There is prosciutto, and then there is culatello. To connoisseurs, the latter — cured from a solid chunk of leg, not the whole leg like standard prosciutto — is the variety worth seeking now that the Department of Agriculture has approved for import the culatello di Zibello made near Parma by the Negroni company. For culatello, the meat of black nera di Parma pigs is rubbed with salt, black pepper and garlic, painstakingly tied, wrapped in a pig’s bladder and then allowed to cure in cellars.
The rosy slices, rounded in shape, have a vein of pinkish fat up the middle. The aroma is ever so lightly funky, the texture is silky and the taste is briny sweet, less delicate than prosciutto di Parma: Culatello di Zibello, $60 a pound, DiPalo’s Fine Foods, 200 Grand Street (Mott Street), 212-226-1033.
