Cuisine of Abruzzo facts for kids

The traditional cuisine of Abruzzo is eclectic, drawing on pastoral, mountain, and coastal cuisine. Staples of Abruzzo cuisine include bread, pasta, meat, cheese, and wine. The isolation which has characterized the region for decades has ensured the independence of its culinary tradition from those of nearby regions. Local cuisine was widely appreciated in a 2013 survey among foreign tourists.

Ingredients

Abruzzese cuisine is known for the following ingredients:

• Saffron of l'Aquila, cultivated primarily in Navelli and L'Aquila
• Olive oil produced in Colline Teramane (the Teramo hills), marked by the quality level DOP and considered some of Italy's best
• Liquorice of Atri, primarily produced in Abruzzo and Calabria
• Lamb and mutton, especially in the mountains. Sheep's milk (or ricotta) is an important source of Abruzzese cheese, and sheep intestines are used as sausage casing or for stuffed meat rolls. Mountain goat meat is also occasionally consumed in Abruzzo.
• Truffles and mushrooms, particularly wild mushrooms from the forests and hills
• Garlic, especially red garlic
• Rosemary
• Hot chili pepper or peperoncini, regionally known as diavolilli or diavoletti, is common in Abruzzese cuisine and often used to add spice to dishes.
• Vegetables such as lentils, grasspeas and other legumes; artichoke, eggplant, and cauliflower

Dishes

Starters

Bruschetta

Abbruzzese starters (Italian: antipasti) include:

• Bruschetta: bread spread with salt and oil, sausage, or vegetables such as tomato or zucchini with mozzarella
• Antipasto di fegatini: appetizer from Teramo consisting of chicken livers, onion, peppers, vinegar, sugar, dry wine, pepper, salt and oil
• Mussels of Vasto: mussels stuffed with a mixture of breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, and tomato sauce
• Mussels with saffron: steamed mussels prepared with parsley, onion, bay leaf, white wine, olive oil, and saffron sauce
• Baccalà or salt cod: cod cooked in a pan with potatoes, tomatoes, oil, garlic, parsley, onion, red pepper, salt, and black olives
• Sauce all'aquilana: beef marrow with saffron, eggs, cream and butter

Pasta

Maccheroni alla chitarra

One of the region's most popular dishes is maccheroni alla chitarra. The pasta is prepared by pressing dough through a chitarra, creating long, thin noodles similar to spaghetti. It is served with a tomato-based sauce, often flavored with peppers, pork, goose or lamb, accompanied by regional side dishes such as the bean-and-noodle soup known as sagne e fagioli (flavored with tomatoes, garlic, oil, and peperoncini). Other popular pasta dishes are gnocchi carrati, flavored with bacon and pecorino cheese, and pastuccia (polenta with sausage, eggs, and cheese).

Main courses

Arrosticini

The region features several types of roast lamb and mutton, including:

• Arrosticini: skewered lamb or mutton
• Pecora al cotturo: lamb or mutton stuffed with mountain herbs and cooked in a copper pot
• Lamb cooked whole in a bread oven
• Agnello cacio e ovo: a lamb-based fricassee

Other meat-based main coursees include:

• Mazzerella: lamb intestines stuffed with lamb, garlic, marjoram, lettuce, and spices
• Le virtù: a soup from Teramo with legumes, vegetables and pork, usually eaten in the spring at celebrations
• Timballo abruzzese: lasagna-like dish with pasta sheets (scrippelle) layered with meat, vegetables and rice; often served for Christmas and Easter
• Porchetta abruzzese: moist boneless-pork roast, slow-roasted with rosemary, garlic, and pepper It was brought by Abruzzese immigrants to the northeastern United States (particularly Philadelphia), where it is known as "Italian roast pork" or "roast pork."
• Sagne e fagioli, handmade pasta with beans and tomato sauce

Seafood

Brodetto of Vasto

Seafood also plays an important role in the cuisine of Abruzzo, especially areas near the coast. The main fish dishes of Abruzzo are:

