* Tuma Persa * translated as *lost Toma* is said to have been an accidental invention of a Sicilian cheesemaker in the eighteenth century.
According to the legend, this cheesemaker “lost” a wheel of cheese in his ripening room and after rediscovering it in its new moldy dress decided to throw it away for obvious reasons.
Busy as he was, he postponed the walk to the compost heap just to find the cheese again weeks later still covered in mold but also still in sort of good shape. This time the busy cheesemaker took his heart in his hands and dared to try his lost work and herewith marked the birth hour of *Tuma Persa*
Today the lost cheese of Sicily is produced only by one cheesemaker in the heart of Monte Sicani, a mountain chain in south-western Sicily. Caseificio Passalacqua, picked up the – believe it or not – again lost recipe and in the 1990s gave * Tuma Persa * its long deserved rebirth.
Uncooked and pressed *Tuma Persa* is made of thermised cow´s milk with lamb rennet used for coagulation. Following the tradition of a double fermentation the cheese is left to its own devices for 8-10 days after which it gets roughly washed and cleaned off from the mold.
After another 8-10 days *Tuma Persa* gets brushed and brine salted before it undergoes an eight month maturation that peaks in an olive oil and crushed pepper treatment.
What does the tasting team say about it?
Volatile, wild and spicy with a long lasting herbaceous and crumbly heat, *Tuma Persa* tickles memories of blue cheese and can lead any red carpet aroma and flavor walk. The color reminds of straw in the autumn sun and the paste is tender, compact and slightly crumbly.
Gustav rates *Tuma Persa* an upper-class 13/10 and says that we can all wave to the ferry to Sicily he already booked his cabin on.