Berkshire pork at Ceriello's Fine Foods
When Andrea Ceriello opened Ceriello's Fine Foods in 1978, it was a classic Italian pork store. Over the years, it has expanded into a full-blown Italian specialty market with imported groceries, prepared foods, a full butcher counter. Credit: Julie Cappiello
This week we inaugurate a new column, Provisions, which will focus on great foods available on Long Island. We'll be highlighting new products, seasonal specialties and artisanal finds. And when a veteran purveyor is selling something outstanding, we'll tell you about that, too.
That's the case with the Berkshire pork products that take center stage at Andrea Ceriello's shop in Williston Park. When he opened Ceriello's Fine Foods in 1978, it was a classic Italian pork store. Over the years, it has expanded into a full-blown Italian specialty market with imported groceries, prepared foods, a full butcher counter.
Now, he is showcasing Berkshire pork here (not in the Wantagh store), an old English breed with meat far richer in flavor and fat than conven- tional American pork. "This is the way pork used to be before it became 'the other white meat,'" he said.
Ceriello makes porchetta by boning out whole sides of pork, seasoning them with rosemary and pepper, then rolling them up in the thick cloak of the animal's own fatty skin. Cooked and sliced, it's $14.99 a pound; raw and ready to roast, $11.99. He also sells Berkshire pork chops, ribs and porterhouses.
He makes a hauntingly good fresh sausage with Berkshire pork and fresh truffles ($18.99 a pound), but he is unabashedly smitten with his dry-cured Berkshire sopressata ($19.99). "We use the loin, the shoulder, the ham, the fatback. We cut everything by hand, and it gets almost no spices, just salt and whole black peppercorns."
He slices off a medallion to expose the sausage's roseate, marbleized interior. "Look at that. A thing of beauty."
Ceriello's is at 541 Willis Ave., Williston Park, 516-747-0277.
