DOP, first protected 1986Sheep milk, bothSemi, hardNatural rindAlso Pecorino Toscano DOP
A sheep's milk cheese with DOP status since 1996, a cylinder with flat faces and slightly convex sides. Wheels measure 15 to 22 cm across with sides 7 to 11 cm high, and weigh 750 g to 3.5 kg. The milk may be used raw or heat-treated up to pasteurisation, curdled with calf or vegetable rennet, and salted for less time than other pecorini: on average about 16 hours for a fresco and 24 hours for a stagionato. It is sold young (fresco, from 20 days) or aged (stagionato, from 4 months), and was once called cacio marzolino because production began in March.
Taste: Sweet, never salty or spicy, fragrant and pronounced. The fresh cheese is tender with a white to slightly straw paste; the aged one is compact and firm to the cut, slightly straw to straw-coloured.
Ageing: Fresco from 20 days, stagionato from 4 months
Made in: Tuscany, plus bordering communes in the provinces of Viterbo (Lazio) and Perugia and Terni (Umbria)
DOP, first protected 2015Sheep milk, rawSemi, hardNatural rind
A raw-milk sheep cheese from five communes around Volterra, protected as a DOP since 2015. The milk must come from Sardinian-breed sheep raised in the area, and the rennet is vegetable. Four styles are recognised by age, from a fresh cheese at 7 days to the da asserbo, kept for more than a year and allowed to reach 7 kg. Sources trace the cheese to the 15th century. The da asserbo may be treated with olive oil and ash, which turns its rind grey.
Taste: A sweet start, then fresh vegetal notes with aromatic herbs and flowers, and a slight peppery finish that sharpens as the cheese ages.
Ageing: Fresco 7 to 44 days, semistagionato 45 days to 6 months, stagionato 6 to 12 months, da asserbo over 12 months
Made in: The communes of Volterra, Pomarance, Montecatini Val di Cecina, Castelnuovo Val di Cecina and Monteverdi Marittimo, Pisa province
Sheep milkNatural rindAlso Marzolino
An unprotected spring cheese of the Chianti hills, made from whole milk of Apennine-breed sheep. The oval cheeses weigh 0.5 to 1.5 kg and ripen in about 7 days in a cellar on wooden boards or cloth sacks; some are aged on for 30 to 180 days and treated with oil and morchia, the dregs of olive oil. The old rennet was wild artichoke flower, now mostly replaced by calf rennet. Production runs from November to June and is described as a dwindling family tradition.
Taste: Fragrant and savoury, becoming slightly peppery as it ages. The paste is white to pale straw, and the rind runs from yellow to reddish, going brown on the aged cheeses.
Ageing: 7 days in the cellar, optionally 30 to 180 days with oil and morchia
Made in: Provinces of Florence and Siena, especially the upper valleys of the Greve, Pesa and Arbia
Cow and sheep milk, bothFreshAlso Raviggiolo
A very fresh, rindless curd cheese, 20 to 25 cm across and 3 to 4 cm high. Rennet is added to milk, which was traditionally raw and is now usually pasteurised, and the curd is left unbroken to drain on mats or baskets, or between fern, fig or cabbage leaves. Most is made from cow's milk, with sheep's milk versions around Siena and Pistoia. Italian Wikipedia dates the first record to 1515 and says production was traditionally limited to October through March because the cheese keeps so briefly.
Taste: Milk-white and soft, buttery and gently sweet. It is used to fill fresh pasta and savoury pies and in desserts, or eaten in summer simply dressed with Tuscan oil.
Ageing: Eaten fresh, within a few days of making
Made in: The Tuscan and Romagna Apennines; made from sheep's milk in the Siena and Pistoia areas
Sheep milkSemi, hardNatural rind
A sheep's milk pecorino of the Pienza area, made from milk collected in early spring and sold fresh, semi-aged (up to 60 days) or aged (4 months or more). It is not a protected name of its own. The marzolino of Pienza is a spring cheese, usually oval rather than round, eaten after 10 to 20 days. Semi-aged wheels have a rind treated with olive oil and tomato concentrate, aged ones with olive oil and vegetable charcoal, and ageing in oak barrels is recorded as traditional.
Taste: Fresh cheeses recall just-milked milk. Semi-aged ones are slightly savoury with delicate herbal notes; aged ones have an intense aroma and flavour with good saltiness.
Ageing: Fresh, semi-aged (up to about 60 days) and aged (4 months or more)
Made in: Around Pienza, in the Siena area
Sheep milk, raw
A raw-milk sheep cheese from the Pistoia mountains and a Slow Food Presidium. Fifteen producers make it with natural rennet and never pasteurise the milk, taking their flocks to mountain pasture in summer as they did a hundred years ago. No source consulted gives it a DOP or IGP.
Made in: Mountains of Pistoia province
Sheep milk, raw
A raw-milk sheep cheese of the Maremma and a Slow Food Presidium, made by three producers who work the milk on their own farms. Ages run from 20 days to 180 days and beyond for the stagionato and riserva. No source consulted gives it a DOP or IGP.
Ageing: From 20 days to 180 days and beyond (fresco, stagionato and riserva)
Made in: Maremma, Grosseto province
