Mortadella

Eastside Road, January 4, 2014—

I'VE SEEN MORTADELLAS big as pigs, and I mean big pigs — but they were in Italy. Here, mortadella is somewhat more modest, say ten inches in diameter, a foot or two long. Made bland in the America of my youth, it was called " baloney," from Bologna, its Italian birthplace (or at any rate the city that perfected it). Who doesn't recall baloney sandwiches, lunch meat on sliced white bread, with bottled " mayonnaise" and Iceberg lettuce?

Tonight, though, it was Fra Mani prosciutto, silky and rather subtle, on buttered soft rolls with butter lettuce: very comforting after a long drive. 

Barbara d'Asti, Rocca del Olmo, 2010: perfect with this meal