Cheese Database

Casizolu vs Pecorino Sardo

Casizolu

Facts

Milk
Cow
Texture
Semi-hard
Type
Stretched curd
Rind
Natural rind
Country
Italy

Casizolu is a stretched-curd cheese from Italy, made with cow's milk and shaped like a pear with a small head. Makers tie that head and hang the cheeses in pairs while they dry, much as they do with other Italian hanging cheeses. The paste is pale, compact, and elastic when the cheese is young. A thin, smooth rind turns yellow as the piece ages. Sardinia is the island where this form is traditional, and the milk is cow's milk rather than the sheep's milk more common there.

Pecorino Sardo, field guide plate
Pecorino Sardo, photographed

Pecorino Sardo

Facts

Milk
Sheep
Texture
Semi-hard
Type
Pressed
Rind
Natural rind
Country
Italy
Place
Sardinia
Status
PDO

Pecorino Sardo is a semi-hard sheep's milk cheese from Sardinia, and the name is protected. Whole sheep's milk from the island is the only milk used for the protected cheese. It is made in two styles, Dolce and Maturo, and they differ in age, texture, and bite. Dolce is the milder table cheese. Maturo is drier, sharper, and suited to grating as well as the board.