Tuscany (Toscana)
Tuscany's protected cured meats — Prosciutto Toscano PDO/DOP, Finocchiona PGI/IGP and Lardo di Colonnata PGI/IGP — plus the wild-boar (cinghiale) specialties of the Chianti hills.
Tuscan cured-meat culture is distinguished by fennel-seed flavoring (finocchiona, the regional fermented salami widely considered the best in Italy), saltier prosciutto than Parma's (Prosciutto Toscano DOP is meaningfully more saline), and the wild-boar (cinghiale) specialties of the Chianti countryside. The fennel tradition has practical origins: historically, fennel was cheaper than black pepper for spicing pork. The 'finocchiare' (to spice with fennel) verb in Italian dates from this tradition.
Chianti hills also produce cured wild-boar products — salame di cinghiale, cinghiale prosciutto, and the various spalla and lonza cuts — that are essentially extinct from large-scale Italian charcuterie but persist in small-village butchers like Falorni in Greve.
Typical products
- Finocchiona IGP (PGI)
- Prosciutto Toscano DOP (PDO)
- Lardo di Colonnata IGP (PGI)
- Salame di Cinghiale
- Cinghiale Prosciutto
Tuscany's protected cured meats — PDO and PGI explained
Three Tuscan cured meats carry EU protected status. Italian labels print the marks as DOP and IGP; English-language shops and paperwork print the very same two schemes as PDO and PGI. Same protection, different language — which is worth knowing when you are comparing a Tuscan producer's Italian label against an English importer's catalogue.
- Prosciutto Toscano PDO / DOP — Tuscany's dry-cured ham. Saltier and more savoury than Parma or San Daniele, because Tuscan curing leans on salt and herbs rather than sweetness.
- Finocchiona PGI / IGP — the fennel-seed salami that is the most characteristically Tuscan cured meat of all. The wild fennel is the signature; it is what the name refers to.
- Lardo di Colonnata PGI / IGP — back fat cured with salt, garlic and herbs in basins of local Carrara marble, in the village of Colonnata above the quarries. The marble basins are not decoration: they are part of the specified method.
The difference in one line: PDO/DOP requires every stage of production, processing and preparation to take place in the named area, so the link to place is the strongest available. PGI/IGP requires at least one of those stages there, with the product's quality or reputation attributable to that origin. That is why Prosciutto Toscano — whose pigs, curing and ageing are all governed by the Tuscan specification — is PDO, while Finocchiona and Lardo di Colonnata are PGI.