Ricotta Salata della Valnerina

The Valnerina is rough country, wood and pasture, and shepherding was its economy: every family had sheep and goats, flocks came up from other regions to the summer pastures, and from September the Valnerina's own went down to the plains and grasslands of Lazio for the milder winter, coming back at the start of the next summer. Cheese and ricotta made on that road had to keep and travel. Some of the ricotta went into piatto or scotta, a soup of bread and whey with fresh ricotta; the rest went into a hemp sack and was pressed.