Grecanico Azze Anca Capicollo

Talking about capicollo grecanico, and more precisely capicoddho azze anca, means starting a journey back in time. A journey that takes you to that part of the province of Reggio Calabria known as Bovesìa, or the Grecanica area, between the lower Ionian coast of Reggio Calabria and Aspromonte. This is where the cultural roots of the Greeks of Calabria, the Hellenic-speaking linguistic minority that still makes up an important part of the population, lie. In some inland villages – Bova, Gallicianò and Roghudi – some elderly people still speak a dialect, Greek of Calabria, similar to that which local farmers and shepherds acquired from the ancient Greeks. The production of capicollo di coscia, called capicoddho azze anca in dialect, was and is of primary importance in the pork butchery of this extreme southern part of the region, where capicollo is normally produced by processing the upper part of the loin. The processing of capicollo grecanico, on the other hand, takes place starting from the boned leg, appropriately cut and divided. The capicollo is covered with sea salt and left to rest for three or four days in a cool place, during which it is regularly massaged. Afterwards, the capicollo is cleaned of salt and wrapped in thin veils of fat, which allows the sausage to maintain its rosy colour and special tenderness. It is sprinkled with red chilli pepper flakes (to pipeddhi), wild fennel seeds (to màtharo) and half-grain black pepper. At this point, the sausage is ready to be stuffed into a natural bladder, also made of pork, wrapped in a tight-meshed net and tied up.The delicate and important phase of curing lasts for at least 180 days and is carried out according to the old-fashioned procedure, in the traditional catoi, the basements of rural areas. Here, the so-called cetti, the small windows in the doors and larger windows, allowed the tramontana or maestrale winds to favour drying. Capicollo azze anca, once the maturing phase is over, has a pinkish colour and intense aromas, while the flavour is mitigated by the sweetness of the meat and the aromatic notes of fennel and chilli pepper that do not prevail but accompany its particular persuasiveness.

Season

Production from November through March