Parmesan gets all the glory when it comes to pairing cheese with pasta. And there’s no question: Authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano, in all its many subregional variations, is one of civilization’s great cow’s milk treasures. But for nearly half Italy, from Rome south, Pecorino is the hard cheese of choice. There is an extra edge of farmyard piquancy to these cheeses made from the milk of sheep, which flourish in harsher terrains, that has a way of cutting through sauces with an alluring rustic swagger. But which Pecorino to use? To begin with, Pecorino is a generic name for all Italian cheeses made from sheep’s milk, and it’s produced in all stages of ripeness and methods across every region of southern Italy, including the island of Sardinia (where it’s called fiore sardo), as well as Tuscany to the north, where it tends to be younger.
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