Join the countdown to the Feast of San Antonio Abate with the team from Le Virtù Restaurant in Philadelphia, as they take part in the week-long celebrations in Villevallelonga (AQ). This historic event culminates in La Panarda, an extraordinary dinner dating back to the 1600s.

Starting at sunset on January 16th, an incredible 50-dish banquet is shared amongst families till dawn, to welcome the official feast day of the Saint on January 17th. It’s a one-of-a-kind celebration steeped in tradition and culinary excellence!

The first day in Villavallelonga, a week of celebration before the Panarda on the 16th/17th of January.   A cold and blustery day, to begin the festa in honour of Sant’Antonio Abate.  But the atmosphere was anything but cold. At the bar, we were offered cafe, bread, and fava-bean soup, delivered by locals making the rounds throughout this town of 900. Everyone gets bread and a bowl of soup; no one goes hungry, and there’s no charge. They will do this every day for the rest of this week.

And then the preparation of the “frascaréglie,” a much smaller couscous-like pasta made of flour and egg. At several stations throughout town, families (who have done this for generations) prepare the pasta in large cauldrons. The water is salted perfectly, the frascaréglie stirred with care (the ladies in charge here enforce strict stirring methods), EVO is added to the mix, and then it’s dressed with a rich meat sugo. The townspeople gather nearby, each bringing their own containers to fill with pasta, sugo, and either pecorino or Parmigiano. Again, there is no charge, and they will do this several times during the week.

The finished product? Devastatingly good and perfect for a winter’s day: rich and unctuous, with a consistency between polenta and risotto. We’ll bring this back with us as well as, hopefully, some of the feeling of community, solidarity, and a warmth impossible to capture on film or with words. This was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful things we’ve experienced in our nearly 30 years of travel in Italia.

Thank you to the entire Comune di Villavallelonga. And especially to Vice Mayor Vittoria di Ponzio, who has generously allowed us to enter this culture as friends, and treated us like family.

Photos: Andrew Michael Wood

Read more about Le Virtù Restaurant on our Abruzzo Directory

Author: Francis & Catherine

Francis Cratil-Cretarola and Catherine Lee have owned and operated an Abruzzese-themed trattoria, Le Virtu, in South Philadelphia since 2007.  The restaurant has been featured in The Washington Post, Food & Wine, The Guardian, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, Lucky Peach, Food Republic, and Elle.

The restaurant was invited on two occasions to cook at the James Beard House in NYC. Le Virtu is the only restaurant in the US to have regularly held and hosted authentic Panarda feasts.

Francis and Cathy have been working, traveling, and living in Abruzzo for over 25 years: they’ve assisted and/or guided culinary tours of the region, produced a program on the regional cuisine for Philadelphia-area public television and the Comcast network; supported, produced, and promoted Abruzzo-related cultural events (mainly traditional music but also chefs and wine producers) in Philadelphia and its suburbs, New York City, New Jersey, and Delaware; consulted on articles about the region in Saveur, Elle, and The New York Times Francis’s paternal roots are in the region (Castiglione Messer Raimondo) and they spend part of their year (whenever they can) at their home in Penne.