Pecorino di Pienza Aged in Fossa

From Fattoria Buca Nuova in Pienza, in the heart of the Val d'Orcia. The cheese is matured for four months under controlled conditions, then transferred to a cotton sack and lowered into the ancient tufa pits of Sogliano al Rubicone for another three months. The fossa transforms everything: the paste becomes straw-yellow with light eye formation, the wheel itself distorts and elongates under the pressure, and the flavour deepens into something decidedly bold, complex, and faintly piquant — with unmistakable notes of sheep and hay. A cheese that only this process can make.

The practice of ageing cheese in underground pits goes back to the Middle Ages in the limestone and tufa hills of Romagna around Sogliano al Rubicone. Before refrigeration, these pits served as natural cold stores. Farmers and monasteries would pack their cheeses inside at the end of summer, seal the pits hermetically, and retrieve what was left in November. What came out was different from what went in — changed by the dark, the cold, the near-total absence of oxygen, and the slow anaerobic transformation that three months underground produces. Different enough that the fossa became a technique in its own right, still practiced today as it was then.

Best at room temperature to release the complex aroma. On a cheese board with chestnut honey, fig jam, or grilled bread. Particularly remarkable shaved over warm dishes that respond to its piquancy — soup, polenta, or risotto. The rind remains attached to the cotton sack during aging; once removed, scrape any residual rind away to avoid extraneous flavours. The rind is not edible. Keep refrigerated; once cut, wrap and refrigerate.