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What the heck is ... coppa salami?
 When
you order the charcutière (= prepared meat products such as sausage, pate', and
confit, primarily from pork) plate at Tapino, one of the delicious tidbits
thereon, is "coppa salami". So,
you ask, "just what is this mysterious substance - coppa salami?, and how is it
different from robba, or even other salami?" Well, let me tell you! Most of your everyday salami is made from minced pork scraps (and other
left-over body parts) and pork fat with assorted spices which is mixed together
and stuffed, fresh, into a casing and then smoked or dried. Coppa, on the other hand is a hard dry,
unsmoked sausage of Italian origin that is prepared by marinating large slabs
of fresh meat from the most marbled part of pork necks and shoulders in a
mixture of wine, salt, and seasonings such as sugar, cloves, laurel seed,
cinnamon, cayenne pepper, black pepper and minced chile peppers. Dry white wine (sometimes red) is then
repeatedly added over several weeks. The ingredients are mixed in tubs, marinated
and aged for several days, kneaded with additional wine, aged again, re-kneaded,
and then aged for several more weeks, after which the meat is rinsed in vinegar
and rolled into a tight, firm, cylindrical shape. It is placed into a natural casing, tied up with string or
netting, and the sausage is hung up and dried for six months, nine months for
the best ones. We love it here at Tapino. In Italy, it is considered to be second only to prosciutto as a delicacy.
 Coppa is basically an Italian spiced "un-cooked ham" product that has been made from the pork shoulder and neck portion of the hog rather than from the hind leg. When sliced it is red in color with fat running through it. It is contains more fat than prosciutto and is slightly less expensive. Occasionally, the meat will appear under its other alias, capicollo.
Coppa is always eaten raw, and should be carved thinly, as with prosciutto or Parma ham. In fine, sweet slices, it makes the perfect antipasto. The coppa salami is cylindrical, with pointed ends, compact but not elastic. Inside it is red with white/pink streaks of fat.  It is one of the most nutritious of the cured meats, with a particular 'sweet' aroma. The taste is delicate and becomes sharper as it ages. Rather dry and hard in texture, coppa slices can also be used as sandwich meat or bacon. Coppa is frequently used as an ingredient in omelets and antipasto.
Most coppa comes from parts of Central Italy and Corsica. The entire Piacenza area is dominated by the production of coppa, marked with the DOP label to guarantee its high quality. Though a little rough-looking around the edges, coppa is highly esteemed in Italy and can be quite expensive. In the United States, coppa can be found in delicatessens, Italian specialty markets and high-end supermarkets.
 Have you ever wondered just how effective those Automated translation software programs are that can translate from one language into another? I tried one on a piece of text (in Italian) that I found relating to Coppa Salami. The following is the results of jamming this text through an automatic translator program to generate English text. I find it kind of interesting, and certainly a lot of fun to read:
 "Perhaps less famous of homonym the DOP Coppa, it is a pork meat worked to raw using cervical muscles of the pig, it leave of the neck and the shoulder. The meat is flavored with knows them and pepper and, after eight, ten days, with garlic and wine (red white man or woman). After an eventual second gear salting, stuffed in the pork intestine said bondeana or bondiana (some producers they use like interstice the "pellina", that is the covering of the pork fat). Alloy the pork meat, small are practiced pierced in the intestine so as to avoid the air stagnations and it is kept for some day in premises ventilates to you. It follows the ripening in humid and fresh atmospheres (13, 14 degrees) for the minimal period of five, six months, but also for a year." - - Yep, makes sense to me!
 While we are at it, we should probably talk about the difference between "Salami" [sal-AH-mee]", and "Salumi" [sal-UU-mee]. "Salami" is a specific style of cured Italian sausage, fermented and air-dried. Salami is a sub-set of salumi. "Salumi" on the other hand, is the general description for all Italian preserved meat products which are usually cured and predominantly made from pork. The term, however, also encompasses other preserved meats (as opposed to fresh meats), such as bresaola, which is made from beef, and also cooked products such as mortadella, prosciutto, and coppa cotto. "Salumi" is equivalent to the French word "charcuterie". All Salami is Salumi, but not all Salumi is Salami! I guess we could call our menu offering at Tapino, a "Salumi plate" instead of "Charcuterie plate" if we wanted to. ... ... Hmmmmm?
That's about it for Coppa. Stop by and try some. We think you will like it! By-the-way, the main difference between coppa and robba?? After the robba steals the money, he is usually chased by the coppa ... ... ... ... (Don't blame me. You fell for it!)
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