Press

“I’ve been known to collect sausage. I buy it, I put it in the freezer and I’m so pleased that I found it, I don’t eat it. Or I panic and buy it in enormously large quantities on the off chance that I might run out. That’s why I once bolted through Times Square carrying 7 pounds of chorizo, plus a pound of good Spanish cheese and two brand-new bento boxes for my daughters. And maybe some cupcakes. You never know when you’ll run across that good Spanish sausage again.

I thought nothing was as good as the Ibérico ham of Spain. Made from free-range, acorn-eating pigs, the jamón is slowly cured for two to four years. It was a banner day when the United States finally lifted its importation ban. Our family had eaten it everywhere we went when we were in Spain. Along with bread and ice cream, jamón was all that stood between my youngest daughter and starvation.

Yet a tall, handsome Italian has since changed my mind. Not through charm, though he has plenty of it, but because when it comes to charcuterie, he’s a rock star  — or soon to become one. Olivierio (Olli) Colmignoli, co-owner and founder of the Mechanicsville-based Olli Salumeria, makes the best cured hams and salumi I’ve ever tasted. He also introduced me to something I had never heard of. And that ham blew my mind. Speck is a cured ham made in northern Italy, similar to prosciutto, but subtly fragrant, not too salty and with just enough smoke. The fat — and there’s quite a bit of it — is meltingly rich and intrinsic to the experience. It’s the pork itself that shines, though, with that deep richness that only a heritage breed provides.”

Original Article

“Think Virginia and think ham. But now there is salami and speck from heritage pork to consider. Late last year, Olli Salumeria in Manakin, Va., near Richmond, began selling cured meats inspired by Italian recipes. Co-founded by Oliviero Colmignoli, known as Olli, whose great-great-grandfather started the Fiorucci meat company in Italy, it buys Mangalitsa pork from producers in several states.”

Original Article

“Speck: Olli Salumeria, Manakin, VA. Imagine prosciutto that took a trip to Northern Italy, spent a few hours in a smokehouse, and got dusted with pepper.”

Original Article

“When it comes to salami, salt meets earth at the Richmond-based Olli Salumeria. While Oliviero Colmignoli carves ribbons from the first Olli prosciutto — salted on Dec. 4, 2009, and “just pulled out of the rack yesterday” — he keeps his pride muted and his knife in gentle motion. This prosciutto melts into a silky tang that’s almost effervescent; it’s deemed a success worth waiting for, and Olli Salumeria has another selling point.

The local business is named for Colmignoli, a cap-wearing Italian with a young family and a fourth-generation calling. He and founder Chip Vosmik consider their Mechanicsville production space a test facility to be strategically outgrown. Imported equipment, high-tech parchment packaging and meticulously engraved red business cards show buyers these guys are tasteful, serious and ready to move artisanship to an industrial scale.”

Original Article