If you thought prosciutto was the only Italian salami to get excited about since, well, salami, then you are in for a shock.
There are hundreds of different types of cold cuts in Italy. If you consider the regional variations of each of these cold cuts then you’re probably somewhere in the thousands. I don’t know. I’ve never counted them.
The Maremma is no exception. While we don’t have a cold cut to exclusively call our own, but we do have plenty of local takes on Tuscan classics. Unlike Southern Italy, Tuscans don’t exaggerate on the chilli and unlike Northern Italy, they don’t have an obsession with turning offal/parts of the face into salami.
Cold cut basics
Italian cold cuts are known collectively as salumi, not be confused with salami, which is a type of salumi. There are two main types of salumi – stagionati and cotti. Stagionati are cured meats like pancetta and prosciutto, while cotti are cooked meats like ham.
Italians actually called what we know to be prosciutto, prosciutto crudo (raw ham) and ham, prosciutto cotto (cooked ham). Now there’s something to be confused about on your next vacation.
Buyer’s guide
The idea that the best cold cuts are to be bought at fancy delis for ridiculous tourist-inflated prices is a whole lot of hogwash. Most Italians buy their cold cuts from their local supermarket.
They’ve grown up eating cold cuts and if they deem the quality at their local supermarket to be good enough then you’ve got nothing to complain about. Besides the major salumeria (cold cut factories) supply the local supermarkets with their products because they know that’s where they’ll make most of their sales.
The important thing is to buy fresh. Even the smallest Italian supermarket will have a deli counter, so always buy you cold cuts freshly sliced. All you need to do is walk up to the counter, take a number and say… “vorrei (insert number) etti di (insert cold cut).” Etti is the measurement system most commonly used in Italy. Un etto is 100 grams. Due etti is two hundred grams etc.
You don’t need to tell the deli lady how thinly to slice it because she already knows. You usually buy salami whole and slice it yourself. The term salami is reserved for long and fresh salami like the one you find at home. Smaller salami-shaped cold cuts which have been cured until they’re hard are called salsiccia and are much more flavoursome.
If you’ve ever tried Tuscan bread, you’ll know it has no salt in it. No, the Tuscans aren’t being health conscious. Their bread is designed to be eaten with their cold cuts, which are salty enough that you don’t need salty bread to take away from the flavour!
As for storing your meats, cotti or fresh cold cuts must be kept in the fridge well sealed or they’ll dry out and absorb the flavours in your fridge. A whole, unsliced block of stagionato can be kept in a cool dark place, but all sliced meat is best kept in the fridge.
The Maremman top six
If you want expand your horizons beyond prosciutto, try these local treats:
1. Salsiccia con Cinghiale: Maremmans will eat anything with wild boar. These sausages are made with a mix of pork and wild boar mince and are cured for a salami that has a more gamey flavour. Slice it into rings and enjoy with Tuscan bread. It retails for about €8 per 250g sausage.
2. Lardo: My personal favourite is a huge block of pearl white pig’s fat. It’s not lard as we know it, but a highly spiced and cured cold cut that hails from Colonnata in Northern Tuscany. Maremman lardo is usually seasoned with cloves, bay leaves and plenty of pepper. This is thinly sliced and lain onto just-toasted bread so it melts into a delicious and different take on the traditional bruschetta. It retails for about €20 a kilo.
3. Guanciola: Again not exclusively Maremman, but a local favourite. Guanciola is a more flavoursome version of pancetta. It’s made from the pig’s cheek with plenty of prized fat and only a tiny vein of meat. It’s used to make a local version of pasta carbonara, without the cream, of course. It retails for about €12 a kilo.
4. Buristo: A traditional country sausage made with blood, rind and lard. It’s the Tuscan version of blood pudding and is a fresh cold cut that can be spread over toast. It retails for about €8 a kilo.
5. Soppressata: So when I said Tuscans don’t like offal cold cuts, I lied. I can’t stomach soppressata because sausage made by boiling the head, rind and tongue, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic and stuffed in a cotton cloth is not my idea of fun, but maybe you’ll love it. Soppressata features frequently on mixed cold cut antipasti platters. It retails for about €15 a kilo.
6. Salamino al Tartufo: If we’re not flavouring our salami with wild boar, we’re flavouring it with truffles. Anything with truffles has a strong earthy flavour so shoulder cuts and pancetta are used in the mince to ensure the porky flavour comes through as well. A 250g salami retails for about €8.90.