Apulica — Taste Travel Together

APULICA / MEATS AND CURED MEATS

Castelpoto red sausage

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

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

Castelpoto is a small town in the province of Benevento, on the slopes of Monte Taburno, at about 300 metres above sea level. Its fertile hills, formed from volcanic sediments and crossed by streams, have kept an environmentally careful kind of farming and, with it, old craft skills such as making the red sausage.

Slow Food dates this cured meat to the early Middle Ages. The Campania Region's sheet mentions a Lombard imprint: local people say that in the ancient Castrum Potonis pig rearing was already the job of the «duke's swineherd». The tradition has survived to this day, and many families in the town still raise their own pig and make the sausage following carefully guarded recipes.

The red sausage, also called capuzziello, is listed among the traditional products of Campania and is a Slow Food Presidium.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto (prodotto tradizionale) · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

The secret of the colour is papauli powder, made from small sweet or hot peppers. They are threaded with needle and string into garlands and hung to dry in the air, in the shade; then they are toasted in a wood-fired oven, burning olive and oak, and ground by hand into a very fine powder.

The mix uses prime cuts of pork, ham, shoulder and neck, trimmed, coarsely minced and sometimes combined with belly. It is seasoned with sea salt, pepper powder, wild fennel, black pepper and garlic water, made by steeping crushed garlic cloves in water for 3-12 hours: it flavours the mix and helps preserve it. No preservatives, antioxidants or other additives are used.

The sausage is stuffed into natural casings and tied by hand. It dries and cures in the air in rooms with a lit fireplace burning oak and olive wood, the strings of sausages kept apart by small pieces of cane, the cannilli. It is ready after 30-40 days; it is made from October to April.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto (prodotto tradizionale)

How to recognise it

The capuzziello is a cylindrical sausage 10-15 centimetres long, at least 2 across and weighing about 80 grams. Its colour is a dark, brick-like red, its intense aroma keeps the scent of the papauli peppers and its taste is sweet or hot depending on the powder used. When cut it is soft but not springy.

It is usually sold in chains of 8-10 pieces, as it is, vacuum-packed or in jars under extra virgin olive oil or lard.

There is also a rarer variant, the capoziro, named after the zira, the earthenware jar in which sausages were once kept. It is stuffed into the «gentile», the last part of the intestine, a thick, fatty casing; it is about 20 centimetres long, weighs up to 300 grams and cures for up to 50 days. Production is very limited.

Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto (prodotto tradizionale) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto

In the kitchen

Castelpoto red sausage is eaten above all as it is, sliced, as a starter or with an aperitif, when the scent of the toasted peppers comes through best.

It is also a versatile ingredient in home cooking: it goes into savoury pies and filled breads, is used as a pizza topping and flavours sauces for handmade pasta, such as fusilli. Its red colour and the note of wild fennel make it recognisable even when cooked.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto

Where to taste it

The production area is Castelpoto and the nearby villages, in the Sannio around Benevento, below the Taburno. Here the red sausage is well known and is part of butchers' everyday range, both in small villages and in the area's towns.

The right time to look for it runs from autumn to spring, when it is made, between October and April; the capoziro, made in small amounts, is harder to find in shops and is best asked for in the town itself. A visit to Castelpoto combines well with a tour of the Taburno hills and the city of Benevento.

Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto (prodotto tradizionale) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Salsiccia rossa di Castelpoto

Protection

When

Where

Campania