We hold your gazpachos and pinzimonios, salads and panzanellas, smoothies and Tahitian tuna in the greatest of respects. We sympathize with your kitchen with its extinguished fires because of the torrid air currents. But, despite the heat that weakens and empties us, please let us continue longing for porchetta.

Even more so after the tribute by the New York Times, We felt that we had to create a record of those butchers who still respectfully follow the traditional Italian recipes, be it the butchers form Ariccia or Norcia, Grutti or Campli in Abruzzi, or again butchers from South Tuscany, Marche or more generally from Central Italy.

We did not create a record on our own, but asked Anna Setteposte – a real authority on the subject, as well as the Organizer Porchettiamo to help us. Porchettiamo is a porchetta themed event that has reached its second edition with the Times’ blessing and a reporter was sent to see what it was all about. The event was able to gather the best “pigs on a spit” in Gualdo Cattaneo, in the province of Perugia. Producers overcame mistrust and regionalisms in the name of this speciality obtained from a whole pork, emptied – this is where exceptions begin -, deboned, and seasoned – here exceptions can no longer be counted – with entrails and spices. The pork is then cooked slowly enough to dispel the myth that porchetta is embarrassingly fat.

Among the 13 best Italian porchettas selected from Dissapore, the first place goes to:

Cariani Porchetta umbra di Bevagna

The New York Times must have got stuck with porchetta. Indeed, two years ago they had included Bevagna’s Porchetta in the top five of the to do things before you die.

Cariani is the only company left to harvest centuries of local history and wisdom, thanks to a family business that processes pork meat in one laboratory and then cooks it in another one, equipped with 8 double ovens.

The spice mix Cariani uses is a secret, though liver bits are a must. Porchetta is served at room temperature.

The summer edition of Porchettiamo will be held in Bevagna and, according to Anna Setteposte, is scheduled for mid-August.