic through rolling hills of olives and grape vines. We were getting close after a long ride. Then turned onto a dirt road not wide enough for the car. Yikes! We optimistically took it for a while, but found a paved road and got outta there. Asking locals who were taking their evening stroll helped us find out pension. whew! Only 6 hours!

Walking around Frosolona, people asked us Why are you here? Not in a bad way, but in a curious way. Because this town is know for their centuries old knife making, we decided to go to the knife museum. The sign on the door said they were on vacation until 2 days ago. But the door was locked. someone stopped by and said - wait.  After a while I decided to call the number on the door. As the Turk was reading the number to me, a voice came from upstairs balcony providing the rest of the phone number. Then he said, wait.  I decided that perhaps in Frosolone, you just say a phone number - not dial it - and people answer!  Soon 2 women appeared to unlock the door. One spoke some English and said the museum person was on vacation. I mentioned the dates on the door and she said - Its Italy.   Then she admitted that she had never been to the museum but would be happy to show us around. The other woman was there to assist. We had fun trying to figure out the various knives and soon just talked with the women.

They decided to show us around town which takes about 5 minutes. And they told us about the 'famous' Frosolone cheeses that can be found no where else. In fact, they took us to a traditional restaurant with these cheese and told the owner that we'd be back to try them.
the Turk and I explored a bit on our own and ended up at a wonderful knife shop where the owner makes many of the knives himself. He comes from a family of generations of knifemakers. His wife speaks English and was able to tell us about the antique and modern knives they have in the shop  - which helped us understand what we saw in the museum! Then the owner took us outside to show us how he can sharpen knives on his antique knife sharpening contraption that was once used by his great uncle.

We went around the corner to find our cheese and noticed a group of men sitting outside with beers for lunch. I cheered them on and one followed us in, insisting to buy us beers. We chatted and drank and then, suddenly he disappeared. I think these guys were on lunch break!  We sat down for lunch and a cousin of the owner spoke english and kindly helped us come up with a lunch - no menu mind you! We chatted a while until he had to go to a funeral of an old man who walked in front of a car the night before and was run over.
We tried the various cheeses: Scamorza which is a goat cheese. They also grilled it which created a crusty, browned, slightly salty cheese that was wonderful.  The rest were ricotta fresca with herbs, a mozzerella, pecorino that had a slightly tangy flavor, and cacia ca vallo.  Then a man with his wife and son started talking to us about cheese.

Apparently he had the day off and was just hanging around. After telling us about the cheeses, he took us to a nearby family that was in the process of making cacio ca valla (horse cheese), as they do every day except Christmas.  Their goats are in the mountains where they are milked each morning. The milk is brought down and they start the cheese making for the day. The process is long - milk is boiled, cream separated from the 'water', the solids are then pulled together with hot water and a lot of muscles to create balls of cheese. They are soaked in salt water and hung to dry, then put in the cellar where they are aged a bit.  This is called horse cheese because the locals would go into the mountains to tend their herds and would tie the cheese to ropes and hang it around the horse's neck as they went up and down the mountains.

stirring the cheese curd which is then put into container with VERY hot water

combing the curds to form cheese ball - asbestos hands!

cheese ball is formed

cheese balls soaked in salt water and then hung to drain

cheese balls stored like this for 2 weeks

We tried some of the curd cheese, and purchased 2 balls (apparently they come in pairs) of caco ca vallo cheese. Not sure what we will do with this since we are driving and we must hang them for 4 days to form a skin. Guess we'll be driving with these hanging balls in the window. Then the wife handed us fresh ricotta cheese as a gift. Supposedly we dont have to 'friggo' the cheeses (refrigerate)
The turk and I took our cheeses, our knives and hiked back to the pension. Guess we'll try the mountain hike tomorrow!!  Alas - it was foggy on our departure day, so no hiking....yet!