The talagani is a traditional, handmade cheese from 100% Greek goat's and sheep's milk. Its production started in Messinia and many think it is a traditional local cheese. In reality, however, it is a cheese that resembles the Arachovite formaela and the Cypriot halloumi and was first prepared by the Cypriot Costa Apostolou, who settled in Messinia to engage in crops. At some point, Eleni's wife from Aridea, started making homemade cheese for her grandmother and friends, at her grandmother's recipe.

Talagani - another name for the shepherd's cape in the Messinian dialect - immediately won the impressions. It was standardized and made especially by young chefs who used it mainly as a frying pan because it does not dissolve on the grill, while it is also cooked in many creative ways.

Due to its composition, talagani when grilled, retains its intense full flavor, rich aromas and subtle touches of mint that characterize it. But the most impressive thing is that it is baked without melting, acquiring chewy texture without losing its shape. It is easily and quickly cooked on a grill or non-stick pan and can be enjoyed either on its own, as an excellent meze for wine, ouzo and tsipouro, or in salads and anything else you can imagine!

Talagani, despite its Messinian origin, became much better known when it began to be produced, in exactly the same way, in its factory. company Epirus, which, in addition to its classic version, also introduced the smoked Talagani version to the market,

Talagani has its own special character that has given it 3 awards in national and international competitions, while it is preferred by famous chefs and restaurants throughout Greece.

With the chef friend Thanks Nikolozo, we sat one autumn afternoon at my house to see what we could achieve with the talagani. And we did not do badly!

We started with a green salad with pieces of grilled talagani, vinaigrette and pomegranate seeds, raisins, crayon and orange slices.

This was followed by the baking of a washer skewer and placed on it Sweet torches (rose sugar) from Egialia, Corfu spetseriko, and pistachio.

The open sandwich was made of toasted barley Kalymnos bread, pieces of baked talagani, tomato, greenery, kritamo, louza of Mykonos, olives and homemade pulp.

Frumenty Roumeliotikos with talagani croutons and flavored olive oil.

The main course was a neat skewer, from Aegina sausages (with Aegina peanuts inside) by the Sorros family, talagani marinated in Samian wine and dried figs.

SS A day later another sentence was added /

The finding was unanimous.

Talagani is either offered with plain olive oil, or marinated in flavored olive oils, goes with salads and goes well with soups or trachanades (raw, or even grilled)

Roasted and with its expanded elasticity, it marries with fruit jams, with hot petimezi, with pomegranate or fig syrups, but also with spicy chutney.