Pork

When it comes to pork, or maiale, it is said that the Italians eat everything but the oink. The loin, chops, shoulder, and ribs are roasted and braised. Sometimes the legs are cured for making various hams, such as prosciutto and culatello; the belly is used for pancetta; and the cheeks become guanciale (another type of bacon). Other parts, including the head, are transformed into insaccati (sausages and salamis). Even the fat comes in two forms: strutto and lardo. Strutto, sometimes called sugna, is rendered pork fat, or lard, and is used in cooking and baking. Lardo is the creamy pork fat directly under the skin, cured with herbs, and served in thin slices on bread, or chopped and used in a battuto or soffritto or for larding meats and fish. The blood is used in sausage, and even the skin, called cotenna or cotica, is used to flavor stews and soups.