Chianti Food Specialities: The Cured Meats
"Finocchiona" is the most typical and particular salami you can taste in Chianti: it is a soft pork sausage spiced with garlic, salt and fennel seeds - hence the name ("finocchio" is the Italian word for fennel). "Sbriciolona" is similar to finocchiona: it is just larger in diameter and softer. If during your holidays you try to slice it... you will find it difficult because it will crumble.
If you want to taste all of the wide range of Chianti cured meats, we suggest you to dine at one of the Chianti restaurants that serve traditional Tuscan dishes and ask for some coppa or capocollo (a seasoned prime cut of pork neck and shoulder), some typical finocchiata di Montefioralle (a soft and tasty cut of pork belly spiced with fennel seeds), some gerbolo (a lean and exquisite pork cut, ideal for preparing carpaccio), some either sweet or salt prosciutto di Greve in Chianti seasoned from 12 to 18 months, some bacon and some lardo della Val di Greve, made with the most tender lard.
The range of Chianti cured meats continues with cinta senese sausages and cured meats. Cinta senese is a local excellent free-range breed, whose tasty meat is used for the production of the above-mentioned cured meats as well as of the famous "porchetta", a roast pig boned and stuffed with its own offal and some aromatic herbs.
We also suggest you to try some salame nobile di Greve, some salame al Chianti and, above all, the particular wild-boar cured meats and salami: real spicy delicacies!
Last but not least... you can also try some less-renowned "poor" products: soprassata (made up of the head of the pig) and buristo (a black meat-and-blood sausage). As we said at the beginning, you are really spoilt for choice!
As a "budget" alternative to restaurant, you could invite your relatives and friends and taste these specialities in the large kitchen of one of the many Chianti farmhouses.
If you have rented a holiday farmhouse, just buy some cured meats in one of the many pork butchers` in the area and wash them down with some Chianti wine. Enjoy your meal!
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Villa for holidays on the hills of the Florentine countryside. Accommodation for 12+2 people, garden, private swimming pool, hydro massage, Internet connection.
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Villa for rent in the countryside of Chianti, near Florence. Accommodation for 8/12 people, private swimming pool, outdoor whirlpool bath for 7, Internet connection, children's playground, air conditioning. Golf club, riding stable and tennis club within a few kilometres. Possibility of organising dinners and cooking lessons.
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Villa for vacation rental in Radda in Chianti, between Florence and Siena, in the Tuscan countryside. Accommodation for 10 people, garden, swimming pool, panoramic view, Internet connection.
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Villa with swimming pool for rent near Siena for holidays in Tuscany. Villa with accommodation for 4/6 people, panoramic view on Siena.
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