Mortadella is an Italian cold cut that earns a spot on your shopping list. Not only is mortadella a wonderful addition to charcuterie board, it's delicious in sandwiches, packed into spaghetti, and more.
What Is Mortadella?

Mortadella is an oily sausage with origins in Bologna, which Italy. It's constructed of cured pork with least 15% pig fat cubes, complete or chopped pistachios, and flavoured with black pepper and juniper berries. The additional fat content gives mortadella its trademark white "polka dot" look.
How To Use Mortadella?
In Italy, it’s typical to see thick cubes or thin slices of mortadella given as an appetizer. This cold cut also works great on a prosciutto board with other meats, dairy products, fruit, bread, and sauces like mustard.
Read Also: Who Makes Mortadella Lunch Meat Recipe?
Mortadella is wonderful in a cold bread or hot panini, and it makes a nice addition to cheesy pastas dishes or tucked into ravioli or tortellini. Numerous Italian meatball dishes call for mortadella for an extra-flavorful spicy element. It can also be combined to produce a spread.
What Does It Taste Like?
The fundamental flavor in mortadella is rich, fatty pork, with notes of spice and hazelnut that are mellowed while cooked. Mortadella has a velvety mouthfeel and hearty appearance, not unlike bologna.
Mortadella vs. Bologna
The biggest distinction between mortadella and salami is how each is prepared. In mortadella, chunks of fat break apart the meat but in bologna the fat and meat are blended into one homogenous combination. Unlike mortadella, which has a rich pork taste and a tinge of spice, bologna can be bland by compare and lacks mortadella's velvety texture (due to its absence of fat cubes).
Varieties
There are two primary forms of mortadella: mortadella and Mortadella Bologna. While the two versions appear and taste identical, Mortadella Bologna denotes it was manufactured in the Emilia-Romagna of Italy. When you find Mortadella Bologna you may see various types as producers will occasionally employ varying quantities of meat to fat as well as different spices.
Where to Buy Mortadella?

Inquire at the deli department in your local grocery shop, but if they don’t offer it, you can find it through an Italian specialty supermarket or order it from specialized markets online.
Read Also: 15 Healthy Lunches for When You Need Something Light
Storage: Keep mortadella in the freezer for up to 7 days. Once opened, put the package in an airtight container.
There is a whole herd of Old York eateries joining in on the fun. Mortadella's the hero of a delicate, open-faced appetizer bouche at Tribeca’s Frenchette, and rears its pink-and-white head as a topping topping at both Lucy Squared and Ops. You can eat it on toasted focaccia at Coco Pazzo, or shaved thick and cooked like a cutlet at Katana Kitten. And over at Black Seed, they're mixing it with dijon butter, a fried egg, and a crunchy bagel for a limited-edition sandwich.
Hang on, Did You Say “Bologna”?
Sure did. Whatever we call “baloney” or “bologna” in the U.S. is a remote relative of mortadella, assumed to have earned its way to Boston through German immigrants. The fundamental differences between bologna and mortadella are a dual one: Making bologna entails a more easier technique, giving in a less silky, nuanced consistency than mortadella, but it can be prepared with other meats minced together with the pork, such beef.
Read Also : What is the most common mistake of first time gardeners?
Mortadella is an Italian cold cut that earns a spot on your shopping list. Not only is mortadella a wonderful addition to charcuterie board, it's delicious in sandwiches, packed into spaghetti, and more.
What Is Mortadella?
Mortadella is an oily sausage with origins in Bologna, which Italy. It's constructed of cured pork with least 15% pig fat cubes, complete or chopped pistachios, and flavoured with black pepper and juniper berries. The additional fat content gives mortadella its trademark white "polka dot" look.
How To Use Mortadella?
In Italy, it’s typical to see thick cubes or thin slices of mortadella given as an appetizer. This cold cut also works great on a prosciutto board with other meats, dairy products, fruit, bread, and sauces like mustard.
Read Also: Who Makes Mortadella Lunch Meat Recipe?
Mortadella is wonderful in a cold bread or hot panini, and it makes a nice addition to cheesy pastas dishes or tucked into ravioli or tortellini. Numerous Italian meatball dishes call for mortadella for an extra-flavorful spicy element. It can also be combined to produce a spread.
What Does It Taste Like?
The fundamental flavor in mortadella is rich, fatty pork, with notes of spice and hazelnut that are mellowed while cooked. Mortadella has a velvety mouthfeel and hearty appearance, not unlike bologna.
Mortadella vs. Bologna
The biggest distinction between mortadella and salami is how each is prepared. In mortadella, chunks of fat break apart the meat but in bologna the fat and meat are blended into one homogenous combination. Unlike mortadella, which has a rich pork taste and a tinge of spice, bologna can be bland by compare and lacks mortadella's velvety texture (due to its absence of fat cubes).
Varieties
There are two primary forms of mortadella: mortadella and Mortadella Bologna. While the two versions appear and taste identical, Mortadella Bologna denotes it was manufactured in the Emilia-Romagna of Italy. When you find Mortadella Bologna you may see various types as producers will occasionally employ varying quantities of meat to fat as well as different spices.
Where to Buy Mortadella?
Inquire at the deli department in your local grocery shop, but if they don’t offer it, you can find it through an Italian specialty supermarket or order it from specialized markets online.
Read Also: 15 Healthy Lunches for When You Need Something Light
Storage: Keep mortadella in the freezer for up to 7 days. Once opened, put the package in an airtight container.
There is a whole herd of Old York eateries joining in on the fun. Mortadella's the hero of a delicate, open-faced appetizer bouche at Tribeca’s Frenchette, and rears its pink-and-white head as a topping topping at both Lucy Squared and Ops. You can eat it on toasted focaccia at Coco Pazzo, or shaved thick and cooked like a cutlet at Katana Kitten. And over at Black Seed, they're mixing it with dijon butter, a fried egg, and a crunchy bagel for a limited-edition sandwich.
Hang on, Did You Say “Bologna”?
Sure did. Whatever we call “baloney” or “bologna” in the U.S. is a remote relative of mortadella, assumed to have earned its way to Boston through German immigrants. The fundamental differences between bologna and mortadella are a dual one: Making bologna entails a more easier technique, giving in a less silky, nuanced consistency than mortadella, but it can be prepared with other meats minced together with the pork, such beef.
Read Also : What is the most common mistake of first time gardeners?