ciccioli — Italy

Ciccioli are dense, pressed cakes made from cooked and salted off-cuts of fatty pork. Once cooled and compacted, they can be sliced thinly and eaten as a cold cut, or dried further into small, crunchy chips known locally as ciccioli frolli. The same preparation appears under other names depending on the region: cicoli around Naples and Apulia, sfrizzoli in Lazio and Umbria, risimugli in Calabria. This particular preparation is associated with Emilia-Romagna, where it is found in Modena, Reggio Emilia, Bologna, Parma, Piacenza, and across Romagna. It is typically sold in delicatessens and butcher shops, alongside other cured pork products, and is treated as an everyday charcuterie item rather than a festive dish. The pork trimmings and back fat are simmered slowly in their own rendered fat until tender, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and warm spices such as clove and nutmeg. The cooked meat is packed hot into cloth-lined molds and pressed under weight for an extended period, which expels the remaining liquid and compacts the pieces into a firm, sliceable block. What sets this version apart is the pressing step itself, carried out over days rather than hours, and the choice of a wet, sliceable texture over the drier, crumbly style found further south. The dish is also linked to lard production, since the pressed meat is often what remains once the fat has been rendered off for strutto, giving it a practical, nothing-wasted character.