Time.news – One of the most loved and versatile foods of our culinary tradition: in the lead for cooked and raw hams are preferred, closely followed by the queen of sausages, mortadella, frankfurters and speck.
And to say it with Giuseppe Pulina who dedicated a small encyclopedia, unique of its kind, “Carnipedia” (Franco Angeli publisher) to meat and its “derivatives” “cured meats are part of the deep soul of Italy: they are the food of post-war reconstruction and mortadella, one of the national glories, was immortalized by Mario Monicelli in the film of the same name with Sofia Loren and Gigi Proietti and served Andreotti to maintain excellent relations with the German Chancellor Kohl for a long time who seems to love her particularly “. In short, not only taste, but also the ability to maintain good diplomatic relations, among the virtues of Italian cured meats …
A sublime product with an exceptional history that is born, Pulina always remembers in his treatise for carnivores, from need to preserve food and preserve it from external aggressions, it is no coincidence that “among the many techniques [di conservazione], the most common are drying, salting and smoking, three methods̀ which, together with the maturation operated by useful bacteria, are the basis of the production of cured meats “. A product that is not rhetorical to define a symbol of Made in Italy: between PGI and PDO, in fact, our country has more than 40 specialties and each region boasts at least one typical salami, so much so that by making a selection – which can only be personal and arbitrary – it is possible to reconstruct a tour of Italy in 20 precious and… savory bites.
Lard from the Aosta Valley
We start from the north-west, from the Aosta Valley. The guides of the region read that “The self-sufficiency of subsistence economy that characterized our valleys up to half a century ago made it necessary to conserve the meat of the rare animals that were slaughtered at home, usually at the beginning of winter”. And as often happens, it is precisely the need to stimulate the birth of exceptional products. This is the case of Lardo di Arnad, a Aosta Valley product typical of the “lower valley”, the stretch that goes from the border with Piedmont to the Montjovet, known for well-fattened pigs with a diet rich in chestnuts. This lard is a unique product, obtained from the shoulder of the pig and cut into pieces at least 3 cm thick, it is put in brine with aromatic herbs harvested in the area and aged in traditional doils (cubic wooden boxes). Needless to say, this lard has obtained the DOP designation and also has an entirely dedicated festival which obviously takes place in Arnad on the last Sunday of August.
Hams, Speck, Bresaole and Mortadella from Central Italy
Continuing our journey we meet the great classics of Italian delicatessen, on which there is very little to add. We are talking about cooked ham, a Piedmontese specialty, allied with a thousand last-minute dinners and many tasty snacks, we are talking about Bresaola, exceptional salami from Valtellina, loved by sportsmen and those who want to keep fit, and Trentino Speck. We are still talking about San Daniele raw ham, a typical product of Friuli and Mortadella produced in Emilia and, few people know, also in Liguria (even the PGI one includes pistachio).
The Sopressa from Vicenza
You have to arrive in Veneto to find a gem, the Soppressa vicentina, a sausage produced only in the province of Vicenza, in the area between the Dolomites, the Asiago plateau and the Berici Hills, only with local pigs reared in the wild. It owes its name to the Venetian dialect term “sopréssare”, that is to crush, press, known since the mid-twentieth century, this salami was a typical dish of midsummer peasant festivals.
Tuscan Finocchiona and Marche Ciauscolo
Finocchiona and Ciauscolo, two delicacies originally from Tuscany and Marche respectively. The first, as the name suggests, has a marked aroma of fennel which makes it its fortune even in business. It was used, in fact, since the Middle Ages to accompany and disguise even the worst wines in flavor.
So much so that an ancient saying went “as skilled hairdressers are capable of making even the ugliest woman look attractive, so the aroma of Finocchiona is capable of disguising even the flavor of the most undrinkable wine”, This is why even today“ letting oneself be fooled ”takes on the meaning of being cheated.
Ciauscolo, on the other hand, is obtained from the double grinding of fine cuts of pork, including bacon, shoulder and trimmings of ham and loin. Fruit of the Marche peasant tradition in which all the products deriving from the slaughter of the pig constituted a precious reserve to spend the winter, the word “ciauscolo” derives from the Latin ciabusculum, that is, small meal or small food to take with you to the countryside.
Umbrian loin, Porchetta di Ariccia, Ventricina from Abruzzo and Soppressata from Molise
But central Italy is full of specialties in the field of cured meats, think of the Umbrian Lonza, a tasty and spicy salami with a high percentage of fat that keeps the meat always soft, or the Porchetta di Ariccia, more than a typical dish, an institution , almost a belief that from the fraschette – the Lazio taverns without a kitchen where bread, wine and cold cuts are served – proselytize all over the world. You have to go to Abruzzo to find Ventricina, typical salami that owes its name to the belly of the pig, in ancient times the stomach of the animal was used for stuffing.
Made with fine cuts and strictly at the tip of the knife, this is one of the most expensive cured meats in Italy. Considered the queen of aperitif cutting boards, ventricina is also good cooked and is used in meat sauce and as a filling for fresh pasta. Molise makes its contribution to this food and wine journey by bringing the Soppressata as a dowry, a sausage with a spicy taste, where peppercorns are added to the fine hand-cut meats and matured in the pig intestine which gives the preparation unmistakable notes.
Salame Napoli, the Pezzente Lucano, the Capocollo di Martinafranca and the Calabrian Nduja
And Southern Italy certainly has no less to say in terms of cured meats, starting with Salame Napoli that in spite of the name it is produced throughout Campania and which was historically considered a precious commodity, worthy of being exchanged for professional services and consumed only on important occasions.
Remaining in the large family of sausages and descending to Basilicata we meet the Pezzente, a sausage that owes its unflattering name to the fact that the meat used for its production is the least valuable of pork. But this has no detrimental effect on the taste, with a more or less smoky flavor, the Pezzente (or the Pezzente or Sauzizzon ‘) in fact releases aromas of sweet paprika, Senise peppers and fresh garlic.
Setting foot in Puglia you will come across the Capocollo di Martinafranca, a product that restores all the wisdom of the butchers of the Itria Valley and, as the name suggests, is made with meat from the cervical area of the pig. Calabria, on the other hand, is famous for Nduja, a spreadable salami to be used as it is on bread or to be added to sauces and fillings (the famous fillings) to give strength to the flavors.
Salame di Sant’Angelo and Sardinian Sausage
This gastronomic exploration ends with the islands, an arbitrary selection, it should be remembered, which could start again many times, bringing to the fore as many new cured meats. The islands we said. Salame Sant’Angelo is a Sicilian specialty with a bright color and delicate flavor that is made by treating only the noblest parts of the pig, typical of Brolo, a town in the Messina area, with the tip of the knife.
This sausage must the origins around the eleventh century to the Norman colonization that imported new eating habits on the island. Last but only in geographical order the Sardinian Sausage, recognizable by its classic horseshoe shape, is a specialty obtained by amalgamating with balance lean and fat parts of coarse-grained pork to which sea salt, pepper, fresh minced garlic and natural flavors.
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