Contents

1. A Very Simple Recipe: Enjoying Lardo

2. The Lardo of Colonnata

3. The Region and Its History

4. The Lardo Controversy

Enjoying Lardo, the Colonnata Way

We can't really call this month's food preparation suggestion a real recipe, but instead, please allow us to give you a few hints and ideas for enjoying this rare delicacy.

Traditionally, the marble quarrymen of Colonnata took lardo with them to the mines as their workday meal. They would enjoy the lardo sliced thin and tucked in hearty round loaves of bread, usually accompanied by tomato. Another popular presentation was on the same bread that had been rubbed with the cut surface of a flavorful ripe tomato.

Nowadays, connoisseurs and traditionalists alike enjoy crostini of lardo as an appetizing beginning to a meal, served in thin slices (always) and gently laid over grilled or toasted Tuscan bread, with or without the accompaniment of a slice of fresh tomato.

To cut the lardo, a very long thin blade, similar to a boning blade, is preferred. The lardo is served skinned, without its heavily salted and spiced top layer. In order to keep the lardo at its best after slicing, the skin is always left on top, then folded down over the cut area. The cut end of the lardo must stay covered. It is suggested that the lardo be kept in a wine cellar, as a substitute for the marble tubs and containers of Colonnata, but the vegetable drawer of a refrigerator is an acceptable substitute.

We hope that you can try lardo at its famous source, but if not, Lardo di Colonnata is imported to the finest gourmet shops around the world. It is also available through a few Internet sources.

The Lardo of Colonnata

Marble is the reason that the tiny village of Colonnata exists, but the Lardo has made the town famous. This poor man's food that was once served on bread rubbed with a tomato and onion, now commands top prices and draws visitors to this remote mountain area in the heart of the Carrara marble quarries. But what is it, and how is it made? Why is Lardo di Colonnata so special, not just a piece of pork fat, used to flavor soups and stews, but a highly prized treat?

The preparation of lardo has been documented for nearly as long as written history has existed. The laws of Justinian demanded that legionnaires be fed ample doses of lard to keep them healthy and energetic. In the 13th century, the first statutes regulating lard making appeared. Lardo was a part of the rural life of all of Italy.

In Colonnata, the local marble became tubs to hold the lardo, chiseled from the stones that were unfit for artists and artisans because of their brittle nature. These chiseled tubs still are used in the making of Lardo di Colonnata. They are bigger now, but their shape and use are the same. This marble is dry, glassy and porous, too fragile for use in statuary or decoration, but perfect as refrigeration: it protects the lardo from humidity, and lets oxygen circulate around the curing fat. There are no refrigeration plants in Colonnata. Preservatives are banned; it is the marble and the special curing that allow this product to exist so naturally.

The marble basins are washed and treated with vinegar each September. When they are ready, the lard making process begins and lasts until spring. The pigs arrive from farms that are regulated by the Parma and San Daniele prosciutto consortiums; they must be at least nine months old, and weigh 160 kilos. When the pigs are butchered, the curing begins.

The walls of the tubs are rubbed with garlic, and the slabs of lard are massaged with sea salt, which is then rinsed away. The bottom of the tub is covered with another special salt, then layers of lard are added, one on top of the other. What makes the Lardo di Colonnata unique is layers of ground black pepper, chopped garlic, and chopped rosemary that are added between each slab of lard before the entire tub is left to cure for six months. Additional spices, such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, oregano, star anise, and sage are added according to the special recipe of the individual lard maker. The basins are sealed with marble slabs, and for six months they are checked to make sure the curing is coming along as expected. The resulting product is amazingly sweet and delicate. In Tuscany, they say "it dissolves in the mouth."

The Region and its History

The village of Colonnata perches high in the marble fields of the Alpe Apuane, a few kilometers above Carrara. Carrara is, of course, known as the world marble capital, and the men of Colonnata served her quarries for centuries. This tiny village has Roman roots, and its name is taken from the Latin Columna . The marble basin of Colonnata has long been one of the most important in the Lunigiana region. A flood in the middle of the 19th century unearthed several artifacts that showed the importance of the Colonnata works to the Roman Empire.

