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Marsicovetere ham

PAT · Slow Food Presidium · Meats and cured meats · Basilicata

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In brief

History and origin

The Val d'Agri, rich in woods of chestnut, Turkey oak, maple and hornbeam, has a long tradition of raising pigs in semi-wild conditions. Each family kept one or two and turned the meat into food for its own larder. Sausages dried indoors, especially in the kitchen, where smoke from the hearth left a light smoky note, while hams hung in well-aired rooms.

From the 1980s the discovery of oil in the Val d'Agri, and then the opening of the wells in the second half of the 1990s, changed the valley's economy: many farmers' children chose work in the oil sector, and since the early 2000s pig farms have halved. Today very few producers still make Marsicovetere ham, and few families still raise a pig, even just for home use.

The ham is listed among the traditional agri-food products of Basilicata, and the Slow Food Presidium aims to keep this pork-curing tradition alive and to give value to the traditional curing places of the Lucanian mountains.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Prosciutto di Marsicovetere · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

Marsicovetere is a municipality in the Val d'Agri, inside the Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese National Park, the protected area between Monte Sirino and Monte Volturino crossed by the river Agri. The town lies at about a thousand metres, and its climate is the secret of the ham: cool winds from the Sirino, which rises above two thousand metres, meet warm winds from the Gulf of Policastro, keeping temperatures mild even in summer, ideal for curing.

The ham comes from the legs of pigs raised in the municipality and the neighbouring provinces, and is made from November to the end of February. The leg is trimmed, massaged and dry-salted, then rests under salt for 25 to 40 days. Pressing follows: once with wooden presses, today with weights equal to or heavier than the ham, laid on a board.

After pressing the leg is coated with a paste of lard, pepper and powdered sweet red pepper and left to dry in a room warmed by a wood fire. Curing lasts from 12 to 22 months and more.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Prosciutto di Marsicovetere · Parco Nazionale dell'Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese — Produzioni locali: Prosciutto di Marsicovetere

How to recognise it

It is a fair-sized raw ham, between 8 and 12 kilos. It is recognised by its coating of lard, pepper and sweet red pepper, which coats it during curing, and by its time in rooms warmed by a wood fire.

The flavour is sweet and delicate, the aroma marked and lasting, the texture soft. It is ready after at least twelve months, but can rest for nearly two years and more.

Each ham carries the climate of the mountain where it matures: the air coming down from the Sirino and the air rising from the sea accompany it throughout the curing.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Prosciutto di Marsicovetere

Where to taste it

The ham is found in Marsicovetere, in the Val d'Agri. The authority of the Appennino Lucano National Park lists it among the local products of the protected area, alongside the valley's cheeses, pulses and wines.

Marsicovetere is one of a ring of park municipalities closely tied to the land and its produce, together with Viggiano, Grumento Nova, Moliterno, Sarconi, Marsiconuovo and other towns in the valley. The landscape is one of chestnut, Turkey oak and maple woods, the course of the Agri and the mountains of Sirino and Volturino: the same setting in which families raised pigs and cured meats at home for generations.

Visitors to Viggiano or Grumento Nova can go up to Marsicovetere and combine walks in the park with the discovery of a pork-curing tradition that the Presidium is trying to save, together with the curing places of the Lucanian mountains.

Sources: Parco Nazionale dell'Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese — Produzioni locali: Prosciutto di Marsicovetere · Parco Nazionale dell'Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese — Produzioni locali: Fagiolo di Sarconi IGP · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Prosciutto di Marsicovetere

Protection

When

Where

Basilicata