Luganega

Luganega is a long, thin, coiled fresh pork sausage that runs through northern Italian cooking the way chorizo runs through Iberian ones. In Lombardy — particularly around Monza, Brianza and the lakes — the luganega is a coarse-ground pork sausage seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and a grating of grana padano or parmigiano, then hand-tied into coils and sold by weight at the macelleria counter. South of the Po, in Emilia and Tuscany, the same word covers a finer-ground pork and sometimes beef sausage, while in Lucania (Basilicata) the luganega is traditionally cured rather than fresh, hung in cellars and aged into something denser, more peppery, and ready to slice for antipasto. Cooked in a pan with onions, it lifts a risotto alla milanese; crumbled raw into ragù, it seasons the pasta of the Sunday table. The sausage is so integral to Milanese cuisine that its name is sometimes used loosely for any hand-tied fresh pork sausage sold loose in a butcher\u0027s window. Bite-size pieces, threaded on rosemary sprigs and grilled, are the standard antipasto of mountain trattorias.