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The sandwich sounds disgusting but the thin slices delectable.

"Lardo" sounds like something I might have called my sister when we were kids.

Mario Battali's Otto in NYC has a wonderful lardo pizza on the menu.

I had lardo in Lucca, which is one of the main producers (or at least sellers) in Tuscany. I had in a restaurant as part of the pre-meal bread, and it came sliced very, very thinly on a piece of warm foaccacia. It was so thin, it had mostly melted into the top of the bread, and every bite was sweet, salty and amazing! Served this way, it'll be like the best butter you've ever had!

I had lardo at The Publican in Chicago - it was very good! Very delicate, kind of just a slight smoky/bacony/butter flavor, pretty much melted in the mouth. I recommend it highly!

@ EasilyAmused - I was thinking the same thing!

I've never heard of this before, but I'm definitely going to have to try it out!

I had some and it was tasty, but I couldn't get over the texture (amateur!). Kind of like shortening.

Lardo is heaven. It's really common in Tuscany and Umbria...It's among the best things I've ever eaten, especially sliced very thin and served on pieces of hot-from-the-oven foccacia. Oh god. (And yes, they have a Lardo pizza at Otto Enoteca, though I seem to recall being slightly disappointed the last time I ordered it being.)

I just had some asparagus with lardo over at Delphina's Pizzeria. It was delectable! Never having had lardo before, I was mightily impressed. It was like eating asparagus withe the loveliest taste of salted butter. Divine.

reading the comments, my stomach started growling.
so there you go.
as someone raised on bacon, anything fatbacky is up my alley.

VW

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just a note about "lardons"...

until I moved here, I thought that they cubes of fatty bacon, as you write above... but I have since found that "lardons" are bacon to be sure, but they are much more meaty than fatty. In supermarkets, you buy them already cut-up in thick rectangles (not cubes).

We just bought some lardo made by Formaggio in Boston. I really enjoyed it, my husband was not so into it. I think he will like it on pizza better. Surprisingly, our 2-year old really enjoyed it. Last night we had it fried up with shrimp, for those of you that don't like the texture of it, you might enjoy it when it's nice and crisp!

We had lardo - the thinnest slices possible - melting on hot polenta in Bergamo, Italy. Delicious.

oops - once again I mixed up lardo with pancetta.

Lardo is fantastic, just don't eat too much of it!

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RE:

I have to disagree with this post. My friends and I were urged by our waiter to order this pizza at Otto and were absolutely disgusted! The lardo lacked any notable flavor and it was more like eating a slice of grease. What a waste of money! Save your money and just drink the left over grease from frying bacon. That's probably taste just as good and is a heck of a lot cheaper.

Ok, so this "lardo" is a different term for an old product in the South- Fatback (as casually mentioned in the article above). Point blank it is disgusting to just eat it as a main entity- its purely fat with a "strip of lean" (also another name for it).

Mainly, in the US, before a special spin was put on it to make it sound exotic, it was used for flavoring dishes for the cheap, especially in the south when money was scarce and a big family needed to be fed.

For someone to put this on pizza or as an appetizer is just mad- especially to be charging a premium for something so cheap!

I guess those of you who would eat it off of a Mario Battali menu just because it is presented with pomp, should think twice before paying the premium... Oh and think about your heart, you are just consuming FAT after all.

I ate at Battali's joint Carnevino at the Palazzo in vegas- they serve lardo along with butter as a spread for your breads, it was absolutely killer. Truthfully everything our group had at that place was amazing -expensive- but amazing, I'm not sure if I will ever eat a better steak.

For the sake of our hearts, lardo shouldn't taste so good. But it does. Oh, how it does...I first had lardo at Pizzeria Mozza (another Batali/Silverton joint) and it changed my life. Think salty, creamy frosting. It's soooo flavorful. So wrong. I also tried a great cured lardo at Palate Food and Wine in LA it made me want to cry. The way it melts in your mouth. So simple. So good.

Everyone should try it. And to everyone who doesn't understand it...Thank you! There's more for me!

I remember my vegetarian friend telling me, in horrified tones, about her discovery of lardo. She was even more horrified when I told her it sounded tasty (in very thin slices, of course). I still have yet to try it, but it's just not something I've run into.