Sopressata with Prosciutto

Monday mid morning, quiet, cool, and gloomy.  I have a million things to do, all indoors, and I feel somewhat productive.  It's supposed to rain and I hope it does, my yard needs it.
I was just having a late breakfast, which included the last slice of the tasty sopressata with prosciutto.  I love both, and the small independent shop where I buy most of my meats and cheeses has them both in one.  What you see here is an apple, a slice of sopressata with prosciutto, and cheese.  I still don't know what this cheese is called in English, but it's a fresh soft white cheese, similar to a cottage cheese, but not so curdy or runny.  I buy it at a Polish deli.  I love this cheese, my grandma used to make it fresh from raw milk in our kitchen.  It's moist and crumbly.  Sometimes I slice it on rye with butter, with a pinch of salt and chopped chives.  It makes an awesome cheesecake - the baked sort, but is time consuming as the cheese has to be smoothed out.

Back to sopressata, which was at one point in time a food of the poor.  Just as lobster, which was equivalent to a water rat; then it was so over fished, that it became expensive again.  Sopressata hasn't been over fished, because it's a pork product.  What's changed is in the past it was made of the cuttings which didn't make it into other pricier cuts/ products, where as now, good pieces of pork are used to make it.  It's an acquired taste, but it seems like most good food is these days.  Essentially it's a raw, pork based salami, and the flavour depends on the region.  Prosciutto is a dry cured ham, made of a hind leg or thigh of a pig or a wild boar.  There is cooked and uncooked, and varies in price according to region; priciest and most popular being from Parma and San Daniele.  I learned a lot about prosciutto from the ladies at the Longo's meat counter; they loved talking about food.  I'd ask one question and I'd get a history lesson with a recipe.  I wish I had a Longo's in this town.

I like to eat these very thin slices of yumminess on their own, or a plate of things accompanying them.  I've made sandwiches out of them as well, but in order to create a good sandwich, you'll need a good stack of meat, and something like a chutney or a tapenade, or both to create a sweet and salty burst of flavour in your mouth.

The other day I had this for lunch:

It was delicious.  My own greens - lettuce, parsley, and cilantro, they've been growing in my kitchen by the back door window, so they get lots of sunlight, some air when I open the door, but no rabbits.  Those fur balls are driving me crazy.  

When I pickled the wild leeks a couple of weeks ago, I made too much brine, which was so deliciously sweet and sour with the apple cider and maple syrup, that I didn't want to pour the excess down the drain, so instead I cooled it, and I've been using it as a salad dressing.  I love it.

I always make my own salad vinaigrettes.  The tomatoes are store bought, but local, and a whole avocado from Mexico.  Avocados are one of my fave foods, for their taste, buttery texture, and versatility.

Bo proveito! (Galician)