Ingredients
Lardo di Colonnata: Tuscany's most famous cured meat
Lardo di Colonnata IGP is Tuscany's most famous cured meat. The history of the marble quarries, the ageing method and how to eat it properly.
Colonnata: the village of marble and lardo
Colonnata is a village of a few hundred souls clinging to the Apuan Alps, above Carrara, at an altitude of nearly five hundred metres. It is one of the most improbable places in the world to produce one of Italy’s best-known cured meats - a village of marble quarrymen, workers who for centuries have carved in the white quarries that make these mountains a lunar and surreal landscape.
The white marble of the Apuans is the raw material of Michelangelo’s Pieta and countless other works of art. But it is also - and this is perhaps the most curious thing - the container that allows Lardo di Colonnata to be what it is.
The white Carrara marble troughs - rectangular basins carved from marble, with a specific porosity found in no other marble in the world - are the fundamental element of the Lardo di Colonnata ageing process. It is not just any container: the Apuan marble absorbs the spices of the brine, maintains a constant temperature in the cold cellars of the village, and slowly releases its minerals and marble compounds into the lardo that matures within it. This unrepeatable combination of pork fat and Carrara marble is the reason why Lardo di Colonnata cannot be made anywhere else - not physically impossible, but impossible with the same result.
The history: from the quarries to the IGP product
The history of Lardo di Colonnata is intertwined with the history of the marble quarries. The Carrara and Colonnata quarrymen were hard workers, who worked in difficult conditions and needed high-calorie foods. Lardo - pork fat with salt and spices - was the perfect food: caloric, preservable, economical.
Every family in Colonnata had its own marble troughs, inherited from generation to generation. Every family had its own brine recipe - the proportions of salt, garlic, rosemary, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves varied from house to house, and everyone defended theirs as the best. Lardo was produced in October-November, with the pig slaughter, and consumed throughout the year.
For years Lardo di Colonnata remained a local product, known to the quarrymen and the few tourists who ventured up to the quarries. In the 1980s and 1990s, with the revaluation of Italian typical products, it was “discovered” by chefs and food critics and rapidly acquired national and international fame.
In 2004 it obtained European IGP recognition - an important but also controversial moment of protection. The IGP of Lardo di Colonnata does not require the use of the specific marble troughs of Colonnata, which has generated discussions between artisanal producers and tradition advocates.
The ageing method in marble troughs
The preparation of Lardo di Colonnata follows an ancient and precise method.
The marble troughs are rubbed with garlic - the garlic penetrates the porosity of the marble and creates an aromatic barrier that slowly releases into the lardo. The bottom of the trough is lined with a layer of coarse sea salt mixed with spices.
The lardo - the back of the pig, the dorsal fat layer with very little meat - is cut into slabs about 3 cm thick. Each slab is massaged with the spiced brine before being laid in the trough. Layers of lardo alternate with layers of brine until the trough is full.
The trough is closed with a weight and left in the cold cellars of Colonnata (constant temperature between 4 and 8°C thanks to the altitude and natural ventilation) for a minimum of six months - but many producers leave it up to ten months.
During ageing, the spices penetrate the fat, the salt slowly draws out the residual water, the marble releases its minerals. The result is a white, soft lardo that literally melts in the mouth at body temperature, with a layered spice fragrance and a sweetness of fat that has no equal.
Lardo di Colonnata vs common lardo: the differences
Industrial lardo or artisanal lardo not aged in marble troughs is a completely different product, even if it starts from the same base ingredient.
The texture: Lardo di Colonnata aged in marble troughs is very soft - it can be cut with a cheese knife, it does not require a sharp blade. Common lardo is harder and more compact.
The flavour: the layering of spices in Colonnata lardo is deep and complex - you do not feel a single dominant spice, but an aromatic complexity that develops in the mouth in multiple stages. Common lardo has a salted fat flavour, simpler.
The meltability: at body temperature (in the mouth) Lardo di Colonnata melts like butter. This meltability is due to the chemical composition of the fat of the pig used (mainly Italian heavy pigs) and the prolonged ageing.
How to eat it: warm bruschetta and more
The classic way to eat Lardo di Colonnata is on a warm bruschetta - toasted Tuscan bread, still warm, with the thin slices of lardo laid on top. The heat of the bread slightly melts the fat, which spreads across the surface and perfumes the entire preparation with the spices of the brine.
But Colonnata lardo has other uses in cooking.
Wrapped around meats: slices of lardo wrapped around a veal chop or a guinea fowl breast before roasting keep the meat moist during cooking and transfer the spice flavour.
In pasta and risotto: small pieces of lardo added to a pasta or risotto soffritto in the last minute melt and release the spices into the dish without the need for other fats.
As an antipasto: thin slices on a board with Tuscan Pecorino and crostini - the quintessential Tuscan starter.
How to recognise the authentic IGP product
Lardo di Colonnata IGP has the European mark on the packaging - a guarantee of provenance from the Colonnata area (Massa-Carrara). However, as already noted, the IGP does not necessarily guarantee the use of the traditional marble troughs.
To have lardo aged in authentic marble troughs, you need to seek out the artisanal producers of Colonnata who explicitly declare the use of the troughs. These are small-scale producers - almost all with a direct shop in the village - and their lardo can also be found online, but a visit to Colonnata is the most direct way to buy the product directly from the producer and see the troughs with your own eyes.
Want to taste it for real?
At Ristorante Alcide you will find it on the table - made the right way, with fresh ingredients and the care of the Ancillotti family since 1849.
