Meat and Salumi

Until I moved to Italy I thought of most meat as essentially the same, divided into prime and choice.  Then I met Dario Cecchini.  He buys only healthy, local animals.  Mostly pork and beef, some lamb from a Tuscan breed called Massese.  He sells noble cuts like steaks (Fiorentina T-bone and boneless Panzanese), roasts and chops and works the lesser cuts like belly, shoulder, rump, turning them into prepared foods like Chianti "tuna" made of pork, spicy meat sauce for pasta, garlicky fresh sausage, sliced fresh pork-belly with thyme, bay and fennel flowers, Chianti "butter", a paste of fatback, garlic and herbs, to be spread on toasted bread. Just thinking about this spectacular meat makes me want to light the hearth in my kitchen.