A survey was run a few years ago to ask Italians which product is never missing in their refrigerators. Most people answered “cheese”. It is an excellent product from every point of view. There isn't a place in Italy that doesn't have its typical cheese and each one represents the territory it is made in. The rich composition that forms the cheese makes it complete and it is recommended in many diets. A legend tells that there once was an Arab tradesman travelling through the desert and took, as a meal , some milk inside a haversack made from the sheep's stomach which turned into a solid matter due to the heat: he called it “cheese”.

The Romans also produced and consumed cheese. Not only they used sheeps milk but they also began using cows milk (rarely used by their ancestors as they thought it was noxious) and learned how to ripen it. At first cheese was considered the food of the poor but over time it substituted the meat dish on weekly days of abstinence during Eve and Lent. Monks and monasteries - where the cheese was produced and consumed – were the authoritative sources during the Middle Ages. In fact, monasteries gave an important boost to dairy production. The breeding of nomad cattle was part of their economic and rural activities and this process brought about a new variety of cheese.

Charlemagne's ninth century biography says that he surprisingly visited an important bishop. The unexpected Emperor had chosen a day of abstinence from meat so the bishop served a simple meal that gave Charlesmagne the chance to enjoy what he called “a great white and fat cheese”. He liked it so much that he ordered two boxes every year. The Sabina has a great tradition in cheese production; Pecorino, Caciotta and Ricotta are only a few of the many cheeses typical of this terriotory.