Ventricina: the knife-cut salami of the Vasto hills and Molise

A family of salami, not a designation

This is the most common inaccuracy: ventricina has neither a PDO nor a PGI. The national list of traditional food products published for the Abruzzo Region has two separate entries: ventricina teramana and ventricina vastese, the latter also registered under the names Vescica, Ventricina di Guilmi and Muletta. Inclusion in that list recognises a traditional product, but it is not a European designation with a specification and a control body. The Molise section of the same national list includes Ventricina di Montenero di Bisaccia. The Vasto version also has a Slow Food Presidium, with its own rules set by the associated producers; the Molise and Teramo versions are Ark of Taste entries.

Sources: Regione Abruzzo — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sezione Abruzzo · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Ventricina del Vastese · Fondazione Slow Food, Arca del Gusto — Ventricina di Montenero di Bisaccia · Fondazione Slow Food, Arca del Gusto — Ventricina teramana · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali 2022, allegato I (copia pubblicata dal progetto regionale Biodiversità Puglia)

The Vasto hills: the salami of important days

The Slow Food Foundation places the Presidium's ventricina in the middle and upper Vasto hinterland, in the province of Chieti, with producers in Carunchio, Castiglione Messer Marino, Furci, Scerni, Cupello, Fresagrandinaria and Roccaspinalveti. It was once made with black or red pigs, and families cut it only at important moments of farm life, such as the grain and grape harvests. Today few people still age it in the cooler inland areas. The Presidium's rules, shared by the producers' association, require heavy pigs raised in the production area, GMO-free feed and no chemical preservatives. One pig yields about three good-sized ventricine.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Ventricina del Vastese

Large pieces, salt and pepper powder in equal parts

Vasto ventricina uses legs, loin and shoulders, trimmed, boned and freed of hard, fibrous parts; the meat is cut with the knife into pieces of 2-3 centimetres and rests overnight. It is seasoned with salt and sweet pepper powder in equal amounts, sometimes with wild fennel and a little black pepper. The powder comes from small sweet red peppers dried for about two days and pounded: about 12 quintals of fresh peppers yield one quintal of powder. The mixture is pressed into a pig's bladder to force out the air; some rinse the bladder in water scented with oranges or lemons. The result is a ball of one or two kilos, tied by hand with string inside a net.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Ventricina del Vastese

Fire, cellar and a coat of lard

After stuffing, Vasto ventricina hangs for seven or eight days in a room with a lit fireplace, then moves to a cool, ventilated space to age. Around the third month the mould is removed from the surface and it is rubbed with lard, which protects it from insects and temperature swings. The Presidium entry gives a minimum ageing of 120 days and also reports traditional eating after seven or eight months. It is made all year except in the hottest periods. When cut, the paste is orange-red and fragrant, with a spicy finish that does not hide the meat and spices; it is usually eaten raw, in thick knife-cut slices, but pieces also go into ragù.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Ventricina del Vastese

The sweet pepper of Altino

Ventricina's colour comes from pepper, which has its own Slow Food Presidium. The sweet pepper of Altino is grown in Altino, Archi, Perano, Roccascalegna, Casoli, Sant'Eusanio del Sangro and Atessa, in the province of Chieti: small, deep-red horn-shaped fruits, called a cocce capammonte because they point upwards. Harvest begins in the first ten days of August; ripe fruits are threaded by the stalk into strings called crollo and left to dry in the air for several days. The dried pepper is available all year and is ground in traditional mortars called piloni. The powder seasons pasta, colours bread and pasta bright red and goes into cured meats such as Vasto ventricina.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Peperone dolce di Altino

Molise: the ventricina of Montenero di Bisaccia

Across the Trigno river, in the province of Campobasso, the best-known ventricina is from Montenero di Bisaccia, listed in Slow Food's Ark of Taste. Only lean leg meat is used, with pieces of hard fat, from adult sows of about 150-200 kilos raised locally and fed mainly on cereals and dried legumes, which the entry says give particularly lean meat. Seasoning is salt, sweet paprika and fennel flowers; the hot version adds a pinch of chilli. After about 24 hours of resting the mixture goes into the bladder, ripens for about fifteen days in heated, ventilated rooms and ages for about a year and a half, then is coated in melted lard. Italia.it names it as what the town is best known for.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food, Arca del Gusto — Ventricina di Montenero di Bisaccia · Italia.it — Montenero di Bisaccia

The Teramo type: same name, spreadable salami

In northern Abruzzo the word means something very different. Ventricina teramana, listed in the Ark of Taste, comes from the province of Teramo, across the mountain, foothill and hill belts of the Laga Mountains and Gran Sasso. The mixture combines ham and head trimmings with belly and lard, at 50-60% fat, seasoned with salt, white and black pepper, sweet and hot chilli, garlic, fennel seeds, rosemary and orange peel. It is stuffed into a bladder or stomach, dries for about a week near the fireplace and reaches ideal ageing after three months. It is a spreadable salami: spread on country bread or used in sauces, though for sauces only a few-days-old ventricina should be used.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food, Arca del Gusto — Ventricina teramana

At the table: thick slices and little else

A Vasto or Montenero ventricina is best understood with very little around it: thick knife-cut slices, country bread, perhaps a fresh cheese to soften the heat. The first bite tells you whether the meat was really cut into large pieces: you should see distinct cubes of lean and fat. For a hot dish I would follow the Presidium's hint and try a few pieces in ragù, where the pepper colours the sauce. The Teramo type should be treated as a spread: on toasted bread, or melted in a pan as a base for a sauce. With all three I would choose a local red, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo or Tintilia del Molise, without overpowering the salami.

Festivals, shopping and the journey home

Dates for a ventricina festival in Guilmi in August circulate online, but we found no official announcement from the town council or pro loco that we could cite: check locally before building a day around it. For buying, I would prefer producers in the inland Vasto villages and in Montenero, asking how many months the piece has aged and whether it has been coated in lard. A whole ventricina of one or two kilos travels well if it is not sealed in plastic: paper, a cloth and a cool spot in the suitcase. Once cut, cover the exposed face. The Teramo type, fattier and softer, is more delicate to carry and should be kept cool.