(photo: Columbus Artisan hot sopressata sliced by hand)
Peperoncini and Salumi
Peperoncini and Salumi
If there’s one food item that the southern province of Calabria is famous for it would be peperoncini (or red chili peppers). Peperoncini are used in pasta dishes (Penne all’Arrabbiata, for example), cured meats and vegetables (including the trendy salumi spread, ‘Nduja), soups, and an eggplant stew dish called ciambotta.
Almost every Calabrian family grows their own chili peppers and many summer festivals honoring and praising the mighty capsicum peppers can be found throughout southern Italy during the summer months, including the most famous festival in the town of Diamante. Most Calabrian homes have dry red chilis hanging from their doors or windows which is known as the practice of diavolicchio (a tradition which once was thought to ward off disease). Some famous Calabrian hot chilis include: Italian Cayenne pepper or naso di cane, ciliegia (cherry), amando (loving), and sigarette (cigarette).
Our family uses red chili peppers fresh (for example, sliced thin in a tomato salad with red onions and basil) and dry in pasta with tomato sauce. When my grandfather was making his world class salumi he also used dry red pepper flakes in his sopressata and capicola recipes.
Recently, I made a wonderful, and simple, panino with Columbus hot sopressata (containing plenty of red chilis), ripe tomatoes, and good quality gorgonzola (blue cheese). I made the sandwich on sliced whole wheat bread and melted the blue cheese in our toaster oven.
The hot sopressata is part of Columbus’ Artisan line which is hand-stuffed and tied and uses natural casings. Columbus uses 100% hand-trimmed pork from hogs that are raised to strict standards – fed 100% vegetarian diets and never ever given antibiotics or growth hormones.
Columbus Salame Giveaway
(photo: Columbus Artisan hot sopressata sliced by hand)
(photo: Columbus Artisan hot sopressata, uncured salame, salame Toscano, and herbed salame)
We’re happy to partner with Columbus and offer a single Scordo.com user the chance to win a salame tasting kit. Here are the details:
- Prize Giveaway includes a sampling of Columbus salame, including: 1 piece of Salame Toscano, 1 piece of herb salame, and 1 piece uncured all Natural salame (we’re working on including some of the tasty hot sopressata but as of 5/24 sopressata is not included) , and a tasting guide.
- What you need to do to enter: 1. become a fan of Scordo.com on Facebook, 2. sign up for our newsletter and/or 3. leave a comment on your favorite salumi. You just need to complete one item so we have a record.
- Only one entry per person please.
- The contest is open until 12 midnight on 5/30 and a single random user will be picked (sorry contest only open to folks from the US given shipping logistics). The winner will be announced immediately on Twitter (so please follow me) and on Scordo.com on Wed, 5PM EST, 6/1.
- Please use a valid email address when leaving a comment so I can contact you just in case you’re the lucky winner. If you’re a new Scordo fan on Facebook please leave a comment on our wall saying you’ve entered and listing your favorite way to eat salumi (this way it’s documented that you became a fan).
- Columbus will send out the salami package w/o 6/6.
