Hi there, nice to see you! Welcome to the latest La Panza Piena endeavour, the Italy Deep Dive, created as a way of going beyond Instagram and delving deep into subjects which are close to my - and I hope yours too - heart: food, eating, drinking (well) and traveling.
Hop onto the journey for a bi-monthly newsletter that dives into the history and food culture of a place through a traditional product, as well as a recipe, curated tips on where to eat and shop and the story of a wine or spirit from the area. The Italy Deep Dive is only possible with the support of its readers. If you like what you read, feel free to share it with a friend (or two), and if you want to support me, you can subscribe for €5 / month or €50 / year. This guarantees that I can continue to indulge your curiosity and hunger, as well as sharing stories on the gate-keepers of our gastronomic heritage. The membership includes access to the savvy and extremely useful Telegram La Panza Piena group chat where you’ll be sure to never again have a bad meal whilst traveling. Find the link at the bottom of the newsletter!
Let’s Dive
If you’re going to undertake a preposterous adventure, you might as well be doing it around something that you love. Launching this series of deep-dives into Italian culture and gastronomy is my version of a preposterous exploit, so I thought I would begin the journey with one of my favorite products - and places - in the country: Salsiccia di Bra.
I’ll let you guess what sort of mocking I was victim to when I announced to my British university classmates that I would soon be moving to a town called Bra, which I was quick to point out that lingerie isn’t what the town is known for.
Like most of Italy, Piemonte also has a rich culture and tradition surrounding salsiccia production, as it has always been an excellent way of transforming, storing and aging fresh meat.
Yet Bra’s famous sausage is different from the rest, very different. First and foremost, it is perhaps the only sausage which can be safely eaten raw - although many Italians love eating raw pork sausage - as it is traditionally made entirely of beef.
Why the need for a beef sausage, when the products themselves have been created as a solution for storing pork meat, you might inquire? I’m here to solve this fascinating riddle.
A stone’s throw from Bra, you can find perching on a hill top Cherasco, a beautiful 11th Century town with an important and historic Jewish community. During the Middle Ages, Bra was a lively marketplace and Cherasco’s inhabitants would source their food from the local butchers and ortolani, fruit and veg vendors. The members of the Jewish community couldn’t eat the traditional pork sausages, so the butchers began making special beef sausages especially for them. Soon after, the Kingdom of Italy passed a law that protected the production of Bra’s salsiccia and prevented it from being produced anywhere else in the country.
The extreme high quality Piedmontese beef, together with the large number of clientele, allowed for the traditional practice of making salsiccia di Bra to be passed down through generations that reach us today. Recipes vary slightly from butcher to butcher, yet the staple ingredients of the salsiccia are premium beef, salt, pepper and natural spices such as nutmeg. You may find variations with Parmigiano - an excellent addition I might add - and pork pancetta.