We met Stefano Sacchi last year in Gourmandia fair, in Santa Lucia di Piave, and we immediately fell in love with his charcuterie: goat and sheep prosciutto, products difficult to sell, but that fascinated us at the first tasting. So we organised a visit to its butcher’s shop in Val Camonica, in the upper province of Brescia, to see the territory where it operates, understanding the production choices and discovering the reasons why this extraordinary product is made on this territory.

Butcher of third-generation, Stefano has learned the art from his grandfather and above all from his father. For years he has continued to produce, with passion, in addition to the most classic cured meats, also the goat and sheep prosciutto, called locally “violin”. The name “violin” - Stefano tells us - derives from the shape that recalls the instrument and the way it was traditionally sliced, laying it between the shoulder and the chin, just like a violin.

Despite the local production knows both goat and sheep violin, Stefano has decided to dedicate himself only to the processing of sheep meat, at least for the moment: sheep’s meat guarantees greater continuity both in terms of quality and availability compared to the goat.

The raw material comes from adult sheeps, a very lean meat with some infiltrations of fat that give softness to the thigh. A curiosity: sheep fat is excellent in quality, much more digestible thanks to the extremely selective feeding of the animal: unlike the goat that eats everything, the sheep chooses carefully the herbs to feed on.

Currently Stefano is using only sheep’s legs coming from England, from a breed with thighs of important size, which remain soft even after aging.

The meat is processed, salted and spiced with a mixture of aromatic herbs, and then seasoned. The sheep’s ham, unlike what happens for a normal raw ham, is first deboned and then seasoned: the small size of the leg makes the deboning after the maturing difficult.

After different tastings and tests, we decided together with Stefano to reduce a little bit the original spiciness to obtain a perfect balance between the taste of the meat and the spices. The aim was to obtain a spiciness that enhances the characteristics of the meat, without covering it, allowing those who choose these cured meats to recognize the raw material.

A couple of weeks ago we invited Stefano to our company to present his products to our sales managers. We tasted both the Sheep’s Violin with bone and its boneless version, called Prosciutto di Pecora, an easier-to-use product, created especially for restaurants. We liked them both: very delicate to the palate, with light but pleasant wild notes. We appreciated also the Mocetta, a small knife-cut sausage obtained from the “noce” cut.

We suggest you to try the same crostino that Stefano has prepared for us with the sheep’s ham, using a butter that matches up to the situation: Beurre de Baratte was our choice... delicious!

Martina Iseppon
Marketing Director