Salsicce sotto strutto is literally sausage under lard (using a "secondary" word for lard, in Italian "lard" is "lardo") and it is truly sausage under lard. Sold in large clear glass jars, the jar appears to be all white with only an occasional spot of something pink pressed against the glass. The jar states the indredients as: carne suina, sale, pepe, aromi naturali, strutto and olio di semi di girasole or pork, salt, pepper, natural flavorings, lard and sunflower oil. It comes with the advice to store it in a place cool and dry. Inside the jar are 3 to 4 inch long sausages surrounded in the lard. Note: Sometimes the sausages are smaller or larger but these medium sausages represent the most common.
This is raw pork sausage cured by air drying it. Once fully cured, it is placed in containers, today usually large glass jars but it is also possible to use ceramic pots, and hot lard is poured over it. It is usually eaten raw by peeling the sausage, mixing the meat with some fresh seasoning and spreading it on bruschetta. Of course, first you have to extract the sausage from the jar, scrape off the lard and then wipe off the lard. A lot of work to eat pork sausage but it tastes great.
Since salsicce sotto strutto is not usually made commercially it has to be gotten from a farmer you know or purchased from a local AgriService or a specialized deli. An AgriService is a farmers cooperative store that only sells produce and meat from the local area. They exist in most part of Italy, frequently receive some government support from the regional government and help preserve foods and types of food preservation and preparation that might otherwise be lost. The foods sold in them are fresh, organic and very high quality. Some AgriService, and ours is one of them, have a restaurant that serves only locally grown food and specialize in traditional foods and traditional preparation.
Our friends, who I mentioned with regard to making prosciutto, used to make salsicce sotto strutto but have stopped because it was too much trouble. I should mention that they have a whole second "kitchen" in the barn that is used for processing meat such as this. Our friends still make the same sausage but now they either air cure it or cook it and eat it fresh. We had a meal of grilled fresh home made pork sausage at their house a few weeks ago and it was very good.
We went to some friends' house Saturday to celebrate the purchase of a new car (people celebrate new car purchases with a meal with friends and sometimes take the car to a local shrine to be blessed). We took with us two jars of salsicce sotto strutto we had purchased at the local AgriService. This was not a surprise, this celebration had been planned at pension celebration (people celebrate when they receive their first pension check) and everyone volunteered to bring some specific food. In addition to salsicce sotto strutto, we had home made ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese, first with a butter and sage sauce and a second serving with a seasoned cane sugar sauce and then, served salsicce spread on bread and also a plate of speck, a northern Italian cured ham product. The ravioli with cane sugar sauce was interesting as it is traditionally served only near Carnevale, which is Tuesday. Maybe because you only get it once a year, the ricotta stuffed ravioli with this sweet clear light syrup sauce is very enjoyable.
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