Brunelli Ricotta Salata

Brunelli is a Lazio-based producer working in the heartland of Pecorino Romano — the hill country south of Rome where sheep's milk cheese has been a staple since the legions carried it in their rations. The company specializes in the classic Roman sheep's milk repertoire: Pecorino Romano DOP and Ricotta Salata, both built from the same flocks grazing the volcanic soils of central Italy.

The production follows the old playbook. Raw sheep's milk is cultured and set, the curds cut fine and cooked, then pressed into the tall cylindrical forms that give Pecorino Romano its silhouette. What sets Brunelli apart is the salting — done by hand, dry-salted in stages over weeks rather than brined, the way Roman shepherds have always done it. The wheels are then aged in tufa caves, the porous volcanic rock that honeycombs the Lazio landscape, where steady humidity and cool temperatures pull moisture out slowly and concentrate the sharp, grassy, faintly piquant bite that defines real Romano. The Ricotta Salata is made from the whey left over from the Pecorino make — pressed, salted, and aged until it turns firm enough to grate or shave.

Brunelli's Pecorino Romano is what you want grating over cacio e pepe or amatriciana — saltier and sharper than Parmigiano, with that unmistakable sheep's milk tang. The Ricotta Salata is a workhorse: shaved over pasta alla Norma, crumbled on summer salads, sliced onto a board with melon and prosciutto. Traditional methods, tufa caves, hand-salting — right in the sweet spot for grating cheeses that actually taste like something.