A quiet, suburban house on the outskirts of north Leeds is not where you’d expect to find quality cheese production. But it is here that I am warmly welcomed by Mario and Sonia Olianas with their friends and family as they showed me where they make their unique cheeses. Cheeses that have been attracting awards in almost every contest they enter, including last year at the Great British Cheese Awards where they won best semi-soft cheese.
Mario, who originally hails from Italy, makes full-fat, Sardinian-style sheep’s milk cheeses, developed from traditional recipes. He has had to adapt his methods to the constraints of manufacturing cheese in a spare room (making raw cheese wasn’t practical in this country for such a small production, for example) but his cheeses are made with love, completely by hand and to the highest standards.
The youngest of the semi-soft cheeses Mario makes is Pecorino Fresco, aged only thirty days, through to Pecorino Stagionato, aged for many months. I tried a very memorable Fiore Sardo while I was visiting, which is lightly smoked before being left to ripen. It had a thick, smoky, umami crust, great for piling onto shards of crispbread washed down with a little red wine.
His cheese is now on the menu at The Gilbert Scott in London, where they pair the creamy Pecorino Fresco with tomatoes, rosemary bread, olives, basil and Ortiz anchovies, or use it for Pecorino gnocchi served with radicchio, sprout tops and chestnuts. Light, seasonal, Mediterranean-style dishes that reflect the sunny roots of this Sardinian-style cheese.
