Mortandela della Val di Non

Mortandela is a mountain thrift food, born of the yearly killing of the family pig, when the humbler cuts, trimmings and offal were minced, seasoned and shaped rather than wasted. Its name is usually traced to the mortar, the mortaio in which the meat was once pounded, though some link it instead to myrtle, the mirto that flavoured such meats before black pepper became common; every household kept its own guarded blend. Uniquely among salumi it takes no casing, the shaped rounds held instead by caul fat or a coat of buckwheat flour. The smoked Mortandela affumicata della Val di Non is safeguarded as a Slow Food Presidium, and the village of Tassullo crowns the best each October at its fair.

Mortandela is soft, coarse and open-textured, the coarse mince giving it a rustic, almost crumbly slice rather than the tight snap of a cased salame. Its flavour is deeply porky and warmly smoky, edged with garlic, pepper and each maker's hidden spices, and lightly sweet from the beech and juniper smoke. Dropped fresh into barley soup it turns tender and savoury; briefly aged and sliced thin, it firms into a fragrant antipasto.

With no casing to protect it, everything depends on the surface. The veil of caul fat or the coat of buckwheat flour forms a dry, breathable skin that slows moisture loss evenly and shields the exposed meat while it dries. Cold-smoking, kept low enough not to cook the fat, lays down antimicrobial and antioxidant phenols from the beech and juniper that guard that bare surface and perfume the meat, while gentle air-drying concentrates flavour and firms the paste. Salt does the quiet work throughout, drawing water out and dissolving the muscle proteins so the coarse mince knits into a cohesive, sliceable round.