Ciao everyone and welcome to another blog post; as you can see, it is a brand-new week and you know what that means? Yes, a new ingredient and a new dish are being introduced this week. In this post, I am going to talk about salami, which is a well-known meat in Molise, Italy.
Now, in any dish, it is always important to make sure you incorporate everything in a food pyramid in order to have a balanced meal; when it comes to Italy, specifically in this region, meat is important to any dish since it has a lot of flavors from the area. When it comes to any ingredient, there is always a story behind everything in Italy and in this case, there is one. Before I tell the story, let’s talk about this meat and why it is well-known to this region.
The authors of Italy by Events give a short description on this meat by saying “as regards salami, the best known are soppressata, capocollo and ventricina, a sausage of lean pork, sweet pepper, red pepper and fennel (very famous the ventricina produced in Montenero di Biscaccia” (Italy by Events 2020). Salami is not just native to this area; all over Italy, salami has become a main component to dishes, especially in Bergamo, a city in northern Italy.
Jillian R. Cavanaugh, the author of the article Making Salami, Producing Bergamo: The Transformation of Value, explains that “unlike Parmigiano Reggiano, which has successfully undergone this process, such that it is universally recognized as a benchmark of taste, quality, and distinction, Bergamasco salami is little-known outside of its province, and is still immersed in the complex and contested process of being transformed. Focusing on Bergamasco salami allows a consideration of the processual nature of the production of symbolic and material value, as well as the specificities of how struggles over the value and meaning of objects emerge, unfold, and may change” (Cavanaugh 2007, 150).
To sum that statement, Cavanaugh is explaining to her audience that in order to understand the meaning behind a product, a person should look at its production as well as its transformation to seek the values behind the food. In this case with the salami from Molise, there is a story behind this.
The author at Great Italian Chefs gives us a glimpse on this tradition on the production of salami; “most of Italy’s salumi tradition is born out of thrift and survival, but La Signora is an entirely different beast. The likes of ‘nduja, soppressata and mortadella all started life as peasant food – clever cooks would take cheap cuts of meat and offal and make them into something delicious. La Signora, on the other hand, is made from prime cuts of pork. This sausage wasn’t eaten by those who made it, rather, it was used by the village to pay for services they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford – those of a doctor, or a notary for example” (Great Italian Chefs 2018).
La Signora di Conca Casale is an interesting name for just a piece of meat, but there is a reason of origin for this name. The authors at Fine Dining Lovers give their audience an insight of Molise food through their article, 10 Typical Foods to Try in Molise, Italy, by stating that “the Signora di Conca Cassale is the only typical product of the Slow Food Presidium in Molise. The name comes from a tiny village of about 200 inhabitants where the tradition of sausage making is carefully guarded by a group of elderly producers. It is called “Signora (lady) because it was once destined for gentlemen, the richest in the territory, and prepared using the best part of the pork: the loin, shoulder, belly and back fat, all flavoured with spices and fennel in particular” (Fine Dining Lovers 2016).
When it comes to the meat, it comes from the pigs from the village of Conca Casale; these pigs are mainly fed vegetables and the result is rich and juicy meat as well as delicious flavors along with textures.
With the meaning behind the salami, it comes from the origin of where this meat is from and understanding how salami got that name. By understanding the meaning, people get to understand the region of Molise and why this meat is well-known in this region.
Check out the Youtube video below about how to make salami from Calabria, a region near Molise, Italy.
This sources from this post will be linked in the Sources page of this blog; now, jump to the next blog post to see where this meat is used when it comes to a dish. Actually, I’ll just to tell you; it is… Sorry, I changed my mind; go look at the next post since it is already uploaded!
Arrivederci (See you later!!)
Michelle Metcalf
Exploring Molise, Italy through Cuisine 