Pecorino di Farindola

Pecorino di Farindola is made with hand-milked sheep’s milk from animals kept free-range for most of the year. What makes it unique is the pig rennet, which gives it particular aromas and flavours: a very ancient technique, mentioned as early as Roman times.

The paste is grainy, straw-yellow and slightly moist even when well aged; the taste has notes of mushroom, noble mould and dry wood, balanced between sharpness and the flavour of sheep’s milk. It is a Slow Food Presidium.

It is made in a small area on the eastern side of the Gran Sasso, largely inside the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park: the municipality of Farindola and neighbouring municipalities in the provinces of Pescara and Teramo.

• Farindola
• Penne
• Montebello di Bertona
• Carpineto della Nora
• Arsita

1. The hand-milked sheep’s milk is warmed to 35 °C and curdled with pig rennet.
2. The curd is broken into small grains, the size of a maize kernel.
3. The curd is put into wicker baskets, which leave the typical stripes on the rind.
4. Within 48 hours it is dry-salted.
5. The cheeses age in old wooden chests from 40 days to over a year, and the rind is rubbed with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar: over time it turns saffron-coloured or brown.

Young, it is a table cheese; aged, it is grated, but stays soft and fragrant.

• In shavings with pears, honey and a glass of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
• Grated over pasta with lamb sauce and over spaghetti alla chitarra
• Alongside arrosticini with country bread and oil
• In Easter cheese breads and fillings

• Wrap it in a cotton cloth or cheese paper and keep it in the least cold part of the fridge.
• Serve it at room temperature, taking it out half an hour before.
• The rind, rubbed with oil and vinegar, is not eaten.
• Ask about the age: from 40 days for the table to over a year for grating.

The image is an illustration drawn for abruzzoparchi.it: we could not find free photos showing the Abruzzo product itself. If you have a photo to share, write to us.

Farindola was a populous village with large flocks thanks to its vast common pastures, and its cheese was sold at the markets of Penne and Loreto Aprutino. With post-war emigration, production shrank until it almost disappeared at the end of the 1990s.

The recipe has always been in the hands of women, who pass it down from generation to generation. The Slow Food Presidium relaunched production with the producers, now grouped in a consortium.