The fresh goat’s milk produced in the region is the basis for a variety of excellent cheeses. You can start your tasting tour with the great quality and flavour PDO (European Protected Destination of Origin) feta cheese, produced by leading manufacturers of dairy products as well as by small traditional cheesemakers.
Metsovo holds a special place in the local history of cheese making. Young people from Metsovo, studying in Italy with the support of a grant initiative from Evangelos Averoff, were responsible for the creation of the smoked Metsovone cheese, a relative of Provolone, and Metsovela from Pastorela, which are available from the cheese factory of the Tositsas Foundation, as well as the many traditional cheesemakers in Metsovo and you can find it elsewhere at selected stores in Greece and overseas.
Particularly spicy and flavourful are the yellow cheeses like ‘kefalotyri’ made from goat’s milk, and another specialty is the Metsovo chevre, made with cracked black pepper and produced only in spring (an ideal accompaniment to tsipouro).Recently production of the Kashkaval Pindos cheese has begun again, made from sheep mixed with goat’s milk. It is a traditional product predominantly associated with the Vlach peoples in the Balkans.
On the dining tables of Epirus, side by side with a perfectly-cooked piece of meat or a vegetable pie, there is always a place for ‘galotyri’, which is also a certified PDO product. It is a cream cheese with a yogurt-like texture, mixed with crumbled feta. It has a slightly sour, but very refreshing taste. Also try the spicy ‘vasilotyri’ made with goat’s milk, crumbled feta and ‘mizithra’ (another soft white cheese).
