High ground around the Matese, including country near Pietraroja in the Benevento area, is where this soft cheese belongs in the Campania record. Cheesemaking starts with milk taken at the morning milking and used freshly skimmed, so the first flavour is already lean, milky and quiet rather than rich.
The curd is usually waited for within one to two hours. Hands then part it, after which it is left to pull away from the whey and gather again into a mass; during the work it settles on the vessel floor. Those later steps keep the cheese tender instead of driving it toward a hard wheel.
It is pressed in food-grade plastic or wicker baskets, in pieces of one to two kilograms, then salted on both faces. Traditional rooms—cellars or attics—receive it for ageing, with enough moisture to keep the paste yielding. Appetite follows that patience: a mountain cheese meant to stay soft, not to shout.