Soppressata di Calabria DOP
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Origin
Calabria
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Description
Calabria's prized flat-pressed salami: coarsely ground pork (lean muscle and small amount of hard fat) seasoned with Calabrian chilli (either sweet or hot), salt, black pepper, and sometimes a small amount of wine, stuffed into natural casings and pressed under boards during the curing to create the distinctive flat oval shape. The pressing removes excess fat and creates a denser, drier texture than round salami. Aged 30–90 days. The sweet version (dolce) uses dried Senise peppers; the hot (piccante) uses Calabrian chilli piccante. DOP status requires production in Calabria.
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The Thread
—Coarsely ground pork and dried chilli/pepper salami — Spanish uses pimentón for both colour and flavour; Calabrian uses fresh-dried chilli Spanish
—Coarsely ground pork salami with dried pepper as the defining spice — Hungarian cold-climate drying; Calabrian mountain-air drying Hungarian
—Flat-pressed cured pork product aged in Corsican mountain air — the pressing technique and shape are direct parallels French · (Corsican)
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Flavour Context
Coarse-grained pork richness; chilli heat (sweet or hot depending on version); dense pressed texture; deeply savoury and complex
Pillars V — VII
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