In delis all over Italy you will find white slabs of something lined up beside the salami and prosciutto. These slabs are pig fat – lardo di Colonnata. Don’t be afraid to try it. Thinly sliced on toasted bread it is delicious.
Lardo di Colonnata is produced – and don’t think you will be surprised here – in Colonnata, a tiny village high in the marble filled mountains behind Cararra.
Centuries ago the residents of Colonnata kept pigs. To preserve the fat, over the winter months it was salted and left in cool crevices in the marble. This was a poor area and the lardo supplemented the diet of chestnut flour pasta and fruit and vegetables. The process was refined over centuries and the fat was stripped of the rind, cut into rectangular slices and layered with sea salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic and other locally grown herbs. The seasoned fat was stored in marble urns, where it was left for 6 – 10 months to cure. These days the pigs are reared somewhere else but the making of lardo remains the same.
The village of Colonnata is worth a visit. It is 550 metres above sea level in the foothills of the Apuane Alps, not far from Cararra. On the way it is possible to visit the cave from where Michelangelo took the marble to create his David. There is an excellent museum outside the cave where you can see how the marble was dragged from these mountains, and how the people who did the work lived. It must have been a tough, dangerous life for these hardy people. It will make you appreciate even more the beautiful sculptures and marble floors you will see on your Italian travels.
the marble filled mountains around Colonnata
marble statue in the village of Colonnata