Pork is actually a staple meals of the mountain areas of northern Italy, exactly where it’s generally mentioned that a well butchered pig ought to go away ‘absolutely nothing although the oink’ at the rear of. As being a pig is often all around thirty% Fats, thrifty locals needed to think of a means to use and maintain this important source of protein, and The end result is Lardo.
Lardo di Colonnata, to provide it its whole name, is a delicacy generated from pork Body fat in and round the Tuscan mountain town of Colonnata. Happily for followers of cured meat, it’s not simply a frugal means of preserving pork fat in excess of Winter season – it’s scrumptious far too!
It’s produced in large vats called conche, fashioned from marble quarried on the nearby ‘white mountain’ of Cararra, which might be very first liberally rubbed with garlic. Following, layers of pork Excess fat, salt, along with a Unique mix of herbs and spices are extra until finally the vats are comprehensive. The conche are then sealed by using a picket lid and remaining in awesome mountain caves for 6 months or more time to experienced while in the thoroughly clean air.
Following the maturation time is over, the conche are opened to reveal a silky-sleek, meltingly tender ‘meat’ that may be eaten in Significantly exactly the same way as Parma Ham or other prosciutto.
Although Lardo is often accustomed to continue to keep roasted meats moist by inserting a thin layer more than the pores and skin, It is additionally tasty just sliced thinly and eaten with bread, olives, and a very good added virgin olive oil as part of an antipasto course. It truly is by no means challenging or greasy, and is also raw honey properly well worth seeking regardless of whether the concept of ingesting pure Fats leaves you a little apprehensive!
Regardless of the very long a long time of creating Lardo in the traditional way, the vast majority of examples that you choose to may find in your local deli or shop may have been manufactured in a much more industrial placing, largely as a result of modern-day hygiene laws taking precedence in excess of customs and heritage. Long gone will be the marble conche along with the mountain air, changed by chrome steel and air-con.
Nevertheless, readers to the world all over Colonnata may still be Fortunate and get maintain of Lardo designed within the old way that's been confirmed around the hundreds of years – just don’t convey to the authorities if you do!