Description: Profile of Armandino Batali and his famed Salumi salami shop.
Lede:
A dish of pork cheeks, tender and spice-savory, is Armandino Batali’s way of bidding good morning. “Sit down, my love,” he says. “I’ve made a plate for you.” Moments later, another plate appears, with slices of smoked paprika, hot sopressata, and mole salamis. All but the mole (moh-lay) are familiar. It is a new creation inspired by the Mexican sauce that contains spices and chocolate.
The mole salami has pork, ancho and chipotle peppers, cinnamon, cloves and Guittard cocoa. It is deliciously mind-twisting. Chocolate? Ancho and chipotle? At an Italian salumeria?
Why not? Batali, whose meat and sandwich shop, Salumi, is the culinary heart of Pioneer Square, is not one to submit to the status quo. He thinks there isn’t much imagination in salami-making these days, and the mole is his antidote. His brazen attitude toward cured meats is not new, of course. The lamb prosciutto, a Salumi standard, is Batali’s cocky snarl at purists who believe prosciutto can be done only with pork.