Carmasciano

Made on small family farms in seven comunes around Avellino, Carmasciano or Pecorino di Carmasciano is a historic pecorino table cheese named after the tiny località of Carmasciano in the Ansanto Valley.

It's made only from the unpasteurized milk of the rare, fat-tailed Laticauda sheep, which only live in the mountains of Campania and graze near volcanic fumerole that smell of sulfur. Making it isn’t easy: after the cheese has dried and begins to form, it is salted, washed with wine, and rubbed every other day with white wine, olive oil, and vinegar.

Chilis flakes are sprinkled on the rind (insects hate it!) before it is aged on wooden boards for at least 3 months, although sometimes it is aged for up to 24 months. They also age it in vinaccia and call it ‘Emozioni’. The oldest cheeses are often grated on pasta dishes.

Only five family farms still make some 2,000 rounds of Carmasciano a year, and it has become quite trendy (and pricey) of late. Well, it’s hard to get more niche!