Via Garani n.3 – 43016 Polesine Zibello (PR)
Telephone: +39 0524 96151
E-mail: mezzadri@culatello.biz
Website: www.culatello.biz
Online shop: www.culatello.biz/shop
EEC Stamp: IIT 9-3300 L CE
A family-run business that controls the entire swine supply chain : from feeding to slaughtering and processing into high quality cured meats. All this by exploiting the humid air of the Po. In Polesine Parmense until 2014, Roberto Mezzadri, the master, was the oldest of the Consortium’s founding members, and owned a 35 hectares of farmland that were cultivated according to the criteria of integrated pest management, with cereals and forage to feed 200 pigs that, once they had reached the right weight, would have been transformed each year into 400 culatelli, 400 fiocchi, 400 coppe, 400 spalle, 400 pancette and the rest into sausages; in 2015 he passed the business on to his son Fernando and grandson Filippo. The company was founded in the 1950s and embodies the passion and dedication of a lifetime. Roberto Mezzadri has always chosen a high-profile handmade production, still working with the techniques of the past, which the two young men still carry on today. The care in the choice of meat and the processing as an ancient rite prepare a culatello that requires daily presence and commitment in the maturing process, which takes place in the old, non-air-conditioned cellars, where the dull red of the bare bricks is accompanied by the warm colour of the culatello gradually as the flow of time brings it to perfection. The geographical location creates a unique environment, where the humidity and mists rising from the great river are alternated with the summer heat, which are both necessary for maturing. “They are all cured meats of absolute integrity,” assures Fernando Mezzadri, the second generation exponent, ” in which there is no trace of preservatives, additives or stabilisers. The processing of the cured meats is strictly artisanal and in accordance with tradition. Even the preparation of our cured meats is a ritual that is handed down from father to son and from grandfather to grandson; that of Culatello di Zibello DOP, in particular, has its own unique procedure established by the Production Regulations. After moulding into the shape of a pear with the tip slightly tilted to one side, the curing process is carried out using a well-calculated mixture of salt and pepper. After a good massage, the culatelli together with the spalle, coppe and fiocchetti are left to rest for 7 – 8 days in a cool place, not without sprinkling them properly with a mixture of red wine and garlic. Depending on the weight of the cured meat, the maturing process can last up to 24 months”. The family tradition continues today with Filippo, the nephew of Mastro Roberto Mezzadri.