Pecorino di Capracotta — Mountain Sheep Cheese of the Upper Molise

Capracotta, Isernia province, Molise — Capracotta is the highest village in Molise and the centre of the upper Molise transhumance tradition. The sheep cheese tradition is continuous from the ancient Samnite period; the same routes between the Molise highlands and the Apulia plains were used in Roman times.

Capracotta, the highest village in Molise (1,421m), is the centre of the upper Molise sheep cheese tradition — a Pecorino made from raw sheep's milk from flocks that still follow the ancient transhumance routes between the Molise highlands and the Apulia plains in winter. The Capracotta Pecorino is unmoulded, salted, and aged in cool mountain cellars for minimum 3 months (fresco) to 12+ months (stagionato). The milk quality — from sheep grazing on the flower-rich meadows of the Matese plateau — produces a cheese with a complexity and a mountain-flower herbaceousness that lowland Pecorini cannot replicate. The semi-aged version (4-6 months) is the most versatile: sliceable but already developing the sharpness of aging.

Pecorino di Capracotta semi-aged has a paste of ivory-yellow with small eyes; the rind is golden and fragrant with olive oil. The flavour opens with clean sheep's milk sweetness, then the mountain herbs arrive (thyme, wild thyme, mountain oregano from the grazing), then a long, slightly sharp finish. Grated, it is intensely flavoured; sliced, it can be eaten alone with honey.