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 soldiers from Lucania.Oxford Companion to FoodTouring Club Italiano Le città dell'olio, 2001, Touring Editore pag. 237
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 semolinaMaxime Rodinson, "GHidhā", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. full textFor the phonetic variation, see Dulaym ibn Masʻūd Qaḥṭānī, Sound changes in Arabic sonorant consonants (not seen) Modern Hebrew naqniq (נקניק), an umbrella term for 'sausage' Basque lukainka Croatian luganiga, flavored with cinnamon
Today, lucanica is identified as , produced in Basilicata (whose territory was part of the ancient Lucania).
See also
Luganega
References