Pitina is a cultural product of Valtramontina and the valleys of the Pordenone area.

Thinking of it as simple salami would be wrong: it is not a sausage. We ate it recently with some ham and pancetta. That raw slice of dark red pitina was particularly tasty, but I keep repeating to myself that it does not belong to the cured meats we classify as cured pork, like salami. We appreciated it in a niche context in Montereale Valcellina: slightly smoked, accompanied by a slice of homemade bread baked in huge loaves, enhanced and ennobled by a preserve of dandelion buds , a delicious speciality of the area.

Pitina is a minced meatball of goat, sheep, chamois or other ungulate game with salt, garlic, black pepper, aromas and alpine herbs to enhance the gamy taste. It looks like a slightly flattened meatball dusted in corn flour. The producer smokes it with wood, usually beech or hazel, and cures it for at least 30 days.

At table, we tried the Pitina raw, sliced, cooked, with a stronger flavour, browned in the pan, accompanied by onions, potatoes or polenta. The documented place of origin is Valtramontina. We might imagine that every malga, or shepherd’s hut, had its own version even in the 20th century and even before: even the herbs differ from valley to valley.

In Friuli, there are micro ecosystems and wild places. Slow Food has made pitina one of its points of focus, as it is an autochthonous product now submitted to the process to acquire an Igp mark (Protected Geographical Indication) from the European Commission in Brussels. ‘For now’, according to the president of Uti Valli e Dolomiti Friulane, Andrea Carli, ‘it is the first and only Igp product of the mountain area and of the entire right bank of the Tagliamento’. Only the mountain municipalities of Andreis, Barcis, Cavasso Nuovo, Cimolais, Claut, Erto, Casso, Frisanco, Maniago, Meduno and Montereale are allowed to produce real Pitina. But there is also the peta, the petuccia, always made of mincemeat, usually pork, flavoured with juniper, kummel or on its own.

The restaurants in the area have at least one dish with this specialty: it’s well worth a try!