SALAME INGLESE

When I mentioned that I had had salame inglese for dessert in a restaurant last week, two commenters asked what it was so I decided to post about it.

Salame inglese or salame di cioccolato which, as we shall see, has several other names, is a mixture of biscuit crumbs, chocolate, butter, nuts and other ingredients which are rolled together into the shape of a roll of salame. It is then refrigerated and, after a few hours, cut into slices and served as a dessert.  It is made all over Italy with regional variations, as you would expect.

No one knows why this dessert is sometimes known as salame inglese but I would imagine that, as with zuppa inglese [a kind of trifle] this was originally a reference to the rich ingredients used.  It probably earned the name salame del Papa [the Pope's salame] for the same reason.  It was dubbed salame turco rather unkindly, because it was said to be the colour of Moorish complexions and it became salame vichingo [Viking salame] when a recipe for it was published in the children's recipe collection La Manuale di Nonna Papera in 1970.

I have found one of the most reliable recipes for this dessert to be the one published by Ursula Ferrigno in Ursula's Italian Cakes and Desserts.  My friend Katia Amore uses Modican chocolate in her excellent version and I made two white chocolate versions last year.

If you have never made salame inglese, I suggest you have a go:  it is not difficult to prepare and I am all for desserts you can make well in advance and forget about till you need them!