A Forgotten Italian Cheese With a Delicious Surprise Inside

A Forgotten Italian Cheese With a Delicious Surprise Inside

If you’re a cheese lover with a sense of adventure, prepare to meet a hidden gem that might just become your next obsession: burrino pepato. At first glance, this little Italian treasure might make you do a double-take. Its unusual teardrop shape and mottled brown-and-gray exterior have prompted more than a few comparisons to a potato—but don’t let that fool you. The real magic is tucked inside.

Cut into the larger half of a burrino pepato, and you’ll find a soft, salted, buttery pocket that practically melts in your mouth. Think of it as a cheese-draped butter bomb, a combination so indulgent it almost feels like a culinary secret.

What Exactly is Burrino Pepato?

The name says a lot: “pepato” means peppery in Italian, referring to the peppercorn coating that gives this cheese its signature kick. And while “burrino” translates loosely to “butter,” in Italy it’s a type of Old World-style cheese made from scamorza—an aged cousin of mozzarella. Unlike mozzarella that might sit in a cellar for months, scamorza only ages briefly, giving burrino a creamy, delicate flavor with just a touch of umami and a slightly firmer texture.

Josh Windsor, associate director of Murray’s cheese caves, describes burrino as “essentially a bag filled with a ball of butter.” The process starts with making the butter and cheese separately. The cheese, part of the pasta filata family, is stretched and kneaded to develop a slightly stringy texture, then wrapped around the butter and hung to dry, giving it that pouch-like teardrop form.

At Murray’s, the Vermont-made burrino pepato gets an extra layer of flair: after aging together for a week, it’s coated in more butter and rolled in a blend of two single-origin black peppercorns. From there, it rests in Murray’s Long Island City caves for an additional two weeks, letting the flavors meld and the rind set beautifully.

A Taste of Southern Italy

Burrino has roots in Southern Italy, often linked to Basilicata, though artisans in Campania, Molise, and Calabria also make it. Its history is as charming as the cheese itself: some say it originated as a clever way to preserve butter before refrigeration; others suggest it helped Italian families avoid high butter taxes when sending gifts to relatives abroad.

Today, burrino can be rare to find in the U.S., making it a must-ask item at your local cheese shop—or even better, a reason to swing by Murray’s. Their artisanal caves have made it possible to experience this once-forgotten delight stateside, and yes, it’s now in stock.

So, next time you want to impress at a dinner party—or just indulge in a serious butter-and-cheese moment—grab a burrino pepato. Its quirky shape might get you laughing, but the buttery heart inside will have you swooning.

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