Italian Gourmet Food - Lardo di Colonnata: A Tuscan Delicacy

Pork is a staple food of the mountain areas of northern Italy, where it's normally declared that a properly butchered pig must leave 'nothing but the oink' behind. As a pig is typically around 30% body fat, thrifty local people had to come up with ways to utilize as well as preserve this specific source of protein, and the result is Lardo, a traditional <a target="_new" href="http://www.gourmetfoodmania.com/ar/italian-gourmet-food">italian gourmet food specialty</a>.Lardo di Colonnata, to give it its full name, is a <a target="_new" href="http://www.gourmetfoodmania.com/ar/italian-gourmet-food">food specialty</a> manufactured from pork fat around the Tuscan mountain village of Colonnata. Happily for enthusiasts of cured meat, it's not only a cheap way of preserving pork fat over winter season - it's delightful too!It's produced in large vats referred to as conche, fashioned from marble quarried on the nearby 'white mountain' of Cararra, that are first of all liberally rubbed with garlic.After that, levels of pork fat, salt, and a unique mix of herbs and spices are generally added until the vats are filled. The conche are then covered by using a wooden top and placed in cool mountain caverns for 6 months or for a longer time to mature in the unpolluted air.After the maturation time is over, the conche are opened up to reveal a silky-smooth, meltingly tender 'meat' which may be eaten in much the same way as Parma Ham or other prosciutto...one more world-famous <a target="_new" href="http://www.gourmetfoodmania.com/ar/italian-gourmet-food">italian gourmet food specialty.</a>Whilst Lardo is often used to keep roasted meat moist by setting a thin coating over the skin, it can also be mouth watering simply chopped up thinly and eaten with bread, olives, and a good extra virgin olive oil included in an antipasto course. It is not tough or greasy, and is really worth trying even though the thinking behind eating pure fat simply leaves you slightly worried!Regardless of the long many manufacturing Lardo in the conventional way, the majority of the examples that you could acquire in your nearest deli or store should have been made in a much more industrial environment, mostly because of modern day health laws and regulations getting precedence over customs and heritage. Vanished are the marble conche as well as the mountain fresh air, substituted by steel and air conditioning.Having said that, if you will experience <a target="_new" href="http://www.gourmetfoodmania.com/ar/italian-gourmet-food">Italian gourmet food</a> specialties directly and you happen to be a guests to the area around Colonnata, you might still be lucky and obtain Lardo made in the traditional Italian approach that's been proven over the centuries - simply just never tell the authorities if you do!

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