Meats and cured meats

Pancetta di Calabria (cured pork belly)

Pancetta di Calabria PDO: pink-and-white layers under a chilli-red coat

Cut from the lower belly of pigs raised and processed in Calabria, it comes in rectangular slabs with the rind on. Dry-salted, rinsed with wine vinegar and often dusted with ground chilli, it ages for at least thirty days. One of Calabria's four PDO cured meats, registered in Europe since 1998.

• A rectangular slab with rind, three to five centimetres thick
• Pink slices crossed by fine, alternating bands of lean and fat
• An intense aroma, with a lively chilli note in the peppered version

How to enjoy it. Eat it raw in thin slices with Calabria's salted wood-fired bread, or render it as the base for pasta with broad beans, pulses or polenta. Keep it somewhere cool and dry.

Production areas

Calabria

The full story, sources and places on apulica.com →