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The name "ventricina" comes from the pig's ventricle inside which peasants used to store large pieces of pork. The 1811 Statistica del Regno di Napoli (Statistics of the Kingdom of Naples) describes ?the pork ventricle stuffed with meat seasoned with salt and fennel? The use of other flavorings, such as pepper, orange peel and fresh garlic, dates, however,to the second half of the 19th century, due to their preservative and flavoring properties. In Olevano Romano, Ventricina was introduced after World War I by farmers from Abruzzo who came to the area for the grape harvest and brought it from their lands. Today production takes place at old local family-run pork butchers dating back to the first half of the `900s. Ventricina Olevanese is obtained by processing the noble parts of the pig: ham and shoulder for the lean component, bacon for the fatty component, all coarsely cut. The mixture is salted and flavored with wild fennel seeds, pepper, orange peel and fresh garlic and later macerated with Cesanese di Olevano Romano DOC wine. The next stage involves stuffing into natural casings such as bladder or veal bondiana. When cut, the slice has a coarse texture and a bright red color mottled with white, and it tends to crumble a bit. Ventricina Olevanese is characterized by a spicy flavor, fragrant aroma with typical citrus notes resulting from the use of orange peel.
