Maratea's sausage
MARATEA. "the twinkling"
Talking about Maratea's gastronomy means first of all not to forget about the sausage goddess.
The Roman writer Varro describes lucanica as minced meat stuffed into a casing, explaining that it took its name from the Lucanians, from whom Roman soldiers learned to make it.
The same Apicius, in his important "De re coquinaria" describes the recipe; So since Roman times "lucanica or lucanega" is synonymous with sausage
'u porcu [THE PORK]
In Maratea, the slaughter of the pig is and still is an occasion for celebration, which in ancient times lasted even three days or more, with friends and relatives invited to experience this important moment of sociality and well-being.
They say that nothing from a pig is wasted, but sausages remain the main products of the slaughterhouse.
The sausages produced in Maratea (almost always only for family use) are of very high quality and can be consumed fresh or cured (known as "aged") or preserved in oil or fat.
Soppressates, made from finely chopped pork meat that is dried and then preserved in extra virgin olive oil, represent other wonderful relics of pig butchery.
The Lucanian sausages
To know the origin of the name Lucanica it is useful to have learned Latin (no need to fear : there is the translation right away) and to read Varro, The Latin Language, V, 111 :
Which thick intestine they call Lucanian, which the soldiers learned from the Lucanians.
[Text taken from the edition curated by R.G. Kent, Varro. On the Latin Language, I, Books V.-VII, Cambridge (Mass.) - London 1938]]
A type of sausage made with the large intestine of a pig is called luganica, because our soldiers learned how to make it from the Lucani.
[ Translation by A. Traglia in A. Traglia (ed.), Works of Marcus Terentius Varro, Torino 1974 ]
Which means that Lucania is the homeland of the sausage - which is made from salt and fat, the meat, used to make it.
Other Latin writers speak of Lucanian slaves who brought the novelty to Rome... probably the truth is that lucanica is the pig or mutton tripe lucanica used to stuff chopped pork meat.
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