Basilicata (ancient Lucania). The lucanica is first described by Roman author Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE) and appears in Apicius. The Basilicatan people's skill in sausage-making was sufficiently notable that they brought it as enslaved workers to Rome, where the sausage took the name of their homeland.
Lucanica (or Lucanicae) is perhaps the oldest named sausage in Western food literature: documented by Roman writers Marcus Terentius Varro and Apicius as a Lucanian (Basilicatan) invention brought to Rome by Lucanian slaves. The sausage that has carried this name for 2,000 years is a coarsely ground pork sausage seasoned with black pepper, fennel seeds, and dried peperoncino, stuffed in natural casings and either cured (for slicing) or used fresh (for grilling or frying). It is the direct ancestor of the Calabrian and Campanian luganega.
The black pepper heat, fennel sweetness, and peperoncino warmth combine in a coarsely textured, juicy sausage. Grilled, the casing chars and the fennel aromatics caramelise. The flavour is forthright and satisfying — the oldest documented sausage in Italian culinary history, still tasting of its origins.
The Basilicatan lucanica uses a 70/30 lean-to-fat ratio from pork shoulder and belly. Seasoning: black pepper (coarsely ground), fennel seeds, dried peperoncino (sweet and/or hot), and sea salt. Some producers add red wine for binding. The sausage is stuffed in natural pork casings, twisted into individual sausages, and air-dried for 3-4 days before use as a fresh sausage, or hung for 2-3 months for a semi-cured product. The fresh lucanica is typically grilled over charcoal or fried with fresh peperoncini.
Grilled lucanica fresh should be cooked over medium charcoal (not high heat) to allow the fat to render and baste the meat without burning the casing. The casings should be pierced once on each side before grilling to allow fat to escape without bursting. The semi-cured version is sliced thin as an antipasto — it has a concentrated, spicy flavour quite different from the fresh.
Over-grinding the meat — the coarse texture is the point; fine-ground lucanica loses its character. Insufficient fennel seed — this is the aromatic signature; a lucanica without fennel is just a plain pork sausage. Under-seasoning — the salt and pepper content must be correct for the short cure to be safe.
Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World; Paul Bertolli, Cooking by Hand