Added to a tomato sauce and left to cook for a couple of hours either Italian salami or Italian sausage can add a real twist to a meal and transform a tomato sauce into something much more varied and deep. Italy is famous for its varieties of sausages and salamis many of which are famously produced in the Lombardy region of Italy.

Around Pavia, south of the River Po, are a number of villages where sausages are still smoked in the traditional way.This is the area where salame di Varzi is made. Only the finest pork is used to make this Italian sausage, and only wine, pepper, salt, and saltpeter are added. The sausage is matured for three to four months. This comparatively long maturation brings out the flavour. A whole salame. di Varzi as sold is a medium sized, coarse-grained sausage weighing about 2 pounds (1 kilogram).

Sausages called salsiccia luganega are usually of fresh meat, and cooked or heated in water before serving. The meat is a finely ground mixture of fat and lean pork, flavoured with pepper and spices. Luganega is an example of this type. The meat is filled into long casings, divided into sections and sold by length rather than weight.

Luganega is often served with polenta in northern Italy. It can be fried, broiled or braised as well as boiled. A delicious Italian sausage to cut up into bite size pieces to make meat balls. Salame di Milano is a very fine textured Italian salami made from pork, pork fat, beef, and spices is matured for about 3 months and weighs up to about 3 pounds (1.5 kilograms). It has an essential place in any antipasto misto starter of mixed Italian sausage, and is popular well beyond its place of origin.

It is probably one of Italy's best-known food products along with Parma ham. The imitations available elsewhere do not necessarily do justice to the original. Salame di Milano is a king of Italian sausage. Cacciatorino is a small well hung variety of Italian salami consisting of two thirds lean pork, tender veal, and various types of fat. It was originally devised as a convenient type of Italian sausage for those working out in the forests to take with them as supplies. That may be the source of the name, cacciatorino which translates as small hunter.

Salametto is a small, well-hung sausage, similar to cacciatorino. It is ideal as a lunch time Italian salami or to be taken on picnics as it is easily carried. This is a beautifully delicate Italian sausage which is perfect to be eaten on its own. Italian sausage and salami do taste that much different to those of other countries and do lend themselves to being added to Italian meals, such as pizzas and pastas. If cooking an Italian meal and trying to make it as authentic as possible be sure to add Italian salami or Italian sausage.