Pork is a organic staple foodstuff with the mountain locations of northern Italy, exactly where it’s usually explained that a properly butchered pig ought to leave ‘practically nothing nevertheless the oink’ at the rear of. To be a pig is often all over 30% Fats, thrifty locals had to come up with a means to use and maintain this beneficial source of protein, and The end result is Lardo.
Lardo di Colonnata, to offer it its full title, is actually a delicacy generated from pork Unwanted fat in and around the Tuscan mountain city of Colonnata. Happily for fans of cured meat, it’s not just a frugal way of preserving pork Fats over Winter season – it’s tasty way too!
It’s produced in substantial vats known as conche, fashioned from marble quarried for the nearby ‘white mountain’ of Cararra, that happen to be first liberally rubbed with garlic. Subsequent, levels of pork Body fat, salt, as well as a Specific mix of herbs and spices are added until finally the vats are total. The conche are then sealed with a picket lid and still left in cool mountain caves for 6 months or more time to experienced while in the clean up air.
Once the maturation time is around, the conche are opened to reveal a silky-clean, meltingly tender ‘meat’ which can be eaten in A great deal the exact same way as Parma Ham or other prosciutto.
Though Lardo is usually accustomed to preserve roasted meats moist by putting a skinny layer more than the skin, It's also delicious simply sliced thinly and eaten with bread, olives, and a great further virgin olive oil as Element of an antipasto study course. It is actually not at all rough or greasy, and is particularly effectively worth attempting even when the thought of eating pure Unwanted fat leaves you a little bit apprehensive!
Despite the very long yrs of creating Lardo in the traditional way, a lot of the illustrations you may perhaps uncover in your neighborhood deli or store will have been created in a much more industrial location, primarily because of modern day hygiene guidelines having precedence around customs and heritage. Absent are definitely the marble conche as well as the mountain air, replaced by stainless-steel and air-con.
Nevertheless, readers to the realm all over Colonnata may still be Blessed and obtain maintain of Lardo manufactured from the aged way which has been confirmed about the centuries – just don’t tell the authorities if you need to do!