capicola

noun

cap·i·co·la ˌka-pə-ˈkō-lə

ˌkä-

plural capicolas

: a seasoned Italian pork that is cut from the neck and top shoulder (see shoulder entry 1 sense 3), that is often brined and sometimes baked or roasted, and that is cured in a casing

Capicola is a type of cured Italian meat that is frequently used … on sandwiches or in dishes such as pasta and antipasto. It is distinct from cured ham because, while curing, it is coated in either black pepper or hot red pepper powder. … The curing process is usually dry, with cold smoking for more traditional preparations, but it also can be cured after being brined or cooked.—

delightedcooking.com

Of course, there are those who swear by the Irish gangster sandwich, which kicks up the heat index with capicola, provolone, honey mustard and a jalapeno-cheddar bun.—

Susie Davidson Powell

called also capocollo, coppa

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Italian capocollo, capicollo, from capo "head, end, extremity" (going back to Vulgar Latin *capum, Latin caput "head") + collo "neck," going back to Latin collum, collus — more at head entry 1, collar entry 1

Note: Italian capocollo is a standardized Tuscan form of a noun peculiar to the center and south of Italy. The dialect records assembled in Lessico etimologico italiano (vol. 11, columns 1182-83) display, aside from some outliers in Tuscany and Umbria, a range of forms extending from Lazio south into Sicily. The English spelling capicola may indicate reduction of the final vowel. Another English variant, gabagool, shows southern Italian laxing of voiceless stops and weakening or deletion of the final vowel (compare agita, arugula, goombah); it may reflect Neapolitan capecuollo, capecuolle (so recorded in the eighteenth century), though the stressed vowel appears to be a monophthong. The literal sense of the compound is apparently "head of the neck," assuming that capo- has the same role as in other compounds (compare capoguardio "commander of the guard," capopopolo "demagogue"). The meaning "nape of the neck" ("nuca, cervice") is also recorded for forms of the word in Lazio (town of Rieti), Abruzzo (three locations), Molise (town of Santa Croce di Magliano), and the Salento peninsula in Apulia in the eighteenth century (see Lessico etimologico italiano, vol. 11, column 1050).