Traditional 'pajata' back on menu as EU lifts mad cow norm

(ANSA) Rome, July 16 - Traditional Roman 'pajata' made from the intestines of an unweaned calf is back on Italian menus after the EU on Thursday lifted restrictions imposed in 2001 in the face of mad cow disease (BSE).
    The EU's Official Gazette sanctioned a March decision by the permanent committee on vegetable and animal foodstuffs in Brussels voted Tuesday night to lift the restrictions given that there have been no new cases of BSE - bovine spongiform encephalopathy - since 2009.
    Coldiretti president Roberto Moncalvo hailed pajata's return as "an important result for consumers, restaurants, cooks, butchers and farmers".
    Moncalvo also lauded the "decisive commitment of the Health Ministry" in the decision.
    In March Coldiretti chefs celebrated the ruling by cooking a massive pot of steaming, pungent pajata in the organisation's Rome headquarters.
    To make pajata, traditionally eaten with rigatoni pasta, the intestines are cleaned and skinned, but the chyme is left inside. Then the intestine is cut in pieces 20 - 25 cm long, which are bound together with white thread, forming rings.
    Thursday's ruling also covers salami and other cold cuts made from cattle intestines.