Taste test: Fortuna’s Sausages from Vermont

▪ THE PRODUCT: Fortuna’s Sausages.

▪ THE STORY: Sandgate, Vermont-based Fortuna’s has been making Italian-style cured meats and sausages for generations.

Its signature “Soupy” (available in sweet, mild, hot and nuclear) is a pork-based soppressata sausage that Calabrese immigrants — like company owner Patti Fortuna’s grandparents — brought to New England in the early 1900s.

I liked the peppery, porky Soupy, but was much more taken with Fortuna’s pepperoni, a blend of lean pork, smoke and spices that’s dry-cured for two months.

Salami fans will enjoy Fortuna’s take on the Genoa style, with whole black peppercorns and fennel seeds flecked among coarse-ground pork (including luscious specks of fat).

▪ THE PRICE: Individual salami and sausages cost about $14 to $25. Samplers start at $50. Fortuna’s also sells a range of Italian-made food products.

▪ WHERE: fortunasausage.com or 800-42-SOUPY.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Taste test: Fortuna’s Sausages from Vermont."