Pecorino Toscano

Pecorino Toscano

What it is

In the fifteenth century it was called cacio marzolino, the March cheese, because the ewes lambed at the end of winter and the first milk went into it; Platina, the Vatican librarian, ranked it beside parmesan among the best in Italy. It stayed a young cheese — Tuscans eat it in slices and left the grating to Rome.

In the kitchen

Eat the young tenero, under a month old, at room temperature with raw broad beans and a thread of honey. The aged stagionato grates, but it loses the milky sweetness that is the whole point of a Tuscan pecorino.

Goes with

Honey Broad bean Pear Walnut Olive oil Artichoke Black pepper Fig

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