SLICES OF PECORINO IN OIL WITH CHILLI PEPPER

The producer

Between dreams and traditions … Love for animals and nature!

The “Il Forletto” farm is a “small” but exceptional mom-and-pop business in the valleys near the ancient village of Murazzano, located in Cuneo area. Seen from above of the surrounding hills, it appears to us as a wanderful oasi, completely “green” and well integrated into the urban fabric. The property extends over 14 hectares of fenced land that surround buildings, all with a rustic style and built,as it was once,with stone and wood.

Il Forletto was founded in 1998. Everything that we can admire today comes from a dream of the current owners, a young Piedmontese married couple, with two doughters. In the 90s, Franco and Giovanna, every morning from the window of their house in the center of the town of Murazzano, saw this splendid land and they felt in love with it, thus they decided to live there and raise their little girls there.

The huge property, probably very expensive and initially not even for sale… Finally went on sale, the previous owner, a French lady who does not exploit its potential, decides to sell the land and the couple gets that magical place they’ve always dreamed.

At the beginning they start grow and produce what they needed for themselves, genuine products to bring on the table, while Franco, a builder by profession and very good at masonry work who already understood the future potential of the activity, renovates the present buildings and he built a new one, always keeping unchanged the ancient style of the place .

Nel corso degli anni iniziano ad allevare vari animali, come le pecore di razza biellese, capre, mucche, muli e altri animale da cortile come le galline.

Over the years they began breeding various animals, such as Biella sheep, goats, cows, mules and other farm animals such as chickens.

A first turning point for the company comes in 2006, with the idea of ​​one of the daughters, Serena, who decides to take 20 Langa lambs, a native species in the endangered area. This experiment carried on for 4 years, until Serena left for work and moved to London. Sheeps remained with her father Franco, who kept raising them for the production and the business of the profitable milk. Later he decided to increase the number of lambs.

The second great revolution ,in the business family, comes few years later, with the return in Murazzano of the daughter Valentina, who was woorking in Germany, she decided to come back home in her hills with a new idea: produce traditional cheeses with the milk of this rare breed of sheep.

Valentina isn’t new in the world of cheeses, as a student of the ospitality school has done some internships with an elderly lady of the town who producec “tume” (dialectal name), typical cheeses of the Murazzano area which is known and renowned for its production. Carrying on a family tradition that has lasted for generations, even the mother and grandmother have always made the tume.

Valentina keep studyng and getting lots of informations, through courses and books in ordrt to discover all the secrets of the world of dairy tradition and over the years she improved her technique, coming to produce excellent sheep cheeses as people once did.

Entering in Forletto farm make it seems to enter an era now lost with splendid cellars where cheese forms rest, which smell of authenticity and history. These elements combined with the competence of a young girl, who wants to carry on and rediscover an ancient job, create a perfect combination of modernity and tradition, always with an eye to the environment and eco-sustainability. In the company everything is as “green” as possible, photovoltaic panels on the roofs and we try to avoid waste: the sheep eat what the family produces and cultivates, such as leftover apples and hazelnuts and they have more than 80 hectares of woods and land used for pastures. Even the scraps of dairy processing find their admirers in the pigs of Forletto who love the whey. In addition, the family hosts some hives and bees on their land, excellent allies for the coltivation of fruit plants, which “repay” the hospitality with precious cherry honey, fantastic to combine with Valentina’s cheeses.

The name “Il Forletto” is taken from the one used in the past to identify the property, on which in the 1920s there was an ancient bakery oven, an activity that the family still carries on for its own consumption.

This splendid farm can also be visited. In the summer, Valentina organizes visits and tastings of her products in the beautiful setting of the valley in the middle of the Alta Langa. What could be better than tasting excellent cheeses, with a good glass of local wine, in full relaxation in the sun of the Piedmontese Langhe?