The quarries were the life and the history of this town up until the late 1950; during the 50s, the village had a population of 1000. Shortly afterward, when the men fled to work in the factories of the Massa plain, the village began to shrink. Today, only 300 souls call Colonnata home. There are no schools and there is no pharmacy. Thirty years ago, there wasn't even a road to Colonnata. In Colonnata, the inhabitants speak a dialect that is indeed a separate language; that is how isolated this remote, tiny village was.

Now, however, there are new taverns and cafes that complement the 14 workshops where the lardo is made. On Sundays, the town's parking lot is full of the cars of culinary pilgrims who braved the hairpin turns of the road (still called the "New Road") that climbs to Colonnata above the Fantiscritti quarry. When the lardo of Colonnata was discovered, isolation came to an end.

The New Road was built to link Colonnata to Carrara, but an unexpected dividend occurred when vacationers also began to make their way up to Colonnata. The first visitors were adventurous holiday makers from Florence. They tasted the lardo, and its reputation began to spread. Along with the lardo, visitors also discovered a plaque in the town square that reads, "To our anarchist companions, fallen on the road to freedom."

At the beginning of January, 1894, a state of siege was declared against the people of Sicily who had rebelled at an increase in the price of flour. The rioting in Sicily created a good deal of unrest and calamity, and its victims became martyrs in a popular anti-government movement.

The independent spirits of the Lunigiana were shortly to revolt themselves, in a famous insurrection in support of the Sicilian victims of the state of siege. A leader of the insurrection, Luigi Molinari, was condemned to 23 years in prison for instigating the insurrection. A huge protest movement was mounted, and Molinari received amnesty in 1895. The Lunigiana Insurrection was important in the Italian Anarchist Movement, and the people of Colonnata continue to honor their fallen ancestors.

The pride and sense of history of the tiny village has done much to resurrect the old lardo production. Somehow, despite the loss of two thirds of the town's population, the tradition of lardo making was passed on from generation to generation. The 14 families who now produce the Lardo di Colonnata do so with a surprising passion.

The Lardo Controversy

Since the inception of the European Union, many traditional products throughout the Continent, and especially, as concerns us, in Italy, have come upon difficult times. The EU requires very strict (some say narrow) standards for the production of food products, and old, traditional methods of specialty food preparation often fall outside those standards. Thus, one beautiful April night in Colonnata, the tranquil repose of this mountain village was grossly disturbed by cars full of police and EU inspectors, hot on the trail of the criminal lardo of Colonnata!

There have been no less than three official inquiries opened by EU officials, including public health officers, into the processes used by the Colonnata lard-makers. How could uncooked pork fat ever pass the stringent rules set by the EU for the production of foods? The little town of Colonnata became the focus of this controversy. Cellars were searched, ancient marble basins were raided, the lardo was seized, and the battle began, to be carried out in both the law courts and on the front pages of the newspapers.

The European Economic Union insisted that lardo be banned, or at least banned in its traditional form. But the old ways of preparing the pork fat were the heart and soul of the product, the very thing reason for the delicious flavor that made it sought after. The same battle over regional specialties has raged throughout the EU; to quote a spokesperson for the Regionale della Toscana , "Must the flavors of tradition be deadened by too stringent, too uniform regulations?"

The answer from the people of Colonnata was, naturalmente , No! The opposing forces dared them to prove that an uncooked slab of fat could be safe, and they did. They knew all along that their lardo contained a natural preserving agent, leaving the finished product totally bacteria free, without any pathogenic germs.

The lard makers were slapped on the hand (their punishment included a light fine and an order to tile their storage caves and install a bathroom), and although their battle was won, the war wasn't yet over. Because of the notoriety of this controversy, lardo has become more popular than ever, and the demand for it has rapidly grown. The supply produced at Colonnata can't come close to meeting the worldwide demand, and a slew of imitators have begun to manufacture an inferior product. The lardo makers of Colonnata are seeking a mark to protect their product and its history. We support them in their efforts.