Sheep’s cheese, compared to the others of small size, but of great aromatic thickness. From a friendship, but above all from the desire to always create something unique and different from the usual, was born this particular cheese aged in the “chaff” of Piedmontese hazelnuts.
What is the chaff? First of all, a specific one on hazelnuts, as it is the Tonda gentile delle Langhe also known as Piedmont Hazelnuts PGI produced by the Papa dei Boschi Company in the province of Cuneo. The “chaff” is the waste from the sieve after roasting and grinding the hazelnuts to obtain the hazelnut paste, this waste is larger pieces of hazelnuts and the perisperma or the thin brown film that covers the hazelnut, as well as the essential oil of hazelnut.

This ingredient, which for us is certainly not a waste, is used to refine the crust of our little pecorino, therefore called Scoiattolino, as we know that squirrels are greedy for walnuts and hazelnuts.

The result is a cheese with a balanced taste given the harmonization obtained of the ingredient added with the cheese, to be appreciated at every bite.

The rind is edible, indeed it must be eaten in order to appreciate the characteristics conferred by its refinement.

Due to the low annual production, the availability of this cheese should be checked at the time of ordering.

Ingredients: MILK of pasteurized sheep, live milk enzymes, rennet and salt, treated in a crust with waste from the processing of hazelnut paste.

Size: about 0.5 kg
.
Packaging: vacuum bag
.
Duration of the packaged product: 90 days.

ALLERGENS: Milk and milk proteins.

Product features:

Shape: totally convex cylindrical heel (mule-back) with convex faces, almost a “ball”;
External appearance: the rind is on average hard, moist and sticky, the external colour is brown because it is covered by the perisperma of roasted hazelnuts;

Internal appearance: the paste on the inside is compact, ivory in colour tending towards straw in the subcrust, with a much darker nail colour, non-homogeneous eyes of fine size and regularly distributed.
Odour: a high vegetal scent, especially in a roasted hazelnut crust, lactic acid of cooked butter and clean stable animal. Obviously, since the crust is edible, the aromatic sensation of the hazelnut prevails slightly when eating it, but it blends well with the characteristics of the cheese.
Flavour: moderately sweet, medium to low saltiness and a slight acidity, in the mouth it is crumbly, slightly adhesive at the centre and much more grainy towards the rind, it has a medium persistence.

Availability: limited and only at certain times of the year.

Food pairings: excellent on a cheese plate, as an appetizer or to make tastings in a horizontal pecorino cheese dish.

Oenological pairings: it is decidedly difficult to find a match for this cheese, given the presence of hazelnuts, so all that remains is to try a wine that is just as aromatic, white or sweet.

MEDIUM NUTRITIONAL VALUES per 100 g of product:

• Energy value kcal 326
• Energy value KJ 1356
• Fats 24,76 gr
  of which saturated fatty acids 16,61 gr
• Carbohydrates 2,14 gr
  of which sugars 0,42 gr
• Protein 23,73 gr
• Salt 1,59 gr