Linguaglossa: slow food presidium presentation of strain sausage
On March 20 at 3:30 p.m. at the Linguaglossa Municipal Hall, the gastronomic product that is making this town famous in Italy and around the world will be celebrated: the Ceppo sausage.
It is pork (leg, bacon, cheek, lard and capocollo) processed on a large oak log with salt, pepper and wild fennel seeds, harvested on Mount Etna, now Sicily’s 51st Slow Food Presidium.
But why is it called to the strain? The name comes from its processing. The sausage is “chopped” by the partituri (a local hatchet-like knife) on an oak log, typical of this area of Etna.
Slow Food accompanies one to consciously choose the good, clean and fair that tastes of love, tradition and history, and this is a milestone achieved by the collaboration between the municipal authority and local producers, custodians of this precious craftsmanship, to enhance the quality and identity of this product.
The ceremony will be an opportunity to recount the journey so far, but also to recognize the merit of those who over the years have been able to protect this processing by putting it at the center of their activities.
Presiding over the event were the mayor of Linguaglossa, Salvatore Puglisi, the Slow Food community and the Catania Convivium with the participation of Sicilian Regional President Nello Musumeci.
“For us it is a great pride to officially present the presidium and to be able to do so in the presence of the President of the Sicilian Region, Nello Musumeci. I would like to emphasize – states. Salvatore Puglisi, mayor of Linguaglossa-that this is one of the few projects that has been fully funded by a public body, the municipality of Linguaglossa, which has taken an interest in making the tradition of master butchers become something “eternal and international” with Slow Food. Not surprisingly, the presentation will take place in the city hall precisely to signify the strength of the project. Sausage is part of the history of our community, affecting culture, economy, whole families. People fell in love first with the product and then with the village, and now, finally, we are reaping the fruits of this labor and we are confident that we have entrusted it into the best hands, those of Slow Food, which with a specification will know how to protect it in the best way.”
“This recognition is the merit of an entire area that has always worked to ensure that the ancient tradition of Strain Sausage was recognized as a presidium,” he says. Riccardo Randello, referent of the presidia for the Slow Food Catania convivium – had long ago been included in the Ark of Taste (register dedicated to endangered typicalities) and today, thanks to the efforts of the three producers: Luciano Pennisi, Anhony Russo e Gianluca Arcidiacono, we have begun a journey that we are sure will become even more ambitious over time.”
“When a new presidium is born, it is a victory for everyone,” echoes Anastasia De Luca, trustee of the Slow Food Catania convivium, “not only for the producers, but for the entire supply chain that gravitates around it. Stump sausage, so called because of its special processing, still inextricably linked to traditional methods, is the fruit of a community that mobilizes in the name of good, clean and fair, attentive to animal welfare, working with non-intensive livestock farms, and to the symbolic traditions of our territory. As if to say without history there would be no future, and we are happy to be able to contribute to writing a chapter in the history of our area.”