The tradition of the Tonno del Chianti

Just the mention of the word “tonno” (tuna) conjures up visions of the sea and the smell of salt water. But let’s just try to disassociate this short Italian word from those notions and instead attempt to create a link between it and the hills of Chianti.

Inevitably, the image of a fish wallowing amid vine-clad hills springs to mind. But remember the word in question is tonno, not fish. Deep in the heart of Tuscany, in Panzano to be exact, Dario Cecchini, who is neither a fishmonger nor a fisherman, has revived an ancient local traditional method of preserving pork shoulder chops in oil, once known as scamarita sott’olio. He quite simply and brilliantly has given it a curious, provocative name, one that has relaunched this delicacy in the area. One summer long ago, two different emergencies arose at once for the local folk of Chianti. The first was that they were having problems salting their pork and the other was that their vin brusco, a white wine made from a Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes, was at the risk of going off. In those days, scamarita, now known as tonno, was made by farmers in spring trying to save the best cuts (the ham, for instance) from suckling pigs that had fallen ill.

The lean pork was boiled in the vin brusco and then preserved in oil in terracotta jars. This is still done today using the same traditional methods in the hottest months of the year. Nowadays, of course, only the best quality meat is used. It comes from suckling pigs that weigh between 30 and 40 kg. The lumps of pork are boiled in the white wine and this gives them a light hazelnut colour, characteristic perfume and a light, delicate, flavour. The pork is then sliced, covered with coarse salt and left refrigerated for four to five days. It is then washed in running water and boiled again for eight hours in a mixture of white wine and bay leaves. At this point the meat is allowed to cool in its cooking liquor. The rind and fat are removed and it is put back in oil with more bay leaves. This time it’s stored, however, in either glass jars or vacuum-sealed bags. Tonno del Chianti is now so highly prized that it was added to the national list of traditional food products of the region of Tuscany in May 2001.