Get to know the food of Abruzzo Abruzzo tends to fly under the radar for tourists and, in fact, a lot of the rest of Italy – until around 100 years ago the region was quite an isolated, remote part of the country. While it’s still mostly wild countryside (brown bears, wolves and golden eagles all call Abruzzo their home), Abruzzese cuisine is now famed for offering an untouched, ‘pure’ example of Italian food. With hills perfect for rearing sheep and an abundant coastline for fishing, where you are in Abruzzo will dictate what’s on the menu.
Whenever you see a trabocchi (a basic wooden fisherman’s hut built on stilts), a steaming bowl of brodetto will never be too far away. Further inland, lamb is cooked every which way – over fire on skewers, slowly roasted, chopped and simmered into ragù for pasta or even braised with eggs, cheese and lemon for Easter. For a land that’s been traditionally isolated and full of shepherds and fishermen, Abruzzese dishes are actually quite luxurious – especially when compared to the cucina povera found further south.
Pasta has always been heavily produced here, often containing egg, and specialist crops like saffron and liquorice have been harvested for centuries (although most of this didn’t stay in the region). Abruzzo is a green heartland where abundance doesn’t come from wealth or power – it comes from a deep-rooted tradition of animal husbandry and aeons of artisanal production. Our hero recipe from Abruzzo by Dan.