Cudighi: The U.P.'s Sweet-Spiced Secret

Order a “cudighi” almost anywhere outside Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and you’ll get a blank stare. Up in Marquette County, though, it’s a beloved staple — a sandwich built on a sausage you won’t find quite like this anywhere else.

Cudighi (roughly “KOO-duh-ghee”) is a spicy Italian-style sausage with an unusual twist: it’s seasoned with sweet spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove — often with a little red wine. The sausage gets pressed into a patty, grilled, and served on a roll with melted mozzarella and tomato or pizza sauce; ask for “the works” and you’ll get mushrooms, peppers, and onions piled on too. It arrived with Italian immigrants who came to mine in the U.P. around the turn of the last century, and the modern sandwich is usually traced to about 1936, when one immigrant began selling them (spelled “gudighi” back then).

Here’s the curious part: the word “cudighi” is essentially unknown in Italy today. It seems to descend from an old northern-Italian sausage called cotechino, but the recipe and the name, as Yoopers know them, have become a one-of-a-kind U.P. creation.