Capocollo
Capocollo or coppa is an Italian pork salume made from the dry-cured muscle running from the neck to the fourth or fifth rib of the pork shoulder or neck. It is a whole-muscle salume, dry cured, and typically sliced very thinly. It is similar to the more widely known cured ham or prosciutto, because they are both pork-derived cold cuts used in similar dishes. It is not brined as ham typically is.
Etymology
This cut is typically called capocollo or coppa in much of Italy, Corsica, and southern Switzerland. This name is a compound of the words capo and collo. Regional terms include capicollo and capicollu.Outside of Europe, terms include bondiola or bondiola curada in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and capicola or capicolla in North America. The pronunciation gabagool has been used by [Italians in New York City|some Italian Americans in the New York City area] and elsewhere in the Northeast US, based on the Neapolitan language word capecuollo in working-class strata of 19th- and early 20th-century immigrants. This pronunciation was used in the television series The Sopranos, and its use has become a stereotype.
Varieties and official status
Four particular varieties have PDO and PGI status under the Common Agricultural Policy of European Union law, which ensures that only products genuinely originating in those regions are allowed in commerce as such.Four additional Italian regions produce capocollo, and are not covered under European law, but are designated as prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies:Capocollo della Basilicata;Capocollo del Lazio;
Outside Europe, capocollo was introduced to Argentina by Italian immigrants, under the names bondiola or bondiola curada.