Sandwich with provolone or scamorza cheese

It is from the stretched curd cheese family, and can be described as a slightly more mature Mozzarella. Provolone are a specialty of the dairy art of the South. The name derives from "prova", the word that indicated the amount of dough taken during processing to check the degree of spinning of the cheese. The creation of this dairy product is disputed between Puglia and Molise. In Campania it is traditionally made from buffalo milk. Sicilian Provolone, together with Caciocavallo, is one of the oldest cheeses on the island, and differs in size, shape, and reduced duration of salting and aging. Provolone can also be first smoked and then aged for up to six months. After the mid * 1800s, after spreading widely to the South, its production technique expanded to the northern regions rich in pastures, giving birth to the famous Provolone Valpadana. Very similar to Provolone is fresh or smoked Scamorza, made in the southern regions with cow's, sheep's or buffalo's milk, of small size and different shapes (often with heads).

Campania is renowned for its unique products and flavors, known all over the world. Cow's milk is used to produce Fior di latte, Caciocavallo and Provolone del Monaco. For the latter, the Agerolese breed is used, the local cow that offers a milk with low quantitative yields but superior organoleptic qualities. A pear-shaped stretched curd cheese, weighing from 1/2 to three kg, it is aged from one month to two years in tuff caves. There are different interpretations on the derivation of the name Provolone del Monaco: according to a legend it would be attributable to a cheesemaker, called "U' monaco", great comforter of souls and widows; According to some scholars, it should be linked to a convent of dairy-making friars who began its production. In Campania buffalo milk is also very important, from which the jewels derive: Mozzarella, Scamorza and Burrino. On the other hand, Cacioricotta and Pecorino are obtained from sheep's milk, among which one of the most renowned is Pecorino di laticauda, coming from the Laticauda breed of sheep. Its diffusion took place between the end of the 1700s and the beginning of the 1800s, crossing the Apennine sheep and the North African sheep, probably imported to Campania by the Bourbons. Characteristic of the Laticauda sheep is the wide tail, reminiscent of that of beavers, which stores bad "fats", so as to guarantee the milk an extraordinary lightness. All Campania cheese is essential to enhance the regional gastronomic specialties: from pizza to focaccia, from timbale to the "merenda del povero" (cafone bread and cheese).