Nibbles: USDA full of balogna for forcing demise of Colorado’s sole artisan salumeria

AURORA – I am saddened to report that Il Mondo Vecchio, the Denver creator of dry-cured salumi, will close at the end of November.

Meat artisan and instructor Mark DeNittis and partner Gennaro DeSantis garnered acclaim for their superior products including perhaps the best pepperoni on the planet. They did it the way Italian butchers have made it safely for generations. After three years of perfect reports from USDA inspectors with zero food safety violations or complaints, the agency told DeNittis he’d have to adhere to rules designed for sausage factories, not food artisans.

Il Mondo Vecchio “could either change their methods to a process that has been validated by the USDA such as fermenting (cooking the product) or adding nitrites, nitrates, acids or copious amounts of salt, all resulting in what IMV believes to be an inferior product … or stop production,” according to the company’s announcement.

The remaining stockpile of salumi from guanciale and sopressata to black pepper salami and fresh sausage will be sold off Friday afternoons at Il Mondo Vecchio, 1174 S. Cherokee St. There is no doubt DeNittis and his uber-talented fiancee, chef Jenna Johansen, will go on to create a tastier future for us all. No doubt the USDA should have other people to harass, like, say, food megafactories that keep making people sick with tainted produce and questionable ground beef.

For more details: ilmondovecchio.net

CULINARY CORRESPONDENCE

In the past week I received some “Dear John” letters from readers who took exception to my recent column on men, dinner and Mitt Romney.

Here are two excerpts:

• “Was there some reason you had to write nearly one column full of your political bias? I thought the article was supposed to be about food and restaurants? I’ve had enough of the liberal media.”

• “Would you have the same outrage if his preferred example was a man trying to get home to make dinner for his kids?”

Dear Readers,

I’ve been writing Nibbles for more than 25 years. It was so long ago that the reader complaints, rants and raves came by snail mail because e-mail hadn’t been invented yet.

I love a lively dining table discussion and welcome your compliments and diatribes at: jlehndorff@aurorasentinel.com.

Thanks,

John

ON THE MENU

A sign caught my eye from across an Aurora parking lot: Panaderia Tlaquepaque. Unfortunately I was a day late for the pan de muerto — Day of the Dead breads — but the tiny, 7-day-a-week bakery at 2300 S. Chambers Rd. offers the usual Mexican bakery setup with a stack of trays and tongs customers use to pick cookies, pastries, soft rolls for tortas, and other fried and baked goodies. My favorite was a gordita de maiz, a moist corn muffin-like scone with a distinctly Mexican corn-y taste. It was a treat toasted with butter and jam. Also worth a bite: A sugar-dusted cajeta empanada full of creamy caramel.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“A lot of parents ask me how to get kids to eat more vegetables. The first thing I say is that it starts from the top (with parents enjoying eating vegetables).” — Chef Emeril Lagasse

Read more Nibbles at aurorasentinel.com/colorado-table. For regular local food updates, “like” the Nibbles Facebook page. John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles at 8:25 a.m. Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, 1390 AM, and kgnu.org).