Otterbein Acres pecorino romano
Monday, November 19, 2007
Otterbein Acres makes a sheep milk pecorino romano. Well, they call it romano, but it’s just not the right texture. Romano is generally dry-ish, hard, and salty - it’s a good grating cheese. The Otterbein Acres romano is softer, almost creamy. Not that it doesn’t make good grating cheese - I used it the other day in my gnocchi and mixed mushrooms meal. It was delicious!
Perhaps, like the Hendricks Farm parmesan, one could consider this a ‘snacking’ pecorino more than a ‘grating’ pecorino.
Otterbein Acres is near Shippensburg, a nearly 100 acre farm that focuses on sheep and cow that are grass-fed. Interestingly, nearly all of their sheep milk gets turned into cheese in their small on-site cheese house. It sounds really cool. I’d like to go on a visit some day.
Lynn Rossetto Kasper, in The Slendid Table (I think), mentions that the quality of pecorino romano available in the United States is, generally, inferior to that which is available in Italy. She describes the superior cheese as being softer, creamier and less dry, and less salty. Perhaps this is cheese is closer to that?
By the way, can you pick this up at the Fair Food Farmstand?
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Did you post that gnocchi recipe? It sounds good. As does the cheese.