Piccolomini, Pienza, and Pecorino
/Ah the things you can do when you have another word that starts with “p” power. The great Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini) visited his hometown of Corsignano in 1459 and decided it needed a facelift. He commissioned Bernardo Rossellino to rebuild his town as a tribute to his humanist beliefs, creating one of the most beautiful examples of Rensaissance architecture in all of Italy. Then he renamed it after himself, Pienza. Today this gorgeous walled city is a UNESCO World heritage site and we get to enjoy a day in the city and its surroundings on both of our itineraries.
The duomo in Pienza where the crest of Piccolomini sits atop of its facade
What Pienza is most known for today becomes apparent the minute you enter the central square and take a large whiff—cheese. Not just any cheese, but some of the best cheese you will ever taste, Pecorino di Pienza. Pecorino cheese gets its name from the word pecora, Italian for “sheep” as it is, made from sheep’s milk. There are many kinds of pecorino made traditionally throughout Italy, varying from region to region and sheep to sheep. The most famous ones are Pecorino Romano (from Rome), Pecorino Sardo (Sardinian) and Pecorino Toscano. In the Tuscan variety, Pecorino di Pienza is one of the most prized, traditional cheeses.
Near Pienza in the Val d’Orcia in Southern Tuscany, there is a farm where they still make this heavenly cheese in the traditional Tuscan way. Cheese that speaks to you of a place and the people who made it. It’s a rustic, down to earth, organic farm called Podere Il Casale, run by a Swiss family who transplanted themselves here 20 years ago.
The view from our cheese tasting,and in the distance the sheep who produce the milk
Usually pecorino is made from Christmas time until the beginning of spring, when the farmer is able to get milk from the ewes. You start with a tub of about a gallon of unpasteurized sheep’s milk gathered that morning to make around 2 pounds of cheese. Then rennet is added to coagulate the milk, separating the milk proteins into curds and whey.
Ulisse, the cheese maker, explains that traditionally, a vegetable rennet known as presciura, in Valdorcian dialect, is used. Essentially it is a cardoon or wild artichoke with a purple colored thistle-like top that grows sporadically all over the farm, and once grew all over the surrounding valleys. The spiky thistle is picked in full bloom, air dried and then infused like a tea to use for cheese making.
This, together with the sheep's diet of the naturally growing herbs and shrubs of the valley, gives the cheese its unique texture and character. Ulisse reminds us of the role of nature in producing cheese – the local diet of the sheep affects the flavor and quantity of milk, when and for how long it is produced and in the end, the richness and quality of the cheese. Even though he’s a Swiss native, Ulisse is passionate about making cheese the way it has been made here, in the Val d’Orcia, for centuries.
Regrettably, most of today’s pecorino di Pienza is now a shadow of its former self. Its popularity has turned it into a factory product available year round rather than the cheese that Tuscan grandmothers in the area may remember. Milk imported from Spain or France now takes away the unique character that the local grasses and sheep of this valley added. Depletion of the local "presciura", the wild artichoke, to use as rennet means that more often it is made with another kind of rennet. All this, plus the fact that most cheese makers in the area are no longer Tuscan but mostly Sardinian, who bring in their own local traditions (Sardinian pecorino is usually made with animal rennet), means presciura is hardly ever an ingredient in pecorino di Pienza anymore. These factors were what once gave this cheese its stamp of uniqueness and character.
The rounds of pecorino are left to mature until they take on a crumbly texture and deep flavor. There are terracotta vases holding rounds of maturing pecorino nestled in straw, and shelves of rounds covered in various stages of tastiness, er, mold. There is even a barrel full of the dregs of the local Avignonesi vineyard from Montepulciano (the leftover skins and stems of the grapes, usually used to make grappa) that are soon to become the home of more rounds of pecorino, to impart an unusual flavor and beautiful deep purple color to the crust of the cheese.
Just one of the many cheeses maturing at Podere Il Casale
Maybe the best part of our visit to Podere il Casale comes at the end--lunch with some freshly baked spelt bread and a tasting of five of the farm’s cheeses, including three exquisite pecorino cheeses, from a smooth, younger cheese to a sharper, crumbly aged round. Drizzled simply with some extra virgin olive oil, so fresh it’s bright green combined with a wonderful glass of Vino Nobile, the famous wine produced near the next town over, Montepulciano. And there, surrounded by farm animals, peacocks and the Val d’Orcia’s stunning backdrop, with Pienza peeking at me over the near hill, I realize this cheese is even more divine because it’s eaten right here, and has only traveled from the barn door to the farmhouse to my plate. I suggest you try it.