Pweapon, June 16. (askanews) – There is a land, along the banks of the Po, where fog is not a nuisance but an ingredient. We are in the Lower Parma area, Guareschi’s Mondo Piccolo, the homeland of Giuseppe Verdi. It is here that a cured meat is born that calls itself, without false modesty, the king: the Culatello di Zibello. It all starts with the hands of a pork butcher, with the salt massaged into the meat, with the tightly knotted string. Ancient gestures, never changed. Marco Pizzigoni, vice-president of the Culatello di Zibello Consortium, tells it.
“Culatello was born out of a need. Here there was the problem of humidity and temperature: very hot and humid in summer, cold and foggy in winter. The ham was unable to ripen. So, in 1400, what did they think of doing? Remove the rind, detach the muscle bands: the culatello is obtained from the buttock, the fiocchi from the front muscle. Then they used what they had, that is, the pig’s bladder, which protects this piece of And this particular binding allowed, once dried and taken to the cellar, to mature without drying out too much”.
A product that remains artisanal and rare: just twenty producers, just over eighty thousand culatelli classified as protected designation in 2025, for a consumer value of 24 million euros. A king who rests in places that seem straight out of a novel. Like the cellar of the Antica Corte Pallavicina. Chef Massimo Spigaroli acts as guide. “We are in the most historic cellar, created in 1320 by the Pallavicino marquises precisely for this royal product – he explains -. The mold comes out of the walls, the large window overlooking the river lets in the humid air and the fog. And you can smell an unimaginable scent: it is a unique product in the world. They come in here when they are seven months old and can reach thirty, thirty-five, forty months”.
For centuries it has remained a secret kept among these countryside. Today a quarter of production crosses borders: France, Germany and Switzerland in the lead, up to North America. A rarity also sought after across the Channel, so much so that King Charles of England has his own reserved corner in this cellar. “It’s a product created for our territory – recalls Spigaroli -. We kept it hidden, looked after it. Now it’s starting to come out, some sales in Europe, something abroad. But our incentive is to get people to come here: touch it with their hands, smell it, caress it”.
And then the journey becomes a pilgrimage. From the Verdi Theater to the Maestro’s birthplace, up to the historic Sallasciaria of 1873, where between scores and portraits you can breathe melodrama and delicatessen together. Up to the table of Podere Cadassa, where a family has welcomed travelers since 1780. Because here culatello is not just told. It is served. A thin slice, with your hands. “All cured meats must be taken with your hands – explains Pizzigoni -. A slice of culatello, a good white bread, at most a little butter and a good glass of wine. And the snack and dinner are already done”.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED