An Ancient Sicilian Tradition: the Zabbinata
Zabbina is one of those flavors that bring back childhood. It recalls the scents of a walk in the countryside. We love finding those flavors again in unique experiences. For this reason one of our most loved experiences is the Sunday morning walk through the olive groves to reach the dairy. There our shepherd Nino teaches us the art of making ricotta in his large cauldron while his wife interrupts him to tell us about her little sheep. As soon as the Zabbinata is ready, the bell rings and the piping hot Zabbina is poured from the cauldron. At that moment silence falls and you savor that dish that tells our story, while the wind through the leaves of the vineyard makes us understand that it is lunchtime. The appointment with the “zabbinata” and the tasting of the hot “Zabbina” just made, is an emotion, and a pleasure for the palate, a magical moment in which ancient tastes intertwine with gestures, it is one of the fixed appointments that we wanted to revive.
but what is Zabbina?
Zabbina is nothing more than very fresh ricotta not yet set, together with its whey from production, and it must be eaten as soon as it rises to the surface. In the cool and fragrant air, tasting zabbina is a true ritual, because it is enjoyed while still hot in the place where it is made. It is often accompanied by pieces of bread soaked in the whey, bread that is strictly homemade.
The production tradition called zabbinata is very ancient and a habit of the shepherd or the “cheesemaker” that was at times indispensable. A ritual as we have said and a wholly Sicilian delicacy, also because it seems that the origin of ricotta is in fact in Sicily. The word “zabbina” comes from the Arabic name for cheese, both in the dialect form giaban and from the classical Arabic jubn. The traditional equipment for making zabbina included, besides the classic “quarara” (copper pot), also “lu zubbu”, that is, a wooden stick used to stir the whey and milk.
