Colonnata – Marble Quarry and Lardo

24th MAY 2019

Since May this year was a rather damp month, before hot summer weather burst into life, friends Karen and Eddie, Jim and Sheri, Steve and Marianne, myself included, arranged some trips outside our beloved Lucca.

At the suggestion of Jim, we decided to drive up to the small, ancient village of Colonnata in the Massa-Carrara area of Tuscany near Lucca with its views over the famous marble quarries. As magnificent and spectacular as the landscape is in this region, Jim’s ulterior motive was to sample some pork fat (lard) known simply as lardo.

Lardo is a special type of salami that contains very little meat but is produced solely from thick back fat from large pigs. Whilst the meat is used for traditional types of salami, most often by dry-curing methods, lardo is produced slightly differently.

Since Roman times, marble has been quarried in this region and made even more famous by the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo and the marble basins called conche are a vital part of the curing process. Our young guide informed us that the lardo is produced by immersing the pork fat in a conche in layers with sea salt, ground black pepper, fresh sprigs of rosemary, cloves of garlic and other herbs and spices. Time is another ingredient, as is the cool temperature here at over 500 metres in the Apuan Alps. The tubs are closed with a marble lid and left untouched for between 6 to 10 months. Once ready, the lardo is left to dry and served by slicing it wafer thin, which are served and best eaten on warm toasted bread. It melts, even between your fingers as the flavour hits your taste buds.

Once the staple diet of hard-working quarrymen, lardo is now a valuable part of the refined Tuscan diet, having IGP status. Whilst temporarily putting aside our collective worries concerning high blood pressure and high cholesterol, we sat down in the quaint little square and ate well, washed down with some inexpensive red wine.  

Naturally, I can highly recommend the experience at Colonnata but to taste lardo can be had in many quality shops and restaurants in Lucca and elsewhere.