At 170 Grammi, home of La Tonda Romana in Surry Hills, Pecorino Romano appears on almost every dish that comes out of the kitchen — not as a garnish, but as structural architecture. It seasons the Cacio e Pepe pizza. It finishes the Amatriciana. It’s in the Carbonara, the Gricia, and the supplì. Take it out and the dish doesn’t just taste different — it becomes something else entirely.
170 Grammi, a Roman pizza restaurant at 428 Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 in Sydney, is built around the dishes that made this cheese indispensable — which is why understanding Pecorino Romano is, in a real sense, understanding Roman cooking itself.
Pecorino Romano is one of those ingredients that gets mentioned constantly but rarely explained. Here’s what it actually is, why it behaves so differently from other hard cheeses, and why Roman cooks have been treating it as irreplaceable for centuries.
What Is Pecorino Romano?
Pecorino Romano is an aged Italian cheese made from the full-fat milk of sheep — pecora is the Italian word for sheep, which is where the name comes from. It’s hard, dry, and heavily salt-cured, with a sharp, pungent flavour and an intensity that most other aged cheeses don’t approach. It belongs to the broader family of Italian pecorino cheeses — sheep’s milk cheeses made across many regions — but Romano is the saltiest, the most assertive, and the one most directly associated with Rome’s cooking tradition.
The full name — Pecorino Romano DOP — reflects its protected status. Like San Marzano tomatoes and Prosciutto San Daniele, Pecorino Romano carries a Denominazione di Origine Protetta designation, which defines not just what it is but where it must be produced: in Lazio, Sardinia, and the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. Despite the Roman name, most Pecorino Romano today is made in Sardinia — the island’s pastoral landscape and large sheep population make it the natural production centre for a cheese that requires enormous quantities of sheep’s milk.
How Pecorino Romano Is Made
Pecorino Romano is a cooked-curd cheese, which means the milk is heated during production to help form the curd and develop the texture. The wheels are then dry-salted — rubbed repeatedly with coarse salt over several weeks — which draws out moisture, firms the texture, and gives the cheese its characteristic intensity. Under DOP rules, the minimum aging period is five months for table use and eight months for grating, though many wheels are aged considerably longer.
The high salt content isn’t incidental. Pecorino Romano has a long history as a ration and preservation cheese — Roman legions carried it as a calorie-dense, shelf-stable protein source that held up without refrigeration across long campaigns. The salt that made it last also defined its flavour, and Roman cooking built itself around that flavour rather than trying to soften it.
The result is a cheese that is much saltier than Parmesan, much drier than Pecorino Toscano or Sardo, and considerably sharper than most aged cheeses a modern cook would reach for. These aren’t flaws. They’re what make it work in the specific applications where Roman cooking uses it.
Pecorino Romano vs Parmesan: What’s the Difference?
Pecorino Romano and Parmesan are both hard, aged DOP cheeses used for grating — but they are made from different milk, aged differently, and behave differently in the pan. The difference is structural, not a matter of preference, and it determines whether a Roman dish lands correctly.
Parmigiano Reggiano DOP is made from cow’s milk, aged for a minimum of twelve months (and often much longer), with a flavour profile that’s nutty, sweet, and complex without being sharp. Its salt level is moderate. It melts smoothly and evenly, which makes it versatile across a wide range of dishes.
Pecorino Romano’s sheep’s milk base gives it a flavour note that’s slightly gamey and more pungent — what Italian cooks describe as piccante. It doesn’t melt in the same way Parmesan does; under heat, it tends to become grainy before it becomes smooth, which is exactly why Cacio e Pepe requires such precise technique to work. The two cheeses are not interchangeable in Roman cooking, regardless of how often they’re treated as such. Swapping Parmesan into an Amatriciana removes the sharp counterpoint to the guanciale’s fat. The dish still functions — but it stops being the dish.
Is There a Substitute for Pecorino Romano?
Parmesan is the most common substitute and will work in most recipes — but the result will be measurably different. Because Parmesan is milder and less salty, it neither seasons nor sharpens as aggressively, so in dishes where Pecorino Romano does significant flavour work (Cacio e Pepe, Amatriciana, Gricia), the substitution produces a gentler outcome that reads as different in character rather than simply less intense. A blend of Parmesan with a small amount of aged Pecorino Toscano or Sardo can get closer to the original profile, but Roman cooks would not consider it equivalent. For dishes built around Pecorino Romano’s specific flavour, the real thing is worth finding — it’s the cheese, not the technique, that defines the result.
Why Pecorino Romano Is Central to Roman Cooking
Pecorino Romano is central to Roman cooking because it performs three functions simultaneously: it seasons as it melts, adds sharpness without adding liquid, and contributes fat and body from the richness of sheep’s milk. In a culinary tradition built on restraint — where two or three ingredients do the work of ten — a cheese that handles all of this at once is not a convenience. It’s a structural choice.
The four classic Roman pastas — Cacio e Pepe, Gricia, Carbonara, Amatriciana — all use Pecorino Romano as their primary cheese. In Cacio e Pepe, it’s the only flavouring agent other than pepper. In the others, it works alongside guanciale and, in Carbonara’s case, egg yolk. Understanding why Cacio e Pepe is technically demanding is largely a lesson in understanding how Pecorino Romano behaves under heat — and how to work with that behaviour rather than against it.
