04. Cacio Magno of Poggio Mirteto
History
Produced in Poggio Mirteto, a pretty village in lower Sabina not far from Rieti and nestled in the Tiber Valley, Cacio Magno owes its origin to a legend linked to the figure of Charlemagne, king of the Franks. It is said that, on his way to Rome to be crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the king stopped at the Abbey of Farfa where he tasted this cheese with completely different characteristics to the caci known at the time. Its extraordinary goodness must have impressed him so much that he wanted to take it with him to eat it during his journey.
Beyond the legend, this sheep's milk cheese was born centuries ago among the shepherds of lower Sabina and today, after a long period of almost total oblivion, its production has been recovered in the beautiful village of Poggio Mirteto, although it fully respects its traditional characteristics. The sheep's milk, from farms located in the territory of this municipality, is heated and then coagulated with lamb rennet. The curd is first broken, heated to a temperature of around 38°C, then placed in special parallelepiped moulds to dry. This is followed by salting in brine, a stewing at 43°C, a rest in the cellar on traditional wooden boards at a temperature of 13°C and finally maturing for at least 20-30 days, during which the cheeses are sprinkled with potato starch to obtain the characteristic outer rind.
The product
Cacio Magno is a soft sheep's cheese, matured over 20 days, with a characteristic parallelepiped shape with a square base and a typical rind sprinkled with potato starch. The thin, rough, straw-yellow or grey rind encloses a soft, unctuous, white or ivory-coloured paste. On the nose, lactic notes stand out, accompanied by hints of wild flowers and fresh grass. The taste is sweet, acidic and moderately salty with good solubility and aromatic persistence.
POGGIO MIRTETO: BETWEEN RURAL MIDDLE AGES AND INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY
On the top of a hill overlooking a lush valley with large expanses of olive groves, stands the town of Poggio Mirteto. Initially a possession of the Abbey of Farfa, it was later owned by the Farnese, the Orsini, the Bonaccorsi and finally passed into the hands of the Papacy. The town's urban layout contrasts the ancient medieval part with the modern part that develops beyond Porta Farnese. The town's main place of worship is the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, with its characteristic terracotta façade, which preserves in the presbytery a work of great value: the Madonna Assumed into Heaven by Giovanni Baglione. Not far away, in the medieval part, is the Romanesque church of San Paolo, where the magnificent Coronation of Mary by Lorenzo Torresani dominates the apse of the nave.
Among the works of civil architecture, besides the Baroque Porta Farnese and the 16th-century Clock Tower, there is the imposing bulk of the Episcopal Palace. But Poggio Mirteto also boasts, in its territory, a fine example of industrial archaeology: Italy's first large industrial glassworks, dating back to the early 19th century. A chimney and some neighbouring buildings remain of the complex, in addition to the description made by Giuseppe Marocco in his 1834 volume. According to the scholar, this factory aroused, due to the excellence of its crystal, 'the admiration of cultured foreigners and artists'.
