Sicilian Cartwheel Driver Pasta

fx

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:48:38 GMT

James, glad you got around to try this Sicilian classic!

James

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:30:56 GMT

Just tried this recipe tonight and it was terrific. Once I was able to track down the Caciocavallo, everything else was a snap. Great article!

fx

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:00:25 GMT

Marcelline, indeed you have a sharp eye and found these mistakes in my article. The tomato can is 400 grams or about 14 oz. As for the garlic, you cannot add too much. Some people fry the garlic in the olive oil to flavor the oil, then discard the garlic before proceeding. And then you can add some crushed garlic for a less subtle garlic taste - something right up a Sicilian cartwheel driver"s alley!

Marcelline Thomson

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:32:25 GMT

Loved this recipe, love this beautiful site. Now all I have to do is find this cheese, which, in Manhattan, may not be impossible. Two things, however: you say add garlic to sauce when, in fact, garlic and onion had already been sauteed and the tomatoes added to IT. And I"m also confused as to the size of the can of tomatoes -- a 4-oz can? I don"t think the can in the photo is only 4 oz? And, in any case, seems too little.

Thank you. Marcelline

fx

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:05:42 GMT

Kara, FXcuisine.com caught the Chinese flu yesterday but now all articles are back online!

fx

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:04:37 GMT

Simon, FXcuisine.com caught the Chinese flu yesterday but now all articles are back online!

simon

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:38:10 GMT

Am I missing something??? I see the ingredients list, and the prep of the cheese, but I don"t the procedure for cooking the pasta and it"s sauce, or a picture of the final product...

kara

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:15:08 GMT

are some of the pictures missing? yesterday it looks like there are only a few pictures for each recipe, where yesterday each was complete :(

stumo

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:16:42 GMT

I have to second that caciocavallo is quite easy to find in Vancouver, Canada. And not just at specialty Italian food stores, some supermarkets regularly carry it, and I"ve been using it for years. And it"s definitely caciocavallo, not provolone or provola affumicata.

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:19:39 GMT

Paulina, this sounds like a nice Italo-Brazilian cheese, and if they mature it for 12 months it must be pretty good. Are there many cheese varieties made in Brazil?

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:05:54 GMT

Lyra, there are a couple cheeses that look like caciocavallo, such as provolone and scamorza. They are different cheeses but unless you have tasted them or really know them well you won"t be able to tell.

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:04:25 GMT

Nathan, the cheese is named "On a horseback" as it is prepared by twos and left to hang on a pole like the balls of a bull on each side, or the legs of a horseman. Hence the name!

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:02:48 GMT

Ahmet, thanks for your comments! Could you tell me what are the very best Turkish cheeses and from which parts of Turkey they come from?

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:59:09 GMT

Alys, I think the smoked one is actually proval affumicata from Naples, caciocavallo comes from Sicily. They look much the same, but are different cheeses and I"ve been had by unscrupulous Neapolitan cheesemongers a couple times myself!

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:58:06 GMT

Luci, I think you can serve this with any hardwheat (durum semolina) pasta. The cheese is well worth buying, you can have some friends over and show it to them, very memorable!

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:56:06 GMT

Felix, thank you for your praise.
Il capo di tutti i capi
FX

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:55:30 GMT

Louise, if you can find it in a local deli do buy it, but beware as there are many other cheeses that look like this one but are different. Most of the caciocavalli I see around my parts are plastic ones for store decoration!

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:50:05 GMT

Berlinkitchen, thanks for visiting! No, caciocavallo is not smoked but there are other cheeses of the same pulled curds variety that are indeed smoked, they look like smoked mozzarella.

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:48:33 GMT

Richard, yes indeed those damn paccheri tend to stick to the bottom of the pots and then tear open, those ungrateful bastards. You could replace caciocavallo with a good, hard vintage Cheddar for instance, if you grate it this might work out OK. Caciocavallo does not have a very strong or particularly excellent taste, but with its funny shape and sweet distinctive taste, it is always nice to use. Never buy less than a whole head!

fx

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:45:10 GMT

Eric, ah yes, the ladies often must cook out of social duty rather than choice, and the quality suffers from it. Us males we cook when we damn please and of course it makes us, on average, better cooks, as those of us who don"t like cooking can get away with never cooking a day in their life!

