Partinicese pasqualora sausage, Partinicese pasqualora Sasizza
Product included in the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT)
PAT type: Fresh meat (and offal) and their preparation
Technical data sheet of the traditional agri-food product (PAT)
Area of production: Municipality of Partinico (PA).
Brief description of the product: Pork (60%) and sheep (40%) minced sausage, pepper, sea salt, wild fennel seeds, catarratto white wine, possibly aged, the mixture is stuffed into pig gut; the sausage is divided into portions (caddozzi) with string.
Description of the processing and maturing methods: The meat can be finely minced with a knife point or minced with an electric or mechanical meat grinder, then mixed by hand with sea salt, black pepper, wild fennel seeds, a few sprinkles of white catarratto wine and a few grams of red chilli. The mixture is stuffed into pork guts, forming sausage strings up to two meters long which are divided into portions (caddozzi) with string.
It can be eaten fresh by cooking it on the grill or placing it in the middle of hot ash, wrapping it first in aluminum foil or waxed paper. It can also be eaten dried after 15 - 20 days of curing.
Specific materials and equipment used for preparation and conditioning: Electric or mechanical meat cutting knife or mincer with plate> 8 holes, pork guts with diameter> 32 mm and string.
Description of the processing, storage and maturing rooms: The processing takes place in butchers and maturing in cool and ventilated places such as rear butcher shops, cellars and basements of private homes.
Elements that prove that the methodologies have been practiced in a homogeneous and second way
traditional rules for a period of not less than 25 years: As Virgil recounts in Georgiche, sausage was the only way to preserve meat up to two months after slaughter.
The Partinicese pasqualora sausage is the attestation of a gastronomic tradition of Partinico linked to archaic forms of bargaining that took place between the two components of the agricultural and pastoral world: the Burgisi allowed the shepherd to graze his sheep on their land and received in exchange some lambs, which were raised until the following Easter, when they were slaughtered.
Since Easter consumption was not sufficient to dispose of the quantity of meat obtained from slaughtering, it was necessary to keep it to consume it later by transforming it into sausage or salamelle, but the sheep fat would have given the sausage an unpleasant taste and smell.
The Burgisi thus traded with the butcher part of the lamb meat for pork, which, mixed with lean lamb meat, allowed them to obtain a sausage that could last a few weeks beyond the Easter period.
This tradition has remained well etched in the memory of many over eighty-year-olds who have handed it down to this day.
Source Pat Cards: Sicily Region
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
Photo: web
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