APULICA / CHEESES
Carmasciano pecorino
Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Cheeses · Campania
In brief
- A raw-milk pecorino from the Carmasciano pastures in the Ansanto valley, Alta Irpinia, near the sulphurous vents of the Mefite. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano)
- The sulphur passes from the forage to the milk: the cheese has a sulphurous aroma and finish, sweet then sharp. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano)
- The milk is heated in a copper caccavo over a wood fire; the cheese is at its best at around 12 months. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano)
- It is on Campania's list of traditional products. (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
History and origin
Carmasciano is a small area of pasture, about four kilometres across, in the Ansanto valley, in the heart of Upper Irpinia. Virgil, in the Aeneid, describes it as a famous place in the middle of Italy, surrounded by high mountains and dark woods, crossed by a stream that eats away at its banks.
The valley is marked by the Mefite of Rocca San Felice, a small sulphurous lake that bubbles with gases rising from below ground. Ancient peoples called on the goddess Mefitis for the fertility of their fields, and the Campania Region notes that her cult was also tied to rites of passage and to transhumance: near these places flocks stopped to rest and to trade ewe lambs.
Until the 1950s every farming family made pecorino for the household, with laticauda and bagnolese sheep. The earthquake of November 1980 marked the start of the abandonment of the land; in 2008 some families founded the Pecorino di Carmasciano Association. Today the cheese is a Slow Food Presidium and a traditional product of Campania.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Agnello di Carmasciano (prodotto tradizionale) · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)
Area and method of production
The pastures lie mainly on the south-facing slope that runs down from Monte Forcuso to the valley floor, between 800 and 500 metres. The sulphur given off by the waters marks the grasses of the meadows, and the grasses in turn give the milk a distinctive, complex flavour.
Raw sheep's milk, with no added starters, is warmed to 36-38 degrees in the «caccavo», the copper cauldron, over a wood fire, and curdled with lamb, kid or calf rennet. The curd is broken into grains the size of a rice grain and left to settle on the bottom; then the curd is gathered, placed in wicker baskets and scalded in the hot whey. The remaining whey is used to make ricotta.
Salting is done dry. According to the Region, after about ten days the cheeses are brushed with olive oil, white wine and vinegar. Moulds that develop in the ageing rooms help the maturing. It is made from February to July.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Pecorino di Carmasciano (prodotto tradizionale)
How to recognise it
Pecorino di Carmasciano is recognised first of all by its aroma, with a marked note of sulphur alongside hints of fresh milk, newly cut grass and flowers.
On the palate there is first a sweet, very delicate flavour, then a spicy note and, at the end, a faint return of sulphur. The cheese reaches its fullest expression at around twelve months of ageing, but it can also be enjoyed younger: it is eaten in slices or, when aged, grated.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Pecorino di Carmasciano (prodotto tradizionale)
Where to taste it
The Carmasciano area lies between the towns of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, Rocca San Felice, Guardia Lombardi and Frigento, in the province of Avellino. It is a landscape of green hills, woods and large permanent meadows, where shepherds keep their flocks at pasture between 600 and 1,000 metres for most of the year; many pastures are still managed as common land, a very old collective arrangement.
The same Ansanto valley also produces Carmasciano lamb, from laticauda or bagnolese sheep. A trip through Upper Irpinia, with a stop in Villamaina and a visit to the Mefite of Rocca San Felice, leads right among the pastures where this pecorino is born. It is made from February to July, and the best cheeses are those aged for about a year.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Agnello di Carmasciano (prodotto tradizionale)
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — pecorino-di-carmasciano (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano)
- Traditional agri-food product (PAT) — Campania, n. 129, 26th revision (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
When
- Production: February–July (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pecorino di Carmasciano)
- Winter
- Spring
- Summer
Where
Read more
Pecorino di Carmasciano
A raw-milk pecorino from upper Irpinia, shaped by the pastures of the Ansanto valley: how it is made, the Slow Food Presidium, the Mefite, Rocca San Felice and Guardia Lombardi.
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