Larderia Sanguinetti: two brothers embrace Colonnata art.

Colonnata is a miracle clinging to the white marble of the Maggiore, Spallone, and Sagro mountains in the Apuane Alps. The same rock that saw Michelangelo, from which other miracles like the Pietà and the David flourished. Colonnata has been for many years a village of stonecutters, miners, and artists of these stones, tied to the timeless history of eternal sculptors. But this beautiful village is also the production site of one of Italy's most intriguing typical products, Lardo di Colonnata. 

We are talking about a humble and essential food, coming from one of the least noble parts of the pig, yet at the same time, enriched by the essence and customs of this environment. The back fat, or lardo, found extraordinary abode among these marbles in prolonged affinements in contact with picks of aromatic herbs and spices. A conservative technique that has its history rooted in the centuries, dating back to when Colonnata began to be the village of miners, where houses were clinging to the rock and fused with it, where life was prolonged throughout the winter to "overwinter" the cold and provide easily assimilable sources of energy food for man. A natural heating coming from the calories of lardo itself. 

In this context, even today, if you visit Colonnata, you can breathe the timeless scent of history, you can wander through the small alleys from which sometimes emerge whiffs of rosemary, juniper berries, star anise, and pepper. The attachment of these people to the territory is a given fact, and not even the darkest and most challenging seasons have been able to drive the youth away. A departure that has reduced many Italian stone villages to ghost towns, especially in mountainous areas. 

The story we are about to tell you is about two brothers, one 32 and the other 37 years old, who, once they finished their studies, felt the strong call of their land and decided to return to start a life and business project for themselves and their families. Andrea and Emanuele Sanguinetti were both born from the stone of Colonnata and only close to it were they able to express their creativity and enterprise to the fullest. The Larderia Sanguinetti was born with them. 

The larderia is in its first generation, but it is still the daughter of a millennial story embodied in the memories of their childhood. Producing Lardo di Colonnata is not just about doing business but keeping alive the umbilical cord that connects them to their territory. A land that has experienced two springs, that of the white marbles of Carrara and that of Lardo di Colonnata. 

Emanuele starts young and the first tub is filled with lardo in 2010. Andrea, the younger of the two, in 2016 decides to help his brother and join the partnership: he will not be yet another young Italian fleeing abroad, but a young man who found his "America" in typical Italian tradition, among pig fats and the white marble pits of Colonnata. 

The property they own is about 300 square meters and is a “topsy-turvy” reality: above the daily life of man, below the eternal life of quarries and pits used by man to preserve and refine pieces of lardo in their seasoning of aromas and spices. The opening of the pits is a magical, fascinating, and, in a sense, mystical moment as it is always experienced by lardo producers.

The white marble is excavated and worked. The pits are of various sizes and maintain unchanged values of humidity and temperature, thus facilitating the penetration of aromas and spices into the fat tissue of the lardo. They are inert, sterile environments where fermentative-anaerobic phenomena occur that elevate the product from an organoleptic point of view. The structure of the Larderia Sanguinetti is a modern structure that perfectly meets all the hygiene and health standards set by the law that protects the production of Lardo di Colonnata IGP. The marble tub is the most evocative room because it represents the beating heart of all the processing phases. It is also the most delicate place that requires the greatest care and respect from man. 

The current production of Larderia Sanguinetti is about 150 quintals per year, although the capacity of the tubs allows for an expansion of production over time. The Sanguinetti brothers have recently started producing high-quality Guanciale di Colonnata, which is truly difficult to find elsewhere.

Every piece of lardo that re-emerges from the tubs of the Sanguinetti brothers is a mystery that each time encloses within itself the magic of time and the ingenuity of man. The cutting of a lardo di Colonnata just surfaced is an ancestral ritual that recalls gestures and craftsmanship that delve into the history of civilization.

Bernardo Pasquali

S&M