After having received 'fan mail' questioning our decision to stop making homemade cannoli filling during the winter (demand dropped enough to make it impractical), today I whipped up a special batch using sheep's milk ricotta from Old Chatham Sheepherders in New York. We picked up a pound at Whole Foods at the suggestion of our new pal, Lon Durbin.
Sheep's milk is what has been traditionally used in Sicily for cannoli, although more recently, Sicilian cannoli makers have been using a combination of sheep and cow's milk.
While the Whole Foods retail price sheep's milk ricotta is more than 3x the price of the impastada we've been using, we're going to test these out to see if there's even a market for these "genuine articles". We'll be selling sheep's milk ricotta filling on request in mini shells for $1.50 each.
I'll say this. It's a very different taste than cow's milk. An ad copywriter might call it more "rustic". A hunter or foodie would probably call it "gamier".
It's one of those things you just have to taste for yourself and make up your own mind. We'll be serving these all weekend or until the one pound of filling we've made runs out.
Whether we get more is entirely up to you.
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