Lucanica
# Lucanica

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 troops or slaves from Lucania.

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 semolina
* Modern Hebrew naqniq (נקניק), an umbrella term for "sausage".
* Basque lukainka
* Croatian luganiga, flavored with cinnamon

Today, lucanica sausage is identified as Lucanica di Picerno, produced in Basilicata (whose territory was part of the ancient Lucania).

