An homage to the classic salami of Catalunya
If you stop by almost any specialty food shop in the Spanish region of Catalunya—even on “the coast of Barcelona,” as Bob Dylan sings in “Boots of Spanish Leather”—fuet is the cured sausage you’re most likely to find. A long, thin salami (fuet translates to “whip” in Catalan), it’s most commonly eaten in medium-thick slices along with a glass of wine and maybe some great almonds, walnuts, or fresh fruit.
The “recipe” for curing fuet likely goes back many thousands of years; it’s so rooted in the region’s culinary history that it’s listed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste. Ours is handcrafted by the quality-focused folks at Lowry Hill Provisions in Northwest Minneapolis. Heritage pork is seasoned simply, as it would be in its Catalan homeland, with just a bit of garlic, white wine, salt, and white pepper—the pork itself is the star here! Lowry Hill works with the same sort of sustainable pork sources that we do at Zingerman’s, and, no surprise, you really can taste the difference between what they do and any commercial salami you’ll see in the supermarket. It’s meatier, with a more complex flavor and a longer finish.
Fuet is super simple to enjoy. Just savor hand-cut slices with nuts, olives, fruit, cheese, and Bakehouse bread! Toss some slices onto your next green salad, or add slivers to pasta or rice. It’s also a great addition to soups and stews—you can add fuet to the harissa and vegetable soup below. And I even found one recipe for baking slivers of it into the Catalan equivalent of what we’d call savory scones here in the States.
P.S. You won’t see the fuet on the zingermans.com Mail Order site, but we’re happy to ship you some! Just email us at [email protected].