Lucanica facts for kids

Lucanica di Picerno, a product that derives from the ancient lucanica sausage

Lucanica was a rustic pork sausage in Ancient Roman cuisine.

Apicius documents it as a spicy, smoked beef or pork sausage originally from Lucania; according to Cicero and Martial, it was brought by Roman troops or slaves from Lucania.

It has given its name to a variety of sausages (fresh, cured, and smoked) in Mediterranean cuisine and its colonial offshoots, including:

• Italian luganega or lucanica
• Portuguese and Brazilian linguiça
• Bulgarian lukanka or loukanka
• Macedonian (Western dialects) lukanec/луканец or lukanci/луканци
• Albanian (Arbëresh community in Italy) likëngë or lekëngë, also llukanik in Albania.
• Greek loukaniko, a fresh sausage usually flavored with orange peel
• Spanish, Latin American, and Philippine longaniza, a name which covers both fresh and cured sausages
• Arabic laqāniq, naqāniq, or maqāniq, made of mutton and some semolina
• Modern Hebrew naqniq (נקניק), an umbrella term for "sausage".
• Basque lukainka
• Croatian luganiga, flavored with cinnamon

Today, lucanica sausage is identified as Lucanica di Picerno, produced in Basilicata (whose territory was part of the ancient Lucania).