With 20 to 35 kilograms Pecorino Romano is a whopper of a cheese, the largest of its kind. At the same time this Roman sheep’s milk cheese – because that’s all his name literally means – is a real underdog. When did you last buy this hard, crumbly buddy freshly cut from a large cylindric wheel? Exactly, I can’t remember either. Possibly in Sardinia, but even there I’m not so sure.
It’s not that this would be a rare and hard to find cheese. Last season’s production was more than 34,000 tons (to put this into context: Comté production was at 64,000 tons – but that’s France’s most produced and consumed cheese). And although more than 70 percent of that goes above all to the US, there is surely no shortage this side of the Atlantic. Still, it shows up almost exclusively as pre-cut, plastic-wrapped wedge shouting “grate me”. Our loss, missing out on its beautifully rich, slightly crumbly kick combining acidity and salt…
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