Local Specialities in Food and Drink - AbruzzoHolidayInformation
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Local Specialities in Food and Drink
Italy is synonymous with great food, and tradition in its preparation.
Abruzzo has a rich source of great ingredients, fish, meat , vegetables and cheeses are abundant. As a rule, if you want great fish, eat on the beach and if you want great meat, go to the mountains.
There are some foods you will mainly only find in Abruzzo or that are just better in Abruzzo. Let’s start with wine! Abruzzo has two local wines they specialise in, Montepulciano (a heavy red) and Pecorino (a full flavoured white). They also have all other wines, and of international acclamation which are to try, but when in Abruzzo, the local specialities need to be enjoyed.
Producing your own wine is very fulfilling. You need expert help of course – any local man over the age of 60 will have gallons of advice. If you don’t have a vineyard and antique wooden tools available to you then you could always take a trip to a local winery.
To witness the wine making process you need to travel to Lanciano from the end of September to the end of October – just after the Lanciano festival. Day and night tractors full of local grapes driven by exhausted and thirsty farmers flow into the building. The new wine comes on to the market on the 11th November (famous date for Italians) where men get together for a night of “wine tasting” and merriment.
Wines from Abruzzo are no longer secret tips but internationally respected brands. That is enough talk, come and see for yourself, and “Salute”.
Olive oil is also a local product of great pride. Most locally produced olive oils (all are extra virgin) are fabulous but there are some frantoi who have taken a step forward in their quality, like Ursini for Fossacesia.The population disappears in November. The streets are empty. While growing grapes is becoming less popular growing olives seems to be everybody’s pass time in Abruzzo. If people are not at work, they are in the fields picking olives in November. On a warm Autumn’s day, it is great fun and I recommend it. Having your own oil makes any local family proud. Oil tasting is also an important skill. You can visit farm houses and taste various flavours of oil.
Passata is the famous tomato sauce used for pasta and pizza. A tradition that continues today in Abruzzo is making your own sauce. In August, when you usually have more time on your hands, families choose a day when they get up at sun rise and spend half to the whole day bottling home grown tomatoes to have a years supply of passata.
Passata is the famous tomato sauce used for pasta and pizza. A tradition that continues today in Abruzzo is making your own sauce. In August, when you usually have more time on your hands, families choose a day when they get up at sun rise and spend half to the whole day bottling home grown tomatoes to have a years supply of passata.
Ice-cream is mainly home made and has a long line of flavours, from the classics to strange stuff. There are also sorbets and vegan varieties. Some of the best icecream is at San Vito - 'Coppa Da Dora' , and 'Caffè ai Portici' at Lanciano. Again at Lanciano, Bar Piccadilly has already prepared home made icecreams on a stick and in a cone which are amazing, and 'Dolce Amaro' has some cute icecream puddings. For an ice cream cake, try 'La Dolcissima' from Lanciano to Fossacesia.
Then we have Lemoncello, a lemon sweet liquor produced in Villa Santa Maria (and other locations) which is a most drinkable digestivo to “kill your coffee – ammazzacaffè” after a long lunch. Each family has the best limoncello and a secret
recipe that dates back generations. In Abruzzo you make liquors out of
anything you grow in the garden.
And then there’s coffee. The one thing I always miss when I’m not in Italy. Don’t be a tourist, just go for the simple coffees on the menu like “un caffè” (espresso) or cappuccino , you can have a dash of milk in your caffè and it becomes a “Caffè macchiato – stained coffee” if you a feeling adventourous ask for “una correzione – a correction” that is a drop of liquor like Sambuca. Don’t forget, milk shouldn’t be drunk after 10.30 – it’s bad for you digestion, yes, Italians are obsessed with their indigestion.
Each town has a speciality. I’m from Lanciano, so well talk about “Bocconotti” or a dark bite. There are now many variations, but the traditional version is a small pie with a chocolate and nut filling and icing sugar sprinkled on top … very nice.
I would also like to mention “Le Sise delle Monache” or Nuns Boobs (sorry!) a soft sponge of three peaks with a vanilla cream filling and a lot of icing sugar sprinkled on top (you will get covered). These are made in two old shops in Guardiagrele. Although the cake is nice, the story is much cuter, and it’s a great excuse to visit Guardiagrele. They say that the cake is in memory of the heroic nuns who smuggled items (and people) during the 2nd world war down their tops making them seem to have three breasts.
The whole of Italy is in awe for our Arrosticini! Small pieces of lamb on sticks, like a kebab, and grilled with oil and salt. Fantastic.
If you like spicy food, try pickled, stuffed chilly peppers. There are other less dangerous pickles that are equally tasty of course and less extreme.
Strangely, honey is also a local specialty. Even stranger, so are sugared almonds and truffles.
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The grapes are then loaded into a wooden press where they have the juice squeezed out of them. The left over grapes are broken up and squeezed a second time. The juice is left in barrels and on the 11th November ready for tasting.
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