Finocchiona

Finocchiona (Tuscan fennel salami) is a dry-cured pork salami flavoured with fennel seeds and/or flowers, a little pepper and garlic, a PGI since 2015. The pork is minced medium-fine, wine is added, and the mix is stuffed into casing and aged until the slice turns soft. It may be made only in mainland Tuscany, islands excluded.

The size range is striking: at stuffing a stick weighs anything from 0.5 kg to 25 kg. The specification proves the Tuscan origin of the name with dictionaries: Rigutini and Fanfani's «Vocabolario della lingua parlata» of 1875, the 1889 Crusca dictionary and a 1977 study by Professor Italo Ghinelli.

The pig is either a heavy one (Italian Large White, Landrace, Duroc or their hybrids) raised for at least 9 months, or the Tuscan Cinta Senese breed from the herd register, grazing woods and pasture. Feed is mainly cereals with dairy by-products: cereals at least 45 % of dry matter up to 80 kg and 55 % in fattening. The meat is fresh only, never frozen. Sharecropping (mezzadria) long kept both Cinta Senese and white breeds in Tuscany, and wild fennel grows here on its own.

The cuts are trimmed, minced, kneaded with salt, fennel, pepper, garlic, dextrose and, if the maker wishes, red wine, stuffed into casing, dried and aged, all in Tuscany. The EU single document names no minimum ageing time.

The fennel aroma is pronounced, the garlic light. Slices are soft and sometimes crumble; red lean and white-pink fat sit in medium pieces with blurred edges, and fennel seeds or flowers are visible. The taste is fresh, never acid. A feathery mould covers the casing; the page Noble mould on dry sausages explains it.

If your salami usually comes with pepper and garlic only, Finocchiona is the fennel one, and that sets it apart from Salame Felino and Salame Cremona, whose specifications list no fennel. Only here is Cinta Senese meat allowed, and the slice is softer and crumbly. Ciauscolo from Marche is soft too, but goes without fennel: salt, pepper, wine and garlic.

On the pack at an Italian deli or in the cured-meat aisle, the name «Finocchiona» is printed in separate letters at least 3 mm high, larger than any other label text, followed by «Indicazione Geografica Protetta», in English Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), or IGP; the EU logo is mandatory. Slicing and packing happen only in Tuscany, because once the casing is off the cut surface oxidises, dries and loses colour. Per the specification it has at least 20 % protein, up to 35 % fat, up to 6 % salt and water activity no higher than 0.92.

Why this matters to you: if a pack says «fennel flavour» but lists no fennel seeds or flowers, it is not PGI Finocchiona, whose aroma comes from fennel in the mix itself. This is a Salami where salt, fermentation and fennel do all the work.