Abruzzo
Abruzzo is Italy's mountain region on the Adriatic side, directly east of Rome. Its cooking splits between highland shepherding (mutton skewers, sheep's cheeses, mountain lentils and saffron) and a lean Adriatic fish tradition built around brodetto, a tomato-and-chilli seafood stew.
Two-thirds of Abruzzo sits above 600 metres. The Gran Sasso, the highest massif in the Apennines, and the Majella fill the interior, national parks cover roughly a third of the region, and the Adriatic coastline runs almost straight for 130 kilometres with no deep harbours. Cutting across it all are the tratturi, grass droving roads a hundred paces wide along which flocks walked south to winter in Puglia until the 1950s. Sheep explain half the food here: arrosticini, small skewers of hand-cut mutton grilled over a narrow charcoal trough and eaten by the dozen; pecorino di Farindola, the only Italian sheep's cheese set with pig rennet; lamb cooked with egg and cheese.
The other half is the high plateau and the pig. At Navelli, an hour inland from L'Aquila, Zafferano dell'Aquila DOP is still picked at dawn and stripped by hand, flower by flower. The crop arrived from Spain in the fourteenth century with a Dominican friar. Nearby are the tiny dark lentils of Santo Stefano di Sessanio and the smoked mortadella of Campotosto, a salami with a white column of fat down its centre. In the far south, around Vasto, the local star is ventricina: pork cut with a knife point, sweet dried pepper and wild fennel, packed into a pig's bladder and aged for months.
The provinces are less alike than the map suggests. Teramo, in the north, has the most elaborate cooking in the region, inherited from Bourbon Naples: paper-thin crêpes rolled in broth, layered timbales, and le virtù, a May Day soup that empties the winter store of dried pulses into the first spring vegetables. L'Aquila is pure mountain: pulses, saffron, cheese. Chieti and the Sangro coast live on olive oil, ventricina and fish: brodetto alla vastese is layered in an earthenware pot and never stirred.
Wine follows the same vertical logic. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (no relation to the Tuscan town of Montepulciano, this is a grape) covers the hills from top to bottom and changes with every valley. The one to order with grilled mutton is Cerasuolo, a deep cherry-coloured rosé made by leaving the juice on the skins for only a few hours.
Signature dishes
- Arrosticini (hand-cut mutton skewers)
- Maccheroni alla chitarra (pasta cut on a guitar-string frame)
- Scrippelle 'mbusse (thin crêpes rolled in broth)
- Timballo teramano (crêpe-layered baked timbale)
- Pallotte cacio e ova (cheese and egg dumplings in tomato)
- Brodetto alla vastese (Adriatic fish stew)
- Ventricina del Vastese (coarse spiced pork salami)
- Parrozzo (almond and chocolate dome cake)
Foods from here
When to go
Spring opens with le virtù, cooked around Teramo every 1 May, and village food festivals then run through to September. Late August brings the Perdonanza in L'Aquila and porchetta at Campli. October is the month to plan around: the Montepulciano harvest, and the saffron crop at Navelli, which flowers for only two or three weeks and is picked before sunrise so the blooms stay closed. From November to February the calendar turns to pork, aged sheep's cheeses and the panarda, an old Aquila banquet that can run to thirty courses. Arrosticini are eaten year-round, but they belong to summer evenings in the mountains, where the grills are set up outside the bar.
Frequently asked
What is Abruzzo known for?
Abruzzo is Italy's mountain region on the Adriatic, directly east of Rome. It is known for arrosticini, small skewers of hand-cut mutton grilled over a narrow charcoal trough, for saffron grown at Navelli, and for Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a red wine from a grape unrelated to the Tuscan town of the same name.
Is the food in Abruzzo spicy?
Mildly, by Calabrian standards. Chilli is used across the region, where it is often called diavolino, and it is a defining note in ventricina, the coarse pork salami from around Vasto made with sweet dried pepper and wild fennel. Most other dishes are seasoned plainly: mutton, sheep's cheese and pulses.
When is the best time to visit Abruzzo for food?
October, if you only make one trip. The Montepulciano harvest falls then, and the saffron at Navelli flowers for just two or three weeks and is picked before sunrise. Summer suits arrosticini, grilled outside mountain bars most evenings, and winter suits aged sheep's cheeses and cured pork.
What food should I bring home from Abruzzo?
Saffron from L'Aquila, sold in threads rather than powder, is the lightest valuable thing to carry. Also worth the space: the small dark lentils of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, ventricina salami, and sugared almonds from Sulmona, a town that has made confetti for centuries and sells them shaped into flowers.
What wine should I drink in Abruzzo?
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo for red, and Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo when you are eating grilled mutton: a deep cherry-coloured rosé made by leaving the juice on the skins for only a few hours. The region's one DOCG is Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane, from the hills behind Teramo.