Pecorino

This ewes’ milk cheese is made all over Italy, and can be soft when young, hard when pressed and matured. Pecorino toscano, although not well known, is an essential ingredient in Tuscan cooking; there the cheeses are small and round, made with differing flavoured milk, depending on where the sheep have been grazing – mountain, hill or seaside – and the varying herbs they have ingested. Some of these local Pecorinos are eaten fresh, some are kept for about six months. We use these latter cheeses for grating over pasta and adding to pesto.