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Cheese from Italy, Emilia-Romagna

Pecorino del pastore (Romagna)

Whole ewe milk, sometimes with a selected lactic culture, is warmed to about 35 °C and set with calf rennet. The curd is broken to rice-grain or hazelnut size, ladled by hand into baskets, dry-salted and ripened from two weeks to eight months. The rind is often protected with olive oil or tomato paste.

Fully documentedCheese15 days – 8 monthsPAT (traditional food product, Emilia-Romagna)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give a temperature and times but no amounts. A cheese weighs about 1.5 kg (1.5–3 kg per ONAF).
Whole ewe milkRaw in the regional sheet; ONAF also allows pasteurised; mostly from Sarda ewes[er-pastore][onaf-pastore]
Selected lactic culturesoptional[er-pastore][onaf-pastore]
Calf rennet, liquid or powder[er-pastore][onaf-pastore]
SaltDry salt; ONAF also allows brine[er-pastore][onaf-pastore]
Olive oil or tomato pasteoptionalTo protect the rind[er-pastore][onaf-pastore]
Starteroptionally selected lactic cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 days – 8 months

Start
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35 °C

What changes: Calf rennet goes into whole ewe milk at about 35 °C and it sets

Step 1 of 5
Warm the milk and add rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: curd.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
gel
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Whole ewe milk, sometimes with a selected lactic culture, is warmed to about 35 °C and set with calf rennet. The curd is broken to rice-grain or hazelnut size, ladled by hand into baskets, dry-salted and ripened from two weeks to eight months. The rind is often protected with olive oil or tomato paste. Made in 5 steps over 15 days – 8 months. The longest step, ripen in a farmhouse room, takes 15 days – 8 months (Regione Emilia-Romagna 2025). Selected lactic cultures, when used does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step15 days – 8 monthsReported[er-pastore][onaf-pastore]Ripen in a farmhouse room
Temperature35 °CReported[er-pastore][onaf-pastore]Warm the milk and add rennet

What makes this one different

It is a sweet pecorino for the table, set at about 35 °C with calf rennet. Its rind is often protected with olive oil or tomato paste.

Milk
Whole ewe milk, mostly Sarda breed; made April to October
Ripening
At least 15 days, up to 6–8 months
Rind
Thin, smooth when young, wrinkled and brown with age; often protected with olive oil or tomato conserve
Size
About 1.5 kg (regional sheet); 1.5–3.5 kg, ø 12–25 cm, side 12–14 cm (ONAF)

Related ferments

Safety

The milk may be raw. In a challenge study, E. coli O157 added to raw ewe milk was still detectable in pecorino after 90 days of ripening, so clean milk matters. ANSES, the French food safety agency, says Listeria and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli in raw-milk cheeses can kill. It advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses, except cooked pressed cheeses such as gruyère or comté; its page does not name pecorino. It adds that raw-milk cheese well cooked, as in an oven dish, no longer poses a risk.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli O157 in raw ewe milk; in a challenge study of pecorino, not this cheese, it was still detectable after 90 days of ripening.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Historical research cited by ONAF finds sheep cheeses widely made in the Romagna hills from the 16th century. Sheep farming shrank until the 1950s, when shepherds from Sardinia settled in the area and revived it. Flocks spend winter on the plain, often towards the Adriatic coast.

  1. [er-pastore] Regione Emilia-Romagna, Agricoltura, caccia e pesca, Prodotti tradizionali, Formaggi, 'Pecorino del Pastore' (updated 19 December 2025)gov
  2. [onaf-pastore] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino del pastore', PAT Regione Emilia-Romagnaweb
  3. [centorotola2021] Centorotola G., Sperandii A.F., Tucci P. et al. 2021, Survival rate of Escherichia coli O157 in artificially contaminated raw and thermized ewe milk in different Pecorino cheese production processes, International Journal of Food Microbiology 347:109175, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2021.109175 (abstract)paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov