How to incorporate cured meats into dishes

Salami. Pepperoni. Prosciutto. What do they have in common, other than ending in vowels? They are all cured meats of Italy. Cured meat is meat that has been soaked in a brine and dried in order to preserve it. Before refrigeration, this was the only way to ensure that meat stayed edible for any period of time. But, as time went on, people learned to add herbs and spices to the brine mix and give the meat a special flavor all it's own. Now we look to cured meats not for their preservative qualities, but rather for their taste alone.

Everybody is used to seeing Italian meats as cold cuts in sandwiches or as pizza toppings. Some of us might use a cured sausage in place of beef in our spaghetti sauces. Less known are the other uses one can make of Italian cured meats. Involtini di Asparagi e Pancetta is a dish of asparagus spears individually wrapped in pancetta, which is a dried, spiced pork belly; it's used much the way bacon is.

Radicchio alla Griglia con Vinaigrette Tiepida e Pancetta takes radicchio, which is quite bitter raw, blanches it to improve its texture and flavor, grills it, then covers it in olive oil and crumbled pancetta.

Finally, even the humble submarine sandwich can be made something special when using the more exotic Italian cured meats such as Mortadella, which is made with ground pork and whole peppercorns and is related to, of all things, bologna.

In conclusion, if you are making a salami sandwich, or using ground spiced sausage in a sauce, or covering a duck breast in olive oil and pancetta, the cured meats of Italy have found a special place on the American table.