Morseddu — Calabrian Spiced Offal Stew in Pitta

Catanzaro, Calabria — morseddu is specifically associated with Catanzaro and is considered the city's dish. It has been sold by street vendors in the old city for at least three centuries. The pitta bread, specific to Catanzaro, is an inseparable part of the preparation.

Morseddu (also morzello in Catanzaro dialect) is one of the most ancient and characteristic street foods of Catanzaro: a thick stew of mixed pork offal (heart, lung, liver, spleen) slow-cooked with concentrated tomato, dried chilli (the notorious Calabrian peperoncino), red wine, bay, and oregano until it reaches an almost paste-like consistency — dark, intensely spiced, and deeply savoury. It is served in a pitta (the local round, hollow bread) that has been opened and soaked in the stew's fat before filling. The pitta absorbs the fat and chilli-tomato juices; the offal fills it. It is eaten in the hand, standing at the street stall.

Morseddu is the most assertive street food in Italy — the chilli heat is immediate and sustained; the tomato concentrate gives a deep, slightly bitter sweetness; the mixed offal contributes an intense mineral-savoury character from the combination of liver, heart, and spleen. The pitta bread soaks the chilli fat and becomes a vessel of heat and flavour. It is not for the faint-palated.