Pork is often a staple food items of your mountain areas of northern Italy, the place it’s typically claimed that a very well butchered pig must depart ‘absolutely nothing although the oink’ guiding. Being a pig is usually about 30% Excess fat, thrifty locals had to come up with a method to use and maintain this valuable supply of protein, and The end result is Lardo.
Lardo di Colonnata, to present it its entire name, is actually a delicacy generated from pork Fats in and around the Tuscan mountain town of Colonnata. Happily for lovers of cured meat, it’s not simply a frugal technique for preserving pork Body fat around winter – it’s tasty much too!
It’s built in huge vats often known as conche, fashioned from marble quarried within the nearby ‘white mountain’ of Cararra, which might be initially liberally rubbed with garlic. Next, levels of pork Extra fat, salt, as well as a Specific mix of herbs and spices are included right up until the vats are complete. The conche are then sealed using a wood lid and left in amazing mountain caves for 6 months or more time to experienced within the clear air.
After the maturation time is around, the conche are opened to expose a silky-easy, meltingly tender ‘meat’ which can be eaten in Considerably a similar way as Parma Ham or organic food other prosciutto.
While Lardo is frequently utilized to retain roasted meats moist by positioning a thin layer in excess of the pores and skin, It's also scrumptious simply sliced thinly and eaten with bread, olives, and a great further virgin olive oil as Component of an antipasto training course. It can be not at all rough or greasy, and is particularly nicely worth hoping whether or not the idea of taking in pure Unwanted fat leaves you just a little apprehensive!
Despite the extensive decades of constructing Lardo in the standard way, most of the examples that you just could obtain in your neighborhood deli or shop can have been built in a much more industrial environment, mainly due to modern day hygiene legislation getting priority over customs and heritage. Long gone are classified as the marble conche and also the mountain air, replaced by chrome steel and air conditioning.
Having said that, people to the area close to Colonnata should still be Fortunate and get maintain of Lardo created inside the old way that has been confirmed around the generations – just don’t tell the authorities if you need to do!