Beyond the deli counter

Italian cuisine specializes in variety of delicious cured meats

Italian cuisine is based on two essentials: fantasia (otherwise known as a keen sense of creativity and inventiveness), and resourcefulness. The latter is responsible for the many delicious Italian cured meats that are now known all around the world.
Cured meats are a result of the need to conserve meats after the slaughter of an animal. Italians have been making cured meats for thousands of years. Italy was traditionally an agricultural country, so it was common for rural families to keep live pigs and cure the meat.
Fresh meat is transformed into cured meat by salting, smoking or air-drying. Prosciutto, Pancetta, Coppa and Culatello are made from a boneless thigh or shoulder; salami and sausages are made from minced, ground or chopped meat that is stuffed into casings.
Cured meats are most popularly used in antipasto plates or in sandwiches, but they can be dressed up to impress in more elaborate dishes as well.
Salami are sausages that come in a variety of textures and flavours, reflecting the different regions from which the versions hail. There's Salame Sardo from Sardinia and Salame Fiorentina from Tuscany, just to name a few.
Finocchiona is a variation on salami. The legend goes that a thief near the town of Prato stole a fresh salami and hid it in wild fennel. When he returned he noticed the salami had absorbed the aroma of the fennel and finocchiona was born. There are two versions of finocchiona. One is called finocchiona. This firm salami is made of finely ground pork and fat, laced with fennel. Then there's sbriciolona; the crumbly version of this salami.
Spicy and dry, Calabrese sausage is a salami made out of pork and hot chile peppers.
Mortadella is a smoked pork sausage flavoured with garlic and bits of fat. It is also the largest of all the sausages from Bologna, often having a diameter of up to 45 centimetres. With its pale pink colour, it's a favourite in sandwiches and appetizer plates. It can also be finely chopped and used as a stuffing for filled pasta.
Speck is a fatty bacon made from pork belly that comes from the Tyrol, near the Swiss border. It is often added to soups, stews and sauces, or is cooked with lentils.
Soppressata is a Tuscan sausage specialty made primarily from leftover pork cuttings - cartilage, snippets of meat, and so on, which are stuffed into the skin of the animal and cooked. This fatty Italian pork salami is seasoned with peppercorns.
Hailing from northern Italy, Prosciutto cotto is a must in a slew of antipasto dishes. This salted and air-dried ham is often served wafer-thin, with melon or fresh figs. It's also popular when paired up with thin slices of veal and sage leaves in saltimbocca alla romana.
Pancetta is made from garlic, salt and spices and freshly ground pepper. Also known as rigatino (little lined one) pancetta is made from the same cut used to make bacon except that it is not sold sliced but rolled up into a sausage shape. Made from pork belly, which is cured in salt and spices, pancetta is the starring attraction in pasta alla carbonara and pasta all'arrabbiata.
Pepper Boats with Pancetta and Pecorino is just the dish to wow dinner guests. To make, combine three tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing the baking sheet, 1 red pepper, halved, seeded, and cut into eight long strips, one yellow pepper, halved, seeded, and cut into eight long strips, 1 orange pepper, halved, seeded, and cut into eight long strips, 3/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano, 12 thin slices Pancetta, halved, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
Preheat the oven to 450°. Lightly oil an 11-inch x 17-inch baking sheet. Arrange the pepper strips on it with the flesh side facing down. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with the Pecorino, and top with the Pancetta. Season with the pepper. Roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the peppers soften and the Pancetta becomes lightly brown; do not allow the Pancetta to burn or the dish will taste acrid. Serve hot.

Publication Date: 2003-11-09
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3329