THE HOTTER and more humid the climate, the more difficult it is to preserve meats by salting. Yet Southern Italy defies logic, for throughout the region,there is a great tradition of cured pork products almost as rich and varied as from anywhere else in the country. Naturally, the climatic conditions have meant that such products are traditionally strongly flavored with plenty of salt, garlic, peperoncino, black pepper, or wild fennel, flavorings so assertive, that in the past they masked successfully the taste of meats gone off in the heat. Today, of course, such products are made under hygienic and temperature-controlled conditions and the robust and assertive flavorings are used out of choice not necessity. The finest range of peperoncino spiked salami comes from Calabria.Capocollo or Capicollo (Calabria, Basilicata, and Puglia} Made with the pork neck tenderloin or part of the upper shoulder, kept in a whole piece, and cured with salt, garlic, black pepper, and, in Calabria, peperoncino. It is aged from three months to a year, and is usually chewy to the point of toughness, but very tasty. Nduja, or ndagghia Mushy Calabrian sausage, made with finely ground meat, fat, liver, and lungs, highly seasoned with peperoncino. Salsiccia or sazizza Calabria Spicy, dried sausage made with pork-lean and fat-cured with salt, black pepper fennel seeds, and peperoncino. Soppressata calabrese Calabria This rustic Calabrian salame is made from pork meats traditionally coarsely cut by hand with a knife, seasoned with red wine, salt, popper, and (of course) lots of peperoncino, then pressed under a weight.
from Frommer's Food Lovers Companion to Italy, Marc and Kim Millon, New York 1996