• Brodetti, a fish broth from Vasto, Giulianova and Pescara, is cooked in an earthenware pot and flavored with tomatoes, herbs, and peperoncino.
• Escabeche (marinated fish) from Vasto and it is the only dish in Abruzzo to use saffron, one of the region's most important products. The fish (often skate) is cut into pieces, floured and browned in a frying pan. The vinegar-based marinade can preserve the fish for 20 to 30 days in wooden containers which are passed from generation to generation.
• Stockfish (Baccalà) or salt cod is another seafood dish of region: is a cod cooked in a pan with potatoes, tomatoes, oil, garlic, parsley, onion, red pepper, salt, and black olives.
• Marinated anchovies: they are seasoned anchovies marinated with garlic, parsley, oregano, lemon, oil, salt, pepper.
• Mussels with saffron: classic cooked mussels prepared with parsley, onion, bay leaf, white wine, olive oil and seasoned with saffron sauce.
• Marinara appetizer: mixed fish appetizer with squid, clams and scampi seasoned with a sauce composed of anchovies, tuna, capers, vinegar, garlic, and parsley.
• Raw squid: typical of Pescara, they are squid boiled in vinegar, and then seasoned with chopped garlic sauce, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and hot pepper.
• Vastese-style mussels: stuffed mussels with a mixture of breadcrumbs, minced garlic and parsley, oil, a few drops of lemon and a little tomato sauce.
• Appetizer alla giuliese: mixed fish with minced garlic, parsley, lemon juice, oil and salt and green sauce made with tuna, anchovies, capers, green peppers, oil and vinegar.
• Crudo di calamaretti: typical of Pescara, they are baby squid boiled in vinegar, and then seasoned with minced garlic sauce, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and hot pepper.
• Marinara appetizer: mixed fish appetizer with squid, clams and scampi seasoned with a sauce composed of anchovies, tuna, capers, vinegar, garlic, and parsley.
• Crostini alla chietina: homemade triangular slices of bread dipped in beaten egg and fried in a pan, preferably with olive oil garnished with anchovies, capers and butter.
• Marinated anchovies: they are seasoned anchovies marinated with garlic, parsley, oregano, lemon, oil, salt, pepper.
• Mussels with saffron: classic cooked mussels prepared with parsley, onion, bay leaf, white wine, olive oil and seasoned with saffron sauce.
• Pasta with Scampi or Paste nghe l'Aragustine: Typical dish of the stretch of coast between Pescara and Vasto. Adriatic scampi, tomato, garlic and parsley. A light sauce is prepared with which Spaghetti alla Chitarra or Rintrocilo are seasoned.
• Pasta alla chitarra con i Pelosi: Another dish of Abruzzo's seafood cuisine made with large hairy crabs (genus Pilumnus hirtellus) found on the cliffs between Pescara and Vasto. The almost disappearance of these crabs has prohibited their capture, but they can still be tasted in some restaurants on the coast (if you know the cook). The shell is browned in oil and the peeled tomatoes are poured.

Breads and pizzas

• Pane di mais (cornbread): primarily loaves and oval, an Easter variant adds boiled potatoes, olive oil, eggs and milk.
• Bread of Senator Cappelli: primarily in the province of Chieti, it has made a comeback.
• Bread ear, named for its ear-like appearance
• Scrippelle: a rustic pancake-like dish from Teramo, similar to a French-style crêpe and served mbusse (in broth) or part of a soufflé with ragù and stuffed with chicken liver, meatballs, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese

Rustic pizzas are also common:

• Easter Pizza (Pizza di Pasqua), a rustic pizza with cheese and pepper from the Teramo area
• Pizza fritta, shallow-fried pizza
• Fiadoni from Chieti: a dough of risen eggs and cheese, baked in a thin pastry shell

Salumi

Salumi (singular salume) is an Italian term describing the preparation of cured meat products made predominantly from pork.

Mortadella di Campotosto

Spreadable sausage flavored with nutmeg and liver sausage with garlic and spices are hallmarks of Teramo cuisine. Ventricina from the Vasto area is made with large pieces of fat and lean pork, pressed and seasoned with powdered sweet peppers and fennel and encased in dried pig stomach. Mortadella di Campotosto (well known in Abruzzo) is an oval, dark-red mortadella with a white column of fat. They are generally sold in pairs, tied together. Another name for the mortadella is coglioni di mulo (donkey's balls). It is made from shoulder and loin meat, prosciutto trimmings and fat. It is 80 percent lean meat; 25 percent is prosciutto (ham), and 20 percent is pancetta. The meat is minced and mixed with salt, pepper and white wine.

