Crazy for ham - Northern Italy

As delicious as it is discouraged by nutritionists, Parma ham owes taste to a large degree to parmesan cheese. Fed from birth with the whey that comes from the production of the cheese, the pigs benefit from a totally natural diet giving their flesh and fat a quality which allows it to be dried easily with just a simple blow of air. Prosciutto, it should be known, is as old as parmesan. Cato the Elder tells how the inhabitants of the region, then Gaulois, celebrated the arrival of Hannibal and the defeat of the Romans with a huge supply of salted pig thighs. There is a Consortium which surveys the reputation of Parma ham, a reputation consecrated in 1970 by a DOC (Denominazione di origine controllata) and then by a DOP (Denominazione di origine protetta) in 1996. Both the DOC and the DOP are the equivalent to the EU's PDO (Protected designation of origin) which is modeled on the French AOC (Appellation d'origine controlee). Each Parma ham that leaves the region-around 10 million per year-must be stamped with five-point ducal crown. The most sought after part of the ham is the ?culatello', the rump, which is only produced in eight communes to the north or Parma, all grouped around the village of Zibello. Here, the pigs are still fed on whey mixed with barley, corn and bran. Fabrication is undertaken between the end of October and February when the cold climate guarantees the conservation of the meat. The thighs are then salted regularly and put to mature for between 12 and 24 months. Excellent as a starter served with fruit (figs, melons), Parma ham should be eaten in slices as thin as possible.

  Pasta in good shape

A tradition of colour