Publication: The Houston Chronicle

The Volpi family, Italian immigrants who settled in St. Louis in 1900, have been making salami for more than 100 years. We sampled the coppa and salamini and enjoyed the rich, salty-sweet taste of the cured meats. The coppa is air-dried pork shoulder with a texture similar to that of prosciutto. Salamini is a finely ground, firm-textured pork sausage; Volpi suggests dicing it and stirring it into risotto. The coppa ($3-40) and salamini ($4-40) are available at www.volpifoods.com; other salami and rotola-prosciutto rolled with mozzarella - are available at Central Market.

-NICKI BRITTON