I am personally pretty open to trying almost any type of food.  My mother always said, “how do you know don’t like it if you don’t try it?”  So I usually go for it, besides, if every person in a country eats it, it’s hardly like it will kill you.  Very often I am more than pleasantly surprised and end up adding another food to my “yummy” list. Foie gras, frog’s legs, escargot, truffles and sushi were all things that I didn’t eat as a child but will happily slurp down now.  One of the newest things that I have added to the yummy list is cinghiale.

Cinghiale is Italian wild boar, and he is basically as ugly as all those statues and mosaics of boars you see throughout Italy, the ones you spin on your heel for luck or rub their bronze snouts.  But santo cielo he is one tasty bugger.  I would not like to meet him in the wild, picture an NFL player sized 5 inch tusk sporting wild pig.  Besides, I can never forget that scene in Thornbirds. Through much of the Mediterranean, wild boar is extremely popular, and it is regaining popularity in the UK (they ate all of theirs so they had to import more.)

The boar is basically the wild version of pork, but slightly more aggressive, and they constantly interbreed in most parts of the world.  If you haven’t visited Italy yet, then picture the Arkansas Razorback logo, he is a wild boar.  The meat is similar to pork but it is extremely lean and redder than pork, with a rich flavor that has some similarity to venison.  I have only seen cinghiale cooked thoroughly and I’m going to trust the tradition, especially since Italians are not known for overcooking any meat. My absolute favorite in the multitude of dishes that it is used in is a hand-made papperdalle with cinghiale ragout.  If you like pork and pasta and see this on a menu, do not miss it.

If you are traveling in Italy in April and acquire a taste for this succulent meat then do everything you can to attend the Cinghiale Sagra in Certaldo every weekend in April.  In addition to putting your canine teeth to use all day long while you walk off just about every calorie, you get to soak up the beauty of a lovely town just south of Florence and can hop on the train and be in Florence in about 40 minutes.  A great day trip, and amazingly few tourists.