The mortadelle of Campotosto, also known as “coglioni di mulo” (literally ‘mule’s testicles) for their distinctive oval shape during preparation and for being tied in pairs with hand-knotted string, are cured pork sausages still produced today in ways similar to those of the past, either by local producers in Campotosto and Poggio Cancelli or by families who come together during the winter to make their own supply for household consumption.

Their preparation within the home takes place in a collaborative and light-hearted atmosphere, structured around a sequence of interconnected actions and a clear division of tasks across key stages of the process. In the past, the making of mortadelle was closely associated with the delicate operation of sewing the casings around the minced meat — pork, or often sheep — a task carried out by women with such skill that it became a seasonal itinerant practice, moving from house to house during the winter months to “dress” the quantities of sausages produced by most families in the surrounding area.

Today, thanks to the availability of calf casings, which are larger and easier to handle, mortadelle are no longer sewn but basically wrapped — a process that still requires considerable patience and remains almost exclusively the domain of women. Men, on the other hand, take care of working and mincing the lean cuts of pork, such as shoulder and ham, seasoned with salt and pepper; a small amount of pancetta may be added to provide some fat, along with the traditional rectangular strip of lard inserted at the centre of the sausage as it is shaped by hand, before being wrapped. The portion of meat used for each individual sausage is carefully weighed, as it must range between 330 and 340 grams, to facilitate handling and, above all, to ensure optimal curing.

The stage that makes the process particularly distinctive — also from a sonic point of view — is the shaping of the elongated form, likewise carried out by men. This operation is usually performed standing, with the arms extended forward, applying a repeated, rhythmic, percussive motion to the mixture, which is literally slapped with cupped hands for several seconds and then refined with the fingers until the desired shape and consistency are achieved. Older people used to say that each mortadella takes on the shape of the hand that makes it, and that the meat must be worked quickly, with only a few strokes, otherwise it overheats and “develops a fever”. In a similar vein, handling the mixture was forbidden to menstruating women and to men with a fever, as the meat might otherwise “fall ill”.

After the lard has been inserted and the casing applied, each mortadella is pricked on the surface with metal needles so that it can breathe during the drying stage. It is then laid out on a cloth and left overnight to “settle” before being tied. The sausages are finally bound with string, paired together and hung to dry; for the first fifteen days, they are smoked, gently exposed to the fumes of oak or beech wood, which also contribute to their lightening in colour, and are then transferred to other spaces with suitable temperature and humidity conditions for the final curing. To prevent the formation of mould, halfway through the curing process, the loosened strings are tightened again using a small maple twig known as the piriglio, inserted between the string and the base of the sausage and turned so that the binding adheres once more to the mortadella, which has gradually dried and shrunk over the weeks.

As the anthropologist Emanuele Di Paolo notes, who has devoted specific research to the preparation of mortadelle in Campotosto, these cured meats are not everyday food: “they are eaten when guests are present or given as gifts to friends and relatives. They form part of the social identity of those who produce them”, and the main “return” they provide is “the recognition of the skill and individual qualities of those who make them circulate”.