Ferrara Salame with Sauce (Salama da Sugo)

History

Salama da sugo is a spiced, wine-cured pork specialty native to Ferrara, in Emilia-Romagna. Its story is bound to the Renaissance court of the Este dukes, who ruled the city and prized the pleasures of the table. The dish is first documented in the late fifteenth century, with a mention dated to 1492 and a much-cited letter in which Lorenzo de' Medici thanked the Ferrarese court for the "precious and appreciated" gift. Its early standing at court is often linked to Lucrezia Borgia, wife of Alfonso I d'Este, in the early 1500s, and the steward Cristoforo da Messisbugo described the technique of stuffing pork moistened with wine in his 1549 treatise, among the first written records of the preparation. The salama blends humbler cuts of pork with red wine and warm spices such as salt, pepper, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, packed into a natural casing and aged from several months up to a year or more, taking the segmented "melon" silhouette that identifies it. Artusi's 1891 recipe is thus a late codification of a dish already roughly four centuries old, still boiled slowly in a cloth and served hot. Its modern PGI protection came only much later, granted on 24 October 2014.

Ingredients

• g salama da sugo (Ferrara sauce-salame)
• water
• cloth

Instructions

1. Wash the well-aged salame several times in lukewarm water to remove its greasy film.
2. Wrap it tightly in a cloth and boil slowly in abundant cold water for only an hour and a half so the skin does not burst.
3. Serve hot with a garnish, like cotechino.