Copperton » Decades ago, when Italian and Greek immigrants wanted cheese "from the old country," they talked to Tony Nicoletti.

From a ranch in Salt Lake County's Butterfield Canyon, Nicoletti and his wife, Betty, turned their sweet, creamy goat's milk into classic European specialties: fresh ricotta, crumbly feta, aged Kasseri and the classic Italian caciovallo .

Tony would load the handmade cheeses into his car and deliver them to customers, cutting, weighing and wrapping the product in white butcher paper straight from the trunk.

When Tony retired more than 20 years ago -- he died in October 2000 -- many customers assumed the Nicoletti cheeses were lost

forever.

They didn't realize that the youngest of the Nicolettis' five children had been watching and learning. And last December, 44-year-old Michele Nicoletti revived the family's cheesemaking legacy -- one that reaches back four generations. Her father wouldn't be surprised, says 85-year-old Betty Nicoletti, who now lives in southern Utah.

"Michele is the only one of our children that took an interest in the cheesemaking," Betty Nicoletti said. "She always cared about the craft."

Growing up, Michele was a permanent fixture at her father's side, whether he was milking goats, hunting and fishing in the foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains or making cheese. Tony learned the craft from his father, Luigi, who learned

it from his father in southern Italy.

Michele remembers her father not wanting his young daughter to get into the business. But she was persistent. "I wanted to learn it," she said. "Now I think he'd be proud."

But until recently, cheesemaking was just a hobby -- and therapy --for Michele, who was the victim of the a drive-by shooting more than a decade ago. She spent a year recovering physically and emotionally. Last year, when her husband, Danny Gallegos, transformed the

basement of their Copperton home into a commercial kitchen, complete with a room for aging cheese, Michele decided to return to her roots.

Four days a week, she drives a massive haul truck up and down the mountain at Kennecott Utah Copper. On her days off, she makes and delivers cheese, just like her father.

She follows the same process the Nicoletti family has used for centuries. For the ricotta, that means stirring a large vat of fresh milk by hand; patiently waiting for it to reach the perfect temperature and texture; and then scooping the curds into the stainless-steel cheese forms her father made decades ago.

She hand-rubs each 5-pound wheel of kasseri until it forms a wax coating and faithfully turns it every

morning and evening during the 60-day aging period.

The only departure from the original is the goat milk. Michele buys hers fresh from Drake Family Farm in West Jordan instead of raising and milking her own animals.

When she began selling the ricotta and kasseri to Utah markets last December, word quickly spread among old-timers. Soon a new generation of Utahns were wanting a taste of the cheese their immigrant parents and grandparents had been raving about for years.

Sales steadily increased. In June, Michele had to upgrade from a 10-gallon milk vat to a 60-gallon one to make more cheese in a shorter time.

One of Michele Nicoletti's first customers was Annette Ravarino, owner of the Mediterranean Market, 3900 S. State, Salt Lake City. It's a homecoming of sorts, since years ago, that was the location of Nicoletti's first store.

"How lucky are we to have such a tradition?" Ravarino said. "It's refreshing to know that someone is taking an old tradition and is keeping it alive."

Ravarino said many of her customers remember the Nicoletti name from years ago and come in specifically for the fresh, creamy ricotta, which the store can't keep in stock.

When Matt Caputo, at Tony Caputo's Market and Deli, tasted Nicoletti's kasseri, he decided the local cheese was better than any imported offering. Now Nicoletti kasseri is the only one available at Salt Lake City's popular market at 300 S. 300 West.

Recently, Michele expanded her offerings to include a goat's-milk caciovallo , a cousin to Provolone. It has a buttery flavor and is recognizable for its round, almost teardrop shape . She's still trying to perfect the feta. "I want it to be as good as my dad's," she said.

kathys@sltrib.com