In some ways, Abruzzese cuisine is the undiscovered treasure of Italian gastronomy. While tourists rhapsodize over Tuscan cuisine and Italians wax poetic over Emilian cuisine, only the select few have so far truly delved into the flavors of Abruzzo's kitchen.
Your Monaghan Vacations luxury cottage in Vestea is a unique and convenient base to commence your gastronomic exploration of one of the world's great cuisines.
Abruzzese cooks are masters at turning simple ingredients (perhaps a handful of freshly plucked beans from the garden plot, gleaming black mussels, golden noodles) into glorious feasts. They flavor their dishes with hot chili pepper, aromatic saffron, fruity olive oil.
Like in most of Italy, pasta is the preferred Abruzzese first course, and none is as typical as maccheroni alla chitarra ("guitar pasta"): sheets of egg dough are cut using a flat rolling pin on a wooden box with strings (hence the name "guitar"). The secret is the hard wheat and the clean water of the mountains. The sauces are usually made with ground meat of beef, pork, mutton and duck, or lamb sauce pecorino cheese and lard from pig’s cheek. Also very good is the maccheroni alla mulinara of Bisenti and the sagnacce of Teatino. 
Crêpes (called scrippelle) are rolled around savory fillings, dropped into broths, or layered with cheese, vegetables, and meat before baking. Polenta is usually enjoyed with a spicy sausage ragù or hearty meat sauce. Vegetables and pulses are the base of many delicious soups. A mainly Teramo peasant tradition are the cutely named le virtù, a soup made with 7 different kinds of vegetables and pulses, 7 fresh vegetables, 7 kinds of pasta and 7 kinds of meat. Another Teramo tradition is the le scrippelle 'mbusse, the crepes/omelettes covered with chicken broth.
In the region's port cities, just-caught fish is marinated in a vinegary brine, and rich soups are concocted from dozens of types of fish and seafood.The seafood is always excellent, and always fresh. Adriatic sea fish is usually small and tasty. It's cooked in many different ways according to the traditions of the regional localities. Other piscine staples of Abruzzo cuisine are the delicious shellfish like lobster and prawns. Abruzzo's most typical regional fish dish is the brodetto, a tasty soup made with sea fish of various kinds like: prawns, codfish, sepia, mullet, soles, rockfish, smooth dogfish, cicada fish, mussels and clams. You will find this famous fish dish prepared throughout the north and south coast. The locals beleive the best is competition between the brodetto's of Giulianova and Vasto. In Vasto it is cooked in a typical earthenware dish. "Scapece" is another special fish dish of Vasto - here boneless fried fish preserved in vinegar with plenty of Navelli saffron, which gives it its yellow color.
In the mountains, shepherding remains a common way to make a living, so lamb, kid, sheep, and mountain goat are mainstays of the diet; wine, garlic, olive oil, and rosemary are favorite flavorings, especially when the source of heat is a lively wood fire. One of the region's wonderful meat traditions is arrosticini cubed mutton grilled on open charcoal fires - tender and flavorful.
Many farm families still raise their own pigs, and free-roaming pigs yield flavorful, lean meat and tasty salumi (cured meats).
Pastries tend to be unsophisticated: olive oil is often used instead of butter, nuts or dried fruit provide bulk and flavor, and sheep's milk ricotta, a favorite in central and southern Italy, shows up in fritters and sweet cakes. The typical Abruzzo cakes are the pizza dolce, the calcionetti filled with marmelade, pine-kernels and walnuts, the fichi maritati with almonds and laurel, the sise delle monache, the cicerchiata and the croccante of almonds.
Sulmona, which is not only Ovid's birthplace and location for the beautiful Cathedral and Churches, the Palace of Annunziata (now the municipal
museum), and the interesting Piazza del Carmine with the Renaissance
Fontana del Vecchi, is most famous for its confetti (sugared almonds.
Abruzzo a gourmet's paradise. Explore it all from your luxury cottage. An experience you will never forget.
Comments