Italian salami: Salama da sugo

Salama da Sugo is a special italian salami which is also called “Bondiola”

“Bondiola” is so defined by the food and wine section of the site www.ferraraterraeacqua.it: the Bondiola Poggese is a sausage bagged into pig bladder, done with “capocollo” (the meat between the head and the loin of the pork), rind (mainly derives from the head and the throat) and seasoned with various herbs and spices (pepper, bay leaf, juniper). The mixture is then stuffed into large intestines in particular often uses large casings. This recipe must not to be confused with the about Salama da Sugo.
The shape of the Bondiola is round with a diameter of about 10 centimeters, with twine which divides the surface into segments. The term “Bondola” probably derives from the Latin “botulu”, which stands for the gut, or even more likely to be an archaic voice of Po area indicating an object of round form. The Bondiola and has the distinction of not being seasoned, but cooked. In fact it requires a patient cooking to perfection: placed in a cloth bag and attached to a piece of wood, the Bondiola must not touch the container in which it boils not less than four hours. Finally it should be served sliced ​​with mashed potatoes. At Poggio, in the province of Ferrara there is a festival in late September, dedicated to Bondiola. In the Venetian variant Bondiola can contain in the center pickled tongue and should be boiled for at least three hours. The origin of this sausage is probably to be found in the Veneto in particular in the province of Padua, but from here it spread in the provinces of Vicenza and Venice and then get the northeast part of Emilia Romagna, particularly the province of Ferrara.

Similar is the preparation of the “Cotechino”, which originates in Emilia, born in Mirandola in 1515, during the siege of Pope Julius II. Cotechino is considered the father of the “Zampone”, because the tradition says the skin of pig feet was used to to bag a micture of pork shoulder or bacon rind and lard and salt, nutmeg, herbs. The Cotechino of Modena, which has gained recognition IGP: EC Reg. 590/99, is produced in the area which includes the provinces of Modena, Ferrara, Ravenna, Rimini, Forli’, Bologna, Reggio-Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Cremona, Lodi, Pavia, Milan, Varese, Como, Lecco, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua, Verona and Rovigo. It quickly spread throughout Italy: in Cremona is seasoned with vanilla, spices and wine, in the Marche with pepper cloves and cinnamon

The story of Salama da Sugo recipe

Very different and not to be confused is the recipe of the Salama da sugo, or “Salamina” IGP, also called “Bondiola Polesana” in Rovigo area. The origins of its name are ancient. It is believed was born on the banks of the Po Primaro and much appreciated by the Este cort, appears for the first time in a letter from Lorenzo de ‘Medici to Duke Ercole I d’Este, where he thanked the Prince of Ferrara for the Salama da sugo that has come very welcome. Salama da sugo, which has a strong flavor and, at the same time, among the most elegant and charming of Italian butchery. It is a mixture of minced pork meat with red wine, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, cinnamom, cloves and other ingredients that no craftsman is willing to reveal. Salama da sugo of Buonacompra has been awarded the IGT since 2005 but today the Salama da sugo is regulated by the disciplinary of 2014 and its working area, conditioning and packaging of PGI includes the territory of the province of Ferrara with the exception of the municipalities of Goro, Codigoro, Lagosanto and Comacchio. The specification also regulates ingredients and proportions, and indicates the possible variations. It is aged for about a year and, in proportion to its size, cooked six to eight hours in boiling water, after being cleaned by molds of seasoning, and unlike the sausage, must never be drilled. As a side dish
only needs plenty of mashed potatoes or pumpkin, which is well matched to the grainy pulp and its spicy sauce. Typical exciting pact can be served cold, thinly sliced.
On the site www.ferraraterraeacqua.it is reviewed the variant of the “Salame da Succo”, also known as the red truffle of Formignana, very similar to the more famous Salama da sugo. The name and the recipe are attributed to Vincenzo Domenico Chendi. He lived in the eighteenth century between Formignana, where he was born in 1710, and Tresigallo, which for a long time he was the parson. He published numerous writings, including “The Ferrara farmer in twelve months,” a treatise addressed to the country people containing tips as the care of the land and animals. According to the recipe of the Chendi, the main characteristics of the Salame da Succo are the search for balance of flavors between the various types of meat and spices, the use of a quality wine and cooking time to preserve the “juice” inside of the sausage, which will present gritty and full of flavor and juice, to be eaten with a spoon or absorb the accompaniment of mashed potatoes.

Always in the countryside between Ferrara and Cento is still celebrated the Festival of “Salame alla Brace”, traditional dish related to the investiture of the pig, when people used to cook a fresh salami, wrapped in corn paper, under the ashes and embers. It is named for the first time at a sumptuous dinner offered in 1688 by the Duke Alessandro II Pico della Mirandola.

The “Salama da Tai” is similar in appearance but is not seasoned and cooked. This sausage, produced in the winter months and consumed after at least six months of ripening, it vas always there in rural homes and its maturation is still celebrating today in Guarda Ferrarese. The perfect seasoning for this product is given by the characteristic humid climate of the areas near the river Po. With a lot of care are selected lean parts of the adult pig: shoulder, neck and ham. To these cuts of meat is added the bacon and the ham fat in the percentage of 30%. Everything is ground not too finely. Stretched the dough is added sea salt, Indian pepper, fresh crushed garlic. The dough is then stuffed into a bladder, previously well washed and left in vinegar for at least twelve hours. Linked closely, from top to bottom and also sideways, it takes the plump shape similar to the famous salama da sugo and is ready to hang and cured. Also similar, but not equal, is the “Zia Ferrarese”, which is part of the traditional and characteristic salami of Ferrara and with ancient origins presumably lead back to the late Renaissance period. The first references to similar preparations of the current product is already found in cookbooks of Christopher master from Messisbugo, carver to the Dukes of Este court. His dough entirely made of pork, is flavored with salt, pepper and fresh garlic, previously left to soak in white wine and after stuffed into a particular gut, large and round called “Zia” (Aunt) from which this salami is named. Then it is tied with a thin cord, to be seasoned in cool, damp cellars for five to six months. The Salame Ferrarese is seasoned with garlic, but with smaller diameter, already cited in Renaissance books. It is preparad traditionally in December using the most noble parts of the pig such as the loin and the shoulder. To the thigh are added salt and other flavors whose composition varies from family to family, depending on oestrus of the butcher. The curing continues for the whole winter season in unheated rooms, but with a fair degree of humidity so that the mold can form on the outer surface of the salami. Only in spring salami it is ready for tasting.