Panino con soppressata lucana is the leaner, fennel-leaning member of the pressed-salame family, and Basilicata's hand shows in both of those words. The Lucanian soppressata, from the region also called Lucania, is a pressed pork salame built with a higher proportion of lean meat than the soft Calabrian version and seasoned through with wild fennel seed alongside the chilli, so the aromatic note that comes forward is fennel rather than pure heat. The texture is firmer and drier, the slice holds a clean edge, and the flavour is savoury and herbal with warmth behind it rather than fire in front of it. This restraint is the defining trait: where Calabria pushes chilli and soft fat, Basilicata pushes leanness and aromatic seed, and the sandwich is framed to show that difference.
The craft is in cutting a firmer salame correctly and letting the fennel carry. Because the Lucanian style is drier and leaner, it is sliced thin to medium, thin enough to stay supple but not so thin that it dries to a chip, and laid in overlapping folds so the aromatic spice releases as you bite rather than reading as a flat salt note. The bread is a plain Basilicata roll or a piece of the region's rustic loaf with a firm crust, present to hold the meat and nothing more, since a leaner cured meat does not flood the crumb and does not need a sauce to be complete. The pairing logic is the standard southern one of subtraction: one well-seasoned salame, the right honest bread, and the discipline to add nothing that would bury the fennel.
The variations are about what Basilicata sets beside it. The lean soppressata appears with the region's peperoni cruschi, the dried sweet peppers fried crisp, for a contrast of supple meat and shattering pepper, or alongside a sharp local cheese. The other pressed soppressata, the hot soft Calabrian, the Molisan, and the base southern style, are distinct preparations of their own provinces, and the Tuscan soprassata is a cooked gelatinous head cheese altogether apart. Each deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here.