Eating and shoppin in Abruzzo

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Shopping and eating

List of Restaurants

Shopping

?Made in Italy? is synonymous for design and attention. Abruzzo offers your ?made in Italy? brands at more affordable prices. The smaller cities and town like Casoli, Lanciano or Vasto have an excellent choice of boutiques, new Italian outfit from shoes to jacket, not forgetting the accessorizes. But being a very green region, Abruzzo also offers fresh farm products like oil, olive, cold meats, cheeses, pickles and internationally recognised quality wines.

We can suggest other town such as Chieti, Roccaraso, Casoli, Guardiagrele, Lama Dei peligni, Palena, Altino or Civitella Messer Raimondo to buy typical products.

Then there is Fara San Martino to buy pasta. In the ?pasta valley? using fresh mountain water to make the best pasta in the world.

There are also a lot of outdoor markets where you can buy souvenirs and gifts or foods for your friends.

List of outdoor markets

Eating

Abruzzo has always been a land of great food, grown from the uncontaminated mountains, lakes, hills and coast.

Traditional products include oils, cheeses, wines, pasta, meats, honey, liqueurs, and many other specialities.

Customers sitting in restaurants or farmhouses can taste the simplicity of the cuisine, which is notable for its abundance and freshness. Also Abruzzi wines are very popular all over Europe. The traditional vines are Trebbiano for the whites and Montepulciano d?Abruzzo for the reds. A reference point for wine-lovers is Enoteca Regionale located in Ortona at Palazzo Corvo where it is possible to taste and purchase the best Abruzzi wines.

FOOD AND DRINK

Wine

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?.

Oil

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

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.

Other local specialties

Apart from great pizza, pasta, meat, fish and vegetables, Abruzzo produces some unique and fantastic liquors. The king is Limoncello ? a lemon based liquor. 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.

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.

I have a favourite restaurant for all occasions and all types of food ? you just need to ask.

Local products and food

Pecorino / Sheep

Sheep farming is the most common form of animal farming in Abruzzo. Hence the importance of its role in regional gastronomy of Pecorino (ewe?s milk cheese, either fresh or seasoned) and sheep ricotta . Cow milk is used to prepare the traditional scamorza (dried mozzarella) on the main plateaux, especially in the area of Rivisondoli and Pescocostanzo, excellent caciocavallo (a bigger form of dried mozzarella), and dairy products such as trecce (platted), bocconcini (very small fresh mozzarella), and fiordilatte (small fresh mozzarella) are produced.

Truffle

Among the 28 truffle varieties in Abruzzo, the best known and most widespread is the black truffle. Truffle hunting is both big industry and a pass time for the local man with his dog. The quality is high and of great local pride. As you can imagine, many dishes, especially white sauces on pasta, include the ?tartufo nero? ? black truffle.

Arrosticini

Arrosticini are thin mutton skewers grilled over charcoal (baby kebabs).

Extra-virgin olive oil

The Doc extra-virgin olive oil is just as good as any of the best Italian oils. Production of olive oil is ever more important to the area and most families still spend three weekends a year picking the olives and then taking them to the mill to press their own oil for the year. To participate, pay a visit around November ? December.

Sweet pastries

The traditional sweet pastries of Abruzzo are mostaccioli (chocolate covered nut biscuit), boccanotto from Castel Frentano (small pies with chocolate and nut filling), pizzelle (small whaffles), cicerchiata (pastry balls stuck together with honey).

Pasta Valley

In Abruzzo there is one of the Italian capitals of pasta production: Fara San Martino which is a small town at the foot of the Majella. Since ancient times there have been three specialised manufacturers that now export all over the world: Pastificio De Cecco, Pastificio Del Verde and Pastificio Cavalier Cocco.

Meats

The processing of pork, widespread activity in the region, has lead to the creation of a wide range of hams, sausages, salamis, such as the tasty liver sausage which is often preserved in oil. Typical products include: smocked ham, mortadella from Campotosto and ventricina produced in the mountains near Chieti.

Honey (. . . More)

Excellent and delicious tasting honey is produced all over Abruzzo. The bee-keepers of Abruzzo produce superb propolis and royal jelly.

parrozzo(chocolate covered sponge)

confetti (sugar almonds) from Sulmona