Cheeses

The region's principal cheeses are:

• White cow cheese, a soft cheese made from cow's milk
• Caciocavallo abruzzese, a soft, slightly elastic dairy product made from raw, whole cow's milk with rennet and salt
• Caciofiore Aquilano, made from raw whole sheep's milk, rennet, artichokes and saffron (which gives it its characteristic yellow color)
• Caciotta vaccination frentana, a half-cooked, semi-hard cheese made from raw whole cow's milk, rennet and salt
• Canestrato of Castel del Monte, a hard cheese made from raw whole sheep's milk, with rennet and salt

Caprino

• Caprino abruzzese, made from raw whole goat milk (sometimes with sheep's milk), curd, and salt
• Cheese and curd stazzo, cheese and byproducts obtained from the processing of raw milk from sheep, cattle and goats
• Junket vaccination or Abruzzo sprisciocca, a soft fresh cheese made from raw whole cow's milk, rennet, and salt
• Pecorino d'Abruzzo: one of Abruzzo's flagship products—a mild, semi-hard (or hard) cheese with holes, made from raw whole sheep's milk, rennet, and salt
• Pecorino di Atri, a compact, semi-cooked cheese made from sheep's milk, rennet and salt
• Pecorino di Farindola, cheese made from sheep's milk and pork rennet (a special type of rennet, made by filling a dried pork stomach with vinegar and white wine for forty days)
• Ricotta, made from the remnants of the coagulation of raw whole sheep's milk, heated after filtration
• Scamorza d'Abruzzo, a stretched curd cheese made from cow's milk, rennet (liquid or powder) and salt

Atri and Rivisondoli are known for their cheeses. Mozzarella (fresh or seasoned) is typically made from ewe's milk; many lesser-known cheeses are found throughout Abruzzo and Molise.

Desserts and sweets

Pizzelle are a typical Abruzzo sweet.

Abruzzo's sweets are well-known:

• Dragée (also known as confetti): sugar-coated almonds from Sulmona
• Torrone Nurzia: chocolate nougat from L'Aquila
• Parrozzo: a cake-like treat made from crushed almonds and coated in chocolate
• Pizzelle (also known as ferratelle): a waffle cookie, often flavored with anise
• Croccante, a type of nougat made from almonds and caramelized sugar, often flavored with lemon
• Calgionetti, cagionetti, caggiunitti, caviciunette: Christmas fritters, sometimes filled with chestnuts or chickpeas and flavored with chocolate or cocoa
• Bocconotti: stuffed sweets often served for Christmas
• Zeppole di San Giuseppe: fried or baked pastries made for Saint Joseph's Day
• Sise delle monache ^[it], two layers of sponge cake filled with custard, produced in the town of Guardiagrele in the province of Chieti

Fruits

The region's principal fruits are:

• Agrumi della costa dei trabocchi: coastal citrus (particularly oranges), used for jam and limoncello
• Castagna roscetta della Valle Roveto and Marrone di Valle Castellana: types of chestnut
• Ciliege di Raiano e di Giuliano Teatino: a local cherry
• Mandorle di Navelli: almonds from the town of Navelli
• Mela della Valle Giovenco: apples from the region
• Uva di Tollo e Ortona: table grapes, also used for jam

Alcoholic drinks

A Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine labelled as made from old vines

The region's principal wines are:

• Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (red)
• Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
• Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, the region's wine white. In 2012, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo topped 50 Italian wines. Other wines are Montonico, Pecorino, Passerina, and Controguerra.

Liqueurs include:

• Genziana liqueur, a liqueur made from gentian root
• Centerba, an aromatic liqueur made from infused herbs
• Aurum: brandy-based Pescara liquor with a 40-percent alcohol content, infused with oranges
• Ratafià, black-cherry liqueur and wine (primarily Montepulciano d'Abruzzo)
• Amaro Abruzzese, made of herbs, roots, and an infusion of fresh citrus fruits

IGT wines are Alto Tirino, Colli Aprutini, Colli del Sangro, Colline Frentane, Colline Pescaresi, Colline Teatine, Del Vastese (or Histonium), Terre di Chieti, and Valle Peligna.

See also

In Spanish: Gastronomía de Abruzos para niños