High on the Matese massif, in mountain communes of the Benevento hinterland such as Castello del Matese and San Gregorio Matese, this cheese is a pasta filata made with whole cow’s milk from animals raised in the same production zone. After milking, that milk is tied to a mountain diet: forage from local pasture, with cereals in the feed.
The working cycle is practically the same as for Matese caciocavallo, yet the finished piece is bigger, a truncated cone with rounded edges. Weight usually sits between two and seven kilograms and only rarely passes ten. Once modelled, the forms cool and then go into brine; boiling water is added in the making.
Sight and touch meet a smooth, glossy rind of deep straw yellow, firm under the fingers. The paste is homogeneous and compact, with scarce eyes, straw-yellow and more intense toward the outside. Against a caciocavallo of equal aging the taste stays pleasant and more delicate, only slightly sharper. Maturation runs at least forty-five to sixty days and can stretch past eighteen months.