From a typical Lombard specialty of the Valtellina tradition, the bresaola has become a widely used excellence, with a 45% increase in consumption over the last 15 years. It is the only product of our delicatessen made from beef, light thanks to the almost total absence of fat and rich in noble proteins. Nutritional characteristics that, added to its definite but delicate taste and its versatility, make it appreciated by eight out of ten Italians.

These data would be enough to satisfy established companies like the historian Panzeri, a 76-year specialist in the processing of Bresaola della Valtellina PGI: today the two Chiavennaschi plants produce 12,000 bresaola per week, most of them sliced ​​and packaged, for a total of 15 million trays each year. However Nicolò Panzeri, at the head of the family salami factory, was looking for something more: to give new impulse to the product-symbol of a territory, but without distorting its character and the process of production. Nice challenge. The launch of the ball went to the Michelin-starred chef Claudio Sadler, who after two years of testing and experimentation came to formulate the recipes of four types of bresaola capable of combining tradition and innovation, as they say in these cases.

Signature bresaola

Sadler's idea was to intervene in a precise phase of the salami processing process, the only one that leaves room for personal interpretation: salting the meat. The composition of the tanning with which it is impregnated before being seasoned is in fact a mix of salt, spices, herbs and natural flavors, according to different recipes for each producer, which in a certain way represent the "signature". Sadler therefore thought of using wholly new aromas for bresaola, from ginger to dwarf pine, also in appropriate combinations with alcohol instead of wine sometimes used for tanning / marinating.

The combinations

Thus four "variations on the theme" were born: bresaola with fresh notes like la Tonica (with ginger and Gin Tonic) and la Montanara (with mugo pine and grappa), or with an intense and decisive flavor like the Tartufata (with natural tubers, without synthetic oils) and the Wrong (with Bitter Campari and chilli). All are perfect as an appetizer and to accompany the aperitif, ideal for food pairing (the trend that sees the combination of cocktail and food), because the alcohol component is already defined at the start. As an alternative, a centrifuge of apple, ginger, celery and carrot is fine with the Tonica, with the Montanara an apple juice, while at Sbagliata you can combine a light red wine instead of the famous Negroni that inspired it.

The recipes

Like the classic typology, le Bresaole d'Autore you can taste them as they are, on happy hour sandwiches or to enrich mixed salads with cheeses, but they are also suitable for creative dishes. Provided you use them with similar ingredients, capable of enhancing them and adding them right on arrival, so as not to alter their flavor and aroma. As in the risotto with lime with marinated prawns and Tonica, in the pancotto with Tartufata, in the Sbagliata rolls on artichoke salad, in buckwheat ravioli with Montanara. These are the recipes prepared ad hoc by Claudio Sadler that can be found on the mini site bresaoledautore.it.

Paola Mancuso
March 2019