This is precisely why cucina romana’s philosophy of doing more with less has always centred on Pecorino Romano. The ingredient earns its place in every dish it appears in.
Pecorino Romano at 170 Grammi
Pecorino Romano DOP appears across the 170 Grammi menu in every application that Roman cooking has historically used it for. On the pizza side, the Cacio e Pepe pizza uses it as the sole flavouring alongside black pepper — white base, Pecorino Romano, nothing else. The Amatriciana pizza uses it to finish the San Marzano and guanciale sauce, adding the sharpness that stops the dish reading as simply rich. The A’ Carbonara pizza brings in egg yolk alongside Pecorino Romano and guanciale, mirroring the classic pasta preparation in a different format.
On the pasta side, it finishes the Rigatoni Amatriciana and appears in whichever of the four canonical Roman preparations are on the menu. The supplì — particularly the Supplì Amatriciana — extend the same Pecorino Romano-forward flavour logic into the antipasti course.
The DOP certification that applies to Pecorino Romano is what ensures the cheese arriving at the table is the correct one — produced to the correct specification, in the correct region, from the correct milk. Substitutes exist. The dish is what suffers.
The full range of dishes using Pecorino Romano is on the 170 Grammi dine-in menu. Ordering the Cacio e Pepe pizza is the clearest way to understand what the cheese alone is capable of — two ingredients, no shortcuts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pecorino Romano?
Pecorino Romano is an aged Italian sheep’s milk cheese produced under DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) rules in Lazio, Sardinia, and the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. It is hard, dry, and heavily salt-cured, with a sharp, pungent flavour that makes it central to Roman cooking. The name comes from the Italian word for sheep, pecora. Pecorino Romano is one of the oldest cheeses in the Italian tradition and the primary hard cheese used in classic Roman pasta dishes including Cacio e Pepe, Amatriciana, Gricia, and Carbonara.
What is the difference between Pecorino Romano and Parmesan?
Pecorino Romano is made from sheep’s milk and is considerably saltier, sharper, and more pungent than Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan), which is made from cow’s milk and has a milder, nuttier flavour. Pecorino Romano’s high salt content and assertive character are structural to Roman dishes like Cacio e Pepe and Amatriciana — substituting Parmesan changes both the flavour and the technique, producing a noticeably gentler result. The two cheeses are not interchangeable in Roman cooking.
Is Pecorino Romano the same as Pecorino?
Pecorino Romano is one specific variety within the broader family of Italian pecorino cheeses — all made from sheep’s milk, but differing significantly in region, aging, and flavour. Pecorino Romano is defined by its DOP production area (Lazio, Sardinia, and Grosseto), its extended aging period of five to eight months or more, and its particularly high salt content. Other pecorino cheeses — Toscano, Sardo, and Siciliano — are milder and softer, and behave differently in cooking. Not all pecorino cheese is Pecorino Romano.
Why is Pecorino Romano so salty?
Pecorino Romano is dry-salted repeatedly during production — wheels are rubbed with coarse salt over several weeks, a process that draws out moisture, firms the texture, and concentrates salt deep into the cheese. Historically, the high salt content made it an effective preservation and ration food carried by Roman legions across long campaigns without refrigeration. That flavour profile became the structural foundation of Roman cooking rather than something to be softened or corrected.
Can you substitute Pecorino Romano with Parmesan in Roman recipes?
Parmesan can replace Pecorino Romano in most recipes, but the result will be noticeably different. Parmigiano Reggiano is milder and less salty, so it neither seasons nor sharpens as aggressively. In a Cacio e Pepe, the substitution produces a dish that’s gentler and sweeter but lacks the distinct character of the Roman version — Parmesan also melts more smoothly, making the technique easier at the cost of flavour intensity. For dishes where Pecorino Romano does structural flavour work, there is no true equivalent substitute.
Which dishes at 170 Grammi use Pecorino Romano?
Pecorino Romano DOP appears across the menu at 170 Grammi in multiple preparations: the Cacio e Pepe pizza (Pecorino Romano and black pepper only, no other flavouring), the Amatriciana pizza and Rigatoni Amatriciana, the A’ Carbonara pizza, and the Supplì Amatriciana. Pecorino Romano is the primary cheese in every dish at 170 Grammi that draws on the classic Roman pasta and pizza tradition — the dishes that define cucina romana as a distinct culinary form.
170 Grammi is Surry Hills’ home of authentic Roman-style pizza, founded by Naples-born pizzaiolo Luigi Esposito. Where Luigi’s other restaurants bring the traditions of Naples to Sydney, 170 Grammi is dedicated to the Roman counterpart — La Tonda Romana — defined by thin, high-hydration dough, long fermentation and a clean, structured crunch that sets it apart from softer southern styles.
Opened in 2024 at 428 Crown Street and already one of the most-searched pizza restaurants in Surry Hills, 170 Grammi has quickly established itself as Sydney’s leading destination for Roman-style pizza. This blog covers the craft and culture behind what makes Roman pizza distinct — from dough technique and fermentation to menu guides, Roman food traditions and what to look for in a genuinely authentic slice.