THE CHEESE! What Ricotta festival would be complete without a team of burly Italian guys making Ricotta right in front of you? The main event of the Vizzini festival is watching the cheese makers make huge vats of Ricotta by hand. The cow's milk for the ricotta was brought in on special tanker trucks which aren't allowed to carry anything else. The milk is then pumped into the large stock pots used by the cheese makers to heat and put on a wood fire. The milk is raised to about 85 degrees Celsius and stirred until the milk fats begin to rise to the surface.
Once the fats collect at the top, they are skimmed off into a strainer and pressed until enough moisture is out to make the cheese that you see in the store. In this region of Sicily, the warm Ricotta curds are a breakfast food. It is very rich! One wise bit of advice from a local--you drink wine with warm Ricotta, not lemon soda!