Traditionally produced all over Lunigiana, but in particular in the Municipality of Filattiera, where the altitude - between the 600 and 700 meters - and microclimate are ideal, spalla cotta is produced between December and February to be eaten in spring (but its maturing process can also last one year). The shoulder and its bone gets salted, enriched with spices, covered with bladder skin or wrapped up in fat skin or in the pork stomach for the maturing process.
When it is prepared to be eaten, it is freed from the fat wrapping it up and put in a pot with abundant cold water and salt: it is necessary about one hour for each kilo of meat. Filattiera spalla cotta weights about 3 to 6 kilos, has a pink color, a spicy fragrance, and a characteristic taste.
It is usually served tepid and cut into slices, but also cold and raw. It can be eaten with vegetable side dishes, pies or mashed potatoes, or green sauce. Today in Filattiera there is still a festival, the so-called "Fiera del Ponte" on the 1st Tuesday of June, during which spalla cotta is eaten together with the eels coming from the river Magra.
