The modern sausage, being a type of salame, is based on fatty pork and whole black peppercorns. Soppressata has, however, evolved from an early Tuscan farmer's sausage, which consisted of pork offcuts, pieces of cartilage, and so on, which were stuffed into an animal skin and cooked until soft.

Modern soppressata is almost exclusively served as part of an antipasto selection, or as a diced or sliced sausage addition to pasta sauces.

research sources include about.com, The Cook's Thesaurus, and several web recipes translated by Google