Article by Felicia Del Franco.
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Otto Passi was a guest of the Domus Casei column dedicated to the art and techniques of cheese making. This is the LINK to read the article and below the English translation.
The Ottopassi farm tells Domus Casei: vegetable rennet for a traditional product
We at Domus Casei interviewed a Sardinian farm, the Otto Passi farm, a reality in the heart of the Marghine, which raises Sardinian sheep and produces a Pecorino made with vegetable rennet.
To tell us the story of this activity, is Paolo Musu, chemical engineer and former manager in the world of multinationals, who takes care of the management of the company dairy.
The Otto Passi farm project was born in 2019 on the same land on which the family business was born, which for two generations has been engaged in the production of sheep’s milk, from an idea of Paolo, Rita, his wife, and Luca, his brother-in-law. who had already brought the family business to light a few years ago. The three have joined forces and decided to take a step further than what for years has been family work, that is to reach the world of transformation using milk produced entirely at the company level, to make dairy products.
The project was born in the period of the milk price crisis in 2019, which saw Sardinian farmers throw their milk to symbolize a protest against the excessively low selling price of milk.
“We wondered how much it was still worth pursuing a business model exclusively based on breeding and conferment, also because it was possible to stay at the limit between expenses and inputs”, these are Paolo’s words that confirm how much for the zootechnical world it has been difficult to live that moment. Rita, Luca and Paolo thus combine different skills and work experiences by designing a modern and efficient company “to enhance a traditional product such as pecorino, but making it with the aid of technologies that comply with health and hygiene standards, eliminating the use of obsolete materials that did not improve in any way the organoleptic properties of Sardinian pecorino, being able, on the contrary, to be a vehicle for bacterial contamination “.
Rita takes care of the administration, Paolo is the production manager and Luca is the farm manager.
The first investments made date back to 2019, but slowly they built the buildings and purchased the necessary machinery and created a solid administrative system.
Paolo carried out studies on the cheese-making of raw milk for the creation of a natural cheese, made without pasteurization and without the addition of commercial starter strains.
“To make a natural cheese it is not enough to respect the traditional recipe and in our case not to use commercial starter strains. This aspect is only the smallest part of an articulated and complex process that necessarily begins with the breeding of healthy animals free to graze, fed with a balanced and controlled diet. The milk produced from animals raised in this way and not pasteurized preserves the aromatic and nutritional integrity. The cheesemaker thus becomes a real guardian of biodiversity “, added Paolo.
The breeding of Sardinian sheep, in fact, involves feeding with self-produced fodder and grains stored in the barn. The size of the farm land, about 200 hectares, then allows to reserve large areas for grazing.
The production line of the company offers various types of dairy products, from the classic Pecorino more or less seasoned, to mozzarella and stracchino, but a certainly interesting product, which deserves our attention, is the Pecorino made exclusively with vegetable rennet extracted from Sardinian wild thistle: Pecorino with vegetable rennet.
“The idea of making a product with vegetable rennet was born to meet the needs of the market, where today there are many vegetarians. Therefore, we have decided to include vegetable rennet in our preparations to give them the opportunity to consume cheese that respects their values “, explains Paolo. “In reality, vegetable rennet is a product that was already used in the past, then this habit was lost a bit. The wild thistle that grows spontaneously in Sardinia was used as a substitute for lamb or veal rennet. The extraction process was simple: the pistils, once collected, were first dried and then macerated in clean water. After some time, the water containing the pistils was filtered, collected and dosed to curdle the milk. Rennet was also made from fig milk, thanks to its coagulating properties. However, these are types of rennet that are difficult to use because if they are not dosed correctly they risk causing defects in the finished product, for example as regards taste, giving bitter notes “.
At the moment, to make Pecorino with vegetable rennet, the company only uses thistle rennet prepared to authorized extraction laboratories. Nonetheless, there is a desire to bring the extraction process to the company level.
Paolo explains that on an organizational, managerial, economic and sensorial level, Pecorino produced with vegetable rennet does not present significant differences compared to Pecorino with lamb rennet, but in both cases one must be particularly careful as an error in the use of rennet can cause anomalies in the product. Organoleptically, Pecorino with vegetable rennet is sweet, and can be consumed more or less seasoned, like the classic Pecorino from animal rennet.
These products, together with Pecorino Superiore, so named by the company for the longest seasoning, are certainly the company’s flagship products not only for the actual quality but also because the consumer recognizes Pecorino as a typical and traditional Sardinian product. Nevertheless, the company does not produce denomination cheeses as the only denomination product that they could make allows the use of additives and adjuvants, and since the company does not use any, the producers preferred not to adhere to a denomination. and continue in a niche market.
For the sale, at the moment it is possible to buy the products exclusively with retail sale in Gourmet market or by contacting the manufacturer directly on the appropriate form on the site on the contact page, shipments are made that allow the products to arrive throughout the national territory . In addition, an e-commerce platform will be active by the end of winter.
On future projects Paolo explains to us that they are trying to expand the production line, and to tell the Sardinian agro-pastoral world without stereotypes and clichés: “with humility we want to contribute to spreading the Sardinian cheese-making culture in a different way from the more widespread commercial and folkloric narrative. , very far from reality. Sardinian pecorino is a cheese with ancient origins, it has been produced since the Nuragic era and its recipe has been passed down from generation to generation, improved and perfected. Tradition must be transmitted in the present and must take into account the historical reality in which it is taught, this is the only way that exists to make it survive, otherwise it becomes, in fact, folklore. The improvements to all stages of production are a must and represent a significant gesture of respect for the knowledge transmitted by our ancestors and the wealth of knowledge that we bequeath to the generations to come “.
As for the vegetable rennet: “the pecorino with vegetable rennet is produced following the traditional recipe, we are carrying out studies to verify if it is possible to make other references using this particular type of rennet“.
In addition, the company is committed, and will continue to be, on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farms. “Environmental sustainability is a founding value of our company: we are working to make our production increasingly sustainable, for example through the use of biogas and renewable energy,” Paolo tells us.
The testimony of the Otto Passi company embodies the passion and willingness of young people to carry on traditional work with an eye to innovation and new food trends.
The photos used in this article are by Francesca Floris.
The Otto Passi farm is on Faceboook and also has a brand new site.