Nowadays the coupling of gastronomy and tourism is triumphing more and more. With people in search of natural food and rediscovering the products typical of a single area, whether confectionery or wines, gastronomic specialities, cheese, spices and aromas, there is a growing demand from who, rejecting pre-packed organized tours and the places characterized by mass tourism, require alternative itineraries that together with visits of archeological sites and monuments give opportunities to know and also discover unfamiliar aspects of Sicily. It is in this framework that we must set the Consortium for the Tutelage of Belice Valley Vastedda.to safeguard a cheese with an illustrious tradition.
In Sicily, the word “vastedda” or “guastedda” refers to a particolar type of squashed bread. Instead, in the Belice Valley, it is a soft and a tasty sheep’s cheese which is the same shape of a “vastedda”. It is unseasoned white cheese with a slightly acidulous taste made with milk from Belice Valley sheep, an ovine breed of outstanding quality, with a pedigree, that has remote origins and is known nationally for its productive characteristics.
It derives from the cross-breeding of three different species, the Comiso one for the size, the Sardinian one and the “pinzirita” one for the rusticity, its capacity to adapt to difficult environmental situations.
It is important to buy “vastedda” when visiting this part of Sicily to safegard a genuine product with a consolidated relationionship with territory and threatened with extinction.