Paulina C. L. Tognato

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:58:11 GMT

We"ve some cheese like this here. His name is "caba�a".
We"ve many italians in our country and much milk to made it.
My favorite is one year old.
But here, isn"t a cheese with much "glamour".
I think you"re right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is one of the best pasta in the world!!!!!!!!!!

Gio

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:13:44 GMT

I checked a dictionary, since your answer made me wonder too!
There"s no sure explanation for the name "caciocavallo".
"Cacio" refers to a cheese in Tuscany and Umbria (2 Italy"s regions) and nowadays also in southern regions.
About the link between a cheese and a horse, my dictionary suggest that it might be because:
- of the shape
- of a mark burned in (as for horses, cows...)
- the cheese is conserved astride a board
I got no clue about which one is the true one... =/

Lyra

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:06:24 GMT

FX, I saw cheeses that looked just like this in markets in some parts of Argentina when I was working there in 2006. Given how many people of Italian descent live in Argentina, I wonder if it was the same cheese?

ND

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:14:39 GMT

Hey FX! My somewhat shaky knowledge of various latin languages suggests that "cavallo" might mean "horse"�if so, I"m curious as to what "cacio" might mean?

Ahmet Cihat Toker

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:26:28 GMT

According to Wikipedia -i know it is not the most reliable source- caciocavallo is related to the Turkish cheese Kasar -Greek kassere-. Shaped differently, the "old Kasar -Eski Kasar" i used eat in Turkey looks very similar to texture in the pictures. Those in Europe may have access to this cheese through their Turkish markets. I"ll definitely look for caciocavallo to see if they actually taste similar.

As a side note, it is interesting to see how cheese from different parts of the world are very similar. There is a Middle Eastern desert called k�nefe-kenefeh, which uses a special fresh cheese from certain parts of Turkey. I could not eat a decent k�nefe in most of the restaurants in Turkey, as it is hard to get this traditional cheese. However the k�nefe in Berlin Turkish restaurants are exceptionally good. I learned later the reason was that the restaurants are using fresh mozzarella as a perfect substitute.

And a humble suggestion, I add lemon peels towards the end to my tomato sauces. Works great if you have fresh fragrant lemons.

Alys

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:57:32 GMT

Another tasty looking recipe. Thanks again!

Here in Vancouver caciocavallo is readily available. I love the smoked variety as a melting cheese for pasta and sandwiches.

1 dl (100 ml) should be approximately 3 oz, rather than 0.3, no?

Luci

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:40:00 GMT

Hi Francois Xavier,

What a beautifully simple dish. I think that I have seen a similar cheese (who could forget that unique shape?) in Toronto, Canada, but didn"t think anything of it. If I see it again, I will surely think of you, pick it up and make this dish!

Would it be served with any other pasta shape or is it crucial to serve with tubes? Thanks again, FX!

felix

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:28:53 GMT

Possibly your best article yet! ""capo di tutti capi""!!!!!! Cool shit!!!! Trying this out TOMORROW!!!

Louise

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:44:29 GMT

That looks amazing! I have never tried that cheese before but I will look for it a local Italian deli that imports straight from Italy.

BerlinKitchen

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:21:44 GMT

A little question. Is Caciocavallo a smoked/ger�ucherter cheese?

Chapeau, I discovered your blog at the week-end and found some mouthwatering recipys to recook.

Gr��e aus Berlin,
Martin
www.berlinkitchen.com

Richard

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:08:41 GMT

I concur that paccheri is tricky to cook! Particularly for any more than 2 people. You need a very large pan as full as you safely dare with rolling, boiling water.

I find it best to stand over them and give them the occasional stir to keep them from sticking to the base of the pan.

Superb recipe Francois. If one can"t get caciocavallo cheese is there a near equivalent we can try that might be more accessible?

Eric

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:57:55 GMT

I used to have a sicilian neighbor who made this dish - or at least one very similar to it - all the time. I don"t think she had regular access to the Caciocavallo, though. She called it "Carretiera Rosa", though - the "rosa" referrred to the tomatoes. She made another version of it that was non-rosa, and instead used some toasted bread crumbs and onion to thicken the sauce. That version remains to this day one of my favorite ways of preparing pasta.

Her recipes were great in the right hands. Sadly, hers were not the right hands; she was sort of awful as a cook. She was always scorching the garlic or using underripe tomatoes, etc. Whenever my family got our hands on her recipes - aracini, caponata, pasta ala carretiera - it became evident that these were some fine, fine foods abused by a siclian woman who had the lineage but not the aptitude.