This is a preview of the content in our Italian Food Decoder app. Get the app to:
  • Read offline
  • Remove ads
  • Access all content
  • Build a list of your own favourites
  • Search the contents with full-text search functionality
  • ... and more!
iOS App Store Google Play

cervellata

one name, many sausages

In Calabria, a hard sausage made with black pepper and fennel, but no tomato.

In Puglia, a fresh pork, veal and mutton sausage with cheese and basil

In Lombardy, a fresh sausage, sometimes spelled cervelata flavoured with saffron and other spices; accompanies a risotto alla Milanese.

In Campania, dainty small pork sausages spiced with black pepper.

All, presumably, were made with brains (cervelli) once long ago, but no longer are. Little ones are cervellatine.

There's a Sagra della Salsiccia in honour of the Puglian cervellata, in late September in Toritto, near Bari.

Calabria

Cured Meats and Sausages

Food Festivals

Lombardy

Puglia

Text © Dana Facaros & Michael Pauls

Image by cooking with nonna