All Rights reserved by scratchMapSardinia.com
Discovering
the Island
Main Attractions Edition
The first scratch map of Sardinia, you will discover 40 attractions of the Island. Each of them will make you know more local elements.
5 - PECORINO
In Sardinia sheep breeding and pastoral tradition have their roots in antiquity, shaping the values of the Sardinian people. The cultural, environmental and economic value of sheep farming and the dairy sector remains very strong.
Already in the Nuragic era sheep farming was the economic centre of the communities, as demonstrated by the discovery of some small bronzes depicting shepherds at work.
Cattle breeding became even more intense after the arrival of the Carthaginians and Romans. Sardinia became one of the main centres of wheat production. The enormous wooded surface of the island left more and more space for wheat and grazing.
In particular the breeding concentrated on the sheep sector. And still today the situation is similar. Sardinia, with over 3 million heads, alone owns 44% of the national sheep population.
Sardinian sheep are reared, a breed of small-medium size that weighs an average of 45-50 kg and whose breeding is entirely aimed at the production of cheese and the generation of lambs for slaughter. Every year more than 300 million litres of sheep's milk are produced.
Cheese production is concentrated on two types of cheese: Pecorino Sardo and Pecorino Romano.
Pecorino Sardo DOP is a semi-cooked cheese, produced with whole sheep's milk from Sardinian farms, inoculated with milk enzymes from the area of origin and coagulated with calf rennet. After semi-cooking, a curd is obtained which is placed in cylindrical moulds, in which it is purged in the right measure from the whey. After the salting of the cheese, the cheese undergoes a more or less long maturing period, depending on the type of pecorino cheese to be obtained.
There is a sweet Pecorino Sardo, whose maturation varies between 20 and 60 days, and a mature Pecorino Sardo, whose maturation lasts more than 2 months. The sweet one has a weight that varies from 1 to 2.3 kilos. It has a smooth and thin rind of a pale straw white, a white, soft and elastic paste with a sweet, aromatic or slightly acidulous taste. It is a table cheese. Mature Pecorino Sardo cheese, on the other hand, weighs between 1.7 and 4 kg and has a smooth rind consisting of a soft straw that becomes darker as it matures. It has a compact paste, characterized by a certain graininess. It has a slightly spicy flavour and is intended both for the table and for grating.
Pecorino Romano DOP is the most produced cheese in Sardinia. The name might be misleading, but Romano is a typical Sardinian product, and today 97% of its entire production takes place on the island.
It is already described in detail in some texts of the Roman period, in which the great preservation capacity and the high nutritional value, which made Pecorino Romano the ideal food for the imperial army, are exalted.
Pecorino Romano is produced in cylindrical shapes up to 40 cm high and weighing between 20 and 35 kg. It has a thin rind of a light ivory colour and a compact paste. The taste is aromatic, savoury and variably spicy, depending on whether it is intended for the table or for grating. The seasoning also varies according to the use: for Pecorino Romano destined for the table the minimum seasoning is 5 months, while for the grater's one it is 8 months. On the heel of each cheese is impressed the mark of origin, consisting of a rhombus with rounded corners and a stylized sheep's head.
Dairy production covers all areas of Sardinia, but more substantially the provinces of Sassari and Nuoro.
