The Ragusano is a stringy-textured cheese, produced with raw whole cow’s milk, coming from cows that feed aromatic forages on the Iblei Mountains. The cheese is nowadays still homemade by little family dairy included in the farm where cows are reared.
Historically, the Ragusano cheese was called Caciocavallo Ragusano and derived its name both from the area of provenance, Ragusa, as well as the drying process “a cavalcioni” (in local dialect, “a cavaddu”), which means “astride” – reflecting the way the cheeses were tied together and hung over a plank of wood to dry.

On 30th October 1955 the cheese was first recognised as a typical product under Presidential Decree No. 1269, subsequently accorded the Designation of Origin and finally, with the advent of EU Regulation No. 1263 of 1st July 1996, was awarded the Protected Origin Designation (POD).
The official recognition foresees the designation “Ragusano” but loses the historical designation “Caciocavallo”.