HOW TO ENJOY IT BEST Mortadella with pistachios is widely used in cooking since it is suitable for various types of recipes. For example, it can be cut into cubes and served as an aperitif or sliced and eaten with some bread. Moreover, it is the key ingredient of many traditional dishes of Bologna, such as Tortellini pasta – whose stuffing is made exactly with mortadella – or Mortadella mousse. PROCESSING STAGES Mortadella is a large stuffed cured meat whose stuffing is composed of a mixture of lean pork chops and fat cubes, salt, pepper, pistachio nuts and natural flavourings. Generally, Mortadella has a cylindrical or oval shape and is often enriched with pistachio, which further enhances its unique flavour. There is also another variant containing myrtle berries , but is much rarer and less common. The production process for making Mortadella takes about four days and consists of five stages: grinding, mixing, stuffing, cooking and packaging. After being seasoned with salt, pepper and natural flavourings, the mixture is pressed and stuffed, giving the product its shape and weight. Finally, Mortadella is placed in dry hot air ovens where it cooks at 70°C for about 20 hours. Afterwards, the cooking casing is removed and Mortadella is cut in half and vacuum-packed. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Mortadella has very ancient origins that seem to date back even to Roman times. The evidence that proves the existence of Mortadella producers already in that era is a stele dating back to the Imperial Age and depicting seven pigs being led to pasture and a mortar with a pestle, a tool used by the Romans to process and pound meat. Even the name is thought to derive from the Latin word mortarium, meaning mortar, although there is no certainty about this theory. Furthermore, the myth that Mortadella is a low-class food must be dispelled. In fact, in the past, it was a type of food only affordable to wealthy people due to the high cost of the meat and all the ingredients. Mortadella with pistachios: yes or no? This distinction between the two types depends very much on the geographical area where it is produced: in Emilia, Mortadella Bologna is quite common and it is produced strictly without pistachios, while in Lazio and central Italy, Mortadella contains this type of nuts. So, what is the orginal Mortadella? The truth is that there is no right answer. In fact, both versions are accepted and produced.
