Pecorino Calabrese

Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized

Country: Italy, Calabria

Consistency: Firm

Accompaniment: Lighter reds or any white

Calabria in the ultimate south of Italy is ultimate sheep country. So you would expect a lot of the cheeses produced with this milk to be available to us. Not so, unfortunately. Maybe it is because there is so much Pecorino coming off Sardinia (1 million sheep) that the market is just flooded and the extra effort to get the Calabrese is just too much.

However, here is a classic example for you. You will smell the sheepy, barnyard, lanolin fragrance that predicts a meatiness and nuttiness of flavor. Because the cheese is relatively young there is also a little bit of a lactic tang in the finish.

I really liked this cheese grated on my Mediterranean salad this week.