Casu Musciu, also called Malvizza, is a cheese made from raw milk of Bagnolese sheep. Regione Campania places it in the province of Avellino, with names that recur around Montella, Cassano Irpino and Volturara Irpina. That combination of a named flock and a tight hill geography is why the cheese rewards a closer look: it is not a generic pecorino, but a local working of one breed’s milk.
The wheel is a small, rounded caciotta, about five centimetres high and six across, with sides that swell rather than sit square. Moisture stays high, so the paste feels generous rather than dry. Outside, the surface is smooth; inside, the colour runs paler yellow. What catches the eye is the craft mark of wide openings through the paste, those ample eyes that give the cheese its open look. Forms go to market between one and three kilograms.
Coagulation starts with natural lamb rennet added to the milk. The next day the cheese is salted in brine so the salt reaches the whole piece evenly. Until it is sold, it is kept as a fresh local product in dry, airy rooms. That sequence—rennet, overnight rest, brine, then a ventilated wait—is the practical thread to follow if you meet Casu Musciu in Irpinia: look for the pale, eyed interior and the modest, rounded form rather than a long-aged rind.