Zampone, the Traditional Holiday Food of Modena

Zampone is as much a part of Modena’s culture as balsamic vinegar and Ferraris, and is the featured meat at Christmas dinners in the region.

Enduring symbols of Modena: Zampone, The Ghirlandina, and Lambrusco (Wikimedia Commons)

There is a standard by which I judge Italian cookbooks. If they include zampone, do they ridicule it or do they treat it as a valued part of Modena’s cultural heritage?If the author makes fun of zampone, I know that the book is probably worthless and I put it back on the shelf. If they write about it as a serious cultural tradition, I’ll read further and probably buy the book.

Zampone is as much a part of Modena’s culture as balsamic vinegar and Ferraris, and is the featured meat at Christmas dinners in the region.

Cotechino with polenta and lentils, a traditional Modenese meal (Wikimedia Commons)

What is Zampone?

For many people outside Italy, zampone can be off-putting. The meat used for zampone is coarsely chopped, seasoned, and then stuffed into a casing made from the skin from a foreleg of a pig. This unusual casing includes the trotter or the toes of the pig. The leg bones have been removed, but often the knuckle and toe bones are still inside.

This can look disconcerting to people who are not used to seeing the meat that they eat so closely associated with the animal it comes from. If someone has a hard time being served a fish with the head on, then zampone might not be for them.

But in the region around Modena, a butcher shop will proudly display several zamponi hanging above the counter, while supermarkets sell prepackaged ones in convenient sealed foil pouches.

When zampone is boiled, it releases thick layers of fat into the water. Once the fat is skimmed off, the zampone removed from the pot, and placed on a platter where it is often served on a bed of lentils, another Christmas tradition. The skin is cut open and the sausage inside is sliced and served while still hot.

The meat is very tender, somewhat oily, juicy, savoury and yet slightly sweet. It’s flavourful without being overly spicy. Red wine is often used as part of the mixture, giving the cooked meat a reddish tinge. The meat is not finely ground, in fact the chunks of various meat cuts are visible. In spite of that slices of the sausage hold their shape when cut and served. It does have a high fat content, so it’s not for someone concerned about dieting over the holidays.

Zamponi, ready to serve (Wikimedia Commons)

The History of Zampone

There are myths and legends about the origins of almost every Italian food. This includes the invention of tortellini when, as we are told in the epic poem, La Secchia Rapita, a cook glimpsed the goddess Venus asleep in her bed and was inspired by the sight of her navel to create the distinctive pasta.

Zampone was said to have originated when Modena or Mirandola (the stories differ) was besieged by Papal troops in the 1500’s. Rather than let the invading armies take their livestock, they butchered the pigs and made sausage from them using the forelegs as casings [1, 2]. Nothing is said about why they used the forelegs, or what they did with the cattle and poultry, or the better cuts of pork.

It is more likely that zampone had its origins with the peasant farm families in the region of Modena. Feudalism was the political situation for most of the history of the Italian Peninsula. Farmers did not own the land they worked. Instead the land was owned by the padrone, or landlord and the farmers were sharecroppers. Most of what they grew, including the butchered livestock were given to the padrone to be sold, and the farming families lived on the portions, or shares that they were allowed to keep.

Zampone was born from those hard times. The meat that makes up the sausage was essentially worthless. It is made from pork off cuts, the parts not normally used, including the scant meat from forelegs, cheeks, tongue, skin, backfat, and even the ears and snout. It was survival food in a time when peasants rarely had meals that included meat. Over time it became associated with Christmas dinner, a time of midwinter feasting and celebrating having survived another year.

Feudalism hung on in various parts of Italy until relatively recent times. By the 19th century the system changed to one more equitable for farmers, but the traditional food continued to be cherished. The hard times of its origin might now have been forgotten, but the ingredients of zampone make it apparent that it didn’t come from the tables of the elite.

Now, rather than meat being a rare thing at mealtimes, zampone represents a kind of humility, an acknowledgement of a humble past in an era of modern prosperity.

Zampone and Cotechino

Zampone is available during the holidays that stretch from Christmas through New Years on up until Befana, the twelfth night after Christmas.

But if you want to have something similar any time of the year, there is cotechino. A sausage made the same way, but in a thick tubular casing. Both have the same flavour and ingredients. It’s also cooked the same way by boiling the whole sausage in the casing and then served by slicing it while hot. It’s rare to find it in restaurants, since it is something normally cooked at home, but a few places that cook traditional foods will have it on the menu.

Today both zampone and cotechino have protected status in Italy. In order to be officially zampone or cotechino, it must be produced within specific geographic boundaries.

Because it is produced in such a specific region and is usually available only at holidays, it is rare to find zampone outside of northern Italy. I’ve searched for it when living in the US, only to find that one delicatessen had fake ones made of plaster hanging above the counter. When I asked about them, the man at the counter honestly didn’t know what they were, except that they were only for display.

If you are fortunate enough to be in Modena around the holidays take the opportunity to try a meal of zampone with lentils. It is the traditional holiday meal that is said to bring good luck and prosperity in the coming year.

References

[1] Taste of a Legend by Consortium and Producers Zampone and Cotechino IGP Modena https://www.modenaigp.it/en/la-storia/

[2] Zampone by Istituto Valorizzazione Salumi Italiani (IVSI)https://www.salumi-italiani.it/en/salumi/cooked-deli-meats-en/zampone/