A little more detail about the ingredients used in each of Abruzzo’s provincial cuisines
Cachi is Italy’s most aesthetically beautiful Autumn fruit. Its soul-stirring shades of spotted pinks, reds & orange leaves counter setting the clocks back
Autumn in Abruzzo begins in earnest in mid-October, down on its wine-growing hills, valleys and Adriatic beaches it’s still a temperate 24C mid-October
Fresh talli d’aglio resemble a long skinny spring onion with woody multi-kneed joints no wonder I didn’t recognise them from the jars of preserved ‘Zolla’
Mmmmm sweet marjoram, I grow it on my terrace and the old ladies in the their orto but its pull is outdone by that of the scrubby wild patch of wild marjoram
Abruzzo liquorice may not have as intriguingly edible a mascot as Bassetts’ Bertie, but it has a pedigree of greater antiquity perhaps than even Britain’s
An Aladdin’s Cave of multicoloured delights & weekly changing cornucopia of beans & dried things to stumble into which show local can compete with the big boys
Raving about succulent spring grass is something normally reserved for those rearing animals rather than cooking but agretti is something to shout about
Celebrating summertime in Cellino Attanasio; grey hues of dusk softening those baroque orchard blossoms as our neighbours get busy with olives husbandry
Oh the charm of my local veggie lady who sets up stall in Tossicia & oozes rapport; she could teach Retail Experts plenty about the beauty of repeat purchases!
Celebrating 150 years with one common scented tri-colour, ‘odori’ that whose scent when frying in olive oil cause stomachs to gurgle cartwheels in anticipation