The Sicilian Pecorino is maybe the most ancient cheese produced in the island: the first quotations even trace back to the IX century b.C. The Sicilian Pecorino is in fact quoted in one of the most famous passages of Homer’s Odyssey, that of the encounter between Ulysses and Polyphemus. The Greek poet actually tells: "Sit down, he milked one by one the sheep and the bleating goats and, given back the mothers to the lambs, he made half of the milk curdle and put it in little interwoven baskets".

The Pecorino is not just a cheese. It is at the same time paradigm and metaphor of Sicily. The Pecorino is the Sicilian itself.

It is also called:

• "canistratu" (or 'ncannistratu), reminiscent of the embroidery of the wicker basket that, once impressed on the cheese, will constitute for ever the pattern of its rind;
• "primusali", in order to underline its breaking freshness, due to the first salting;
• "tumazzu" or "caciu", as our ancestors called it, if you want to give an ancient sense and taste to words.

It is produced exclusively with sheep milk and is often offered in the version with black pepper, which is added in whole corns when the cheese is put in the baskets. In this case it will become "pipatu" and will be simply called so.

In order to exalt the typically Mediterranean flavours, San Giorgio Dairy has also combined the taste of the Pecorino with others aromas and fruits peculiar of Sicily (pistachios, walnuts, olives, dry tomatoes, arugula), giving life to the stuffed pecorino cheeses.

The Sicilian pecorino has been recognized "Denomination of Origin" with the D.P.R. n.1269 of 30/10/1955. In 1996, by the EEC Rules n.1107 it obtained the "Denomination of Protected Origin (D.O.P.)".