Typical Lucanian cured meats

Lucania, the ancient name of Basilicata, is the place where the production of sausage originated, called Lucanica, which subsequently also became a traditional product of other northern Italian regions with the name of luganega or traditionally called loukanika in Greece due to of the deportations of Lucanian people to Hellenistic territories during the 4th century BC.

A precise historical reference comes from the works of Cicero and Marco Terenzio Varro who describe Lucanica as minced meat, stuffed into a casing, so called because the Roman soldiers had learned its preparation from the Lucanians.
Later was Marcus Gavius Apicius, who lived between 25 BC. and 37 AD, who wrote the recipe for this sausage in the second book of De re coquinaria and since then it became renowned with the name of lucanica or luganega.

This ancient tradition of preparing cured meats has remained alive in Basilicata, especially in the area of the Materana Mountains where Don Francesco is located, an area dedicated to breeding and sheep farming which today preserves a great cultural and gastronomic heritage.

The family production of cured meats and the processing of pork is still today one of the distinctive characteristics of the local community, handed down from generation to generation, whose products have unmistakable flavors and aromas that have become rare and highly sought after on the market.

The exceptional quality of the cured meats derives from the passion and care with which the entire process is conducted starting from the pig breeding up to the meticulous processing, but above all it derives from the environmental richness of the territory whose climate and mountain microclimate allow to obtain the absolute excellence of the products.