Liguria: an arched-shaped region where you can find all the natural elements you may desire: mountains (Alps and Apennines), hills, plains, sea, torrents and small lakes. All in one tiny, tiny region.
Known for being the homeland of pesto, focaccia ligure (baked thick pizza dough topped with extra-virgin olive oil and salt) and farinata di ceci (baked savoury pie made of chickpeas flour, water, extra-virgin olive oil and salt), there are still other delicatessen that you might not know. Today, we are going to talk about a type of cheese: Giuncata.
Giuncata is a kind of fresh cheese obtained from sheep’s milk curd. We owe its name to the Italian word giunco, that means thin cane. Basically, when the curd was ready, it was put in a wicker made of some thin canes, that were tied up with short strings. The curd was left there to lose its whey and dry a little. As a result, you could see some tiny grooves on the giuncata surface left by the canes.
It can be eaten plainly, or you can add some jams to taste it as a sweet.
An ideal summer recipe to present on a spit (nothing against making it in the winter too!), a finger food, and an occasion to unleash your creativity in cooking, we recommend you this recipe: zucchini rolls with giuncata cheese.
Here’s what you need:
Take the zucchini slices. Season with salt and pepper and place them on an oiled grill pan. Grill until tender. Then, you can follow either one or another procedure.
You can place a dice of giuncata cheese at the end of a zucchini slice, roll it up, and skewer it on a spit. Repeat with the rest of the zucchini slices. On the spit, alternate the rolls to mint leaves. Grill the rolls as long as the cheese starts to melt a bit. Serve on a plate and garnish with a handful of pine nuts.
In a bowl, mix giuncata cheese, mint leaves and pine nuts, mashing with a fork. Put a teaspoonful of this mixture at the end of a zucchini slice and roll it up. Afterwards, you can either skewer the rolls on a spit, or place them on a plate/platter.
Let us know if you liked it!
cookaround.com - Giuncata: prodotti tipici della Liguria
casadivita.despar.it - Involtini di zucchine e Giuncata
Image credits: caseificio.murgella.it
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