Selvatico: a Foraging Restaurant in Arsita, Teramo

Selvatico is our small family restaurant in Arsita, set high in the Teramo hills at the foot of the Gran Sasso. The name means wild, and they take that seriously. Each morning, someone heads out into the hills, and whatever they bring back shapes and inspires their weekend dishes.

This isn’t just a slogan; it’s how the kitchen really works. Each weekend has its own theme, so every visit is different. The theme might be a season, a special ingredient, an old recipe, or a bread day at the village oven. There’s no fixed menu, because nature doesn’t follow a schedule. If you visit twice, you’ll have a different meal each time, and that’s exactly the idea.

This is a young kitchen, just getting started, doing something rare these days: making cucina povera with ingredients they gather themselves, right in a village of only a few hundred people, and doing it well. Wild herbs come from the nearby valleys. Cheese, salumi, and produce are sourced from small local makers. You might get fried cheese while looking out at the hills where the cows graze, the same cows whose milk was used to make it. Here, the landscape isn’t just what you see from your table. It’s what you’re eating.

The Room and the Oven

The building was once a fondaco, a store, a small butcher’s shop, and a place where people in Arsita gathered to talk. It still has nineteenth-century stone arches and the original cotto floor. The outdoor tables are set where Sabatino the gardener once had his garden, and the chairs came from local grandmothers’ homes.

Some weekends, everyone is invited up to the village’s communal oven. Ovens like Arsita’s were where a whole village baked its week, with everyone taking turns back when nobody had one at home. Our thoughts are still to go and use it, rather than install something shiny of its own, which tells you what Selvatico is for. You watch the bread and pizza being made with local wheat and cornmeal, and then everybody sits down and eats them together.

This Weekend’s Event

This weekend, 17 -18th July, the theme is bread and wheat. On Saturday, we invite you up to Arsita’s communal oven, where the village once baked. We’ll demonstrate bread and pizza-making techniques in front of you and eat together at the table. Arrive by 7 pm for the demonstration! Friday celebrates the power of green, a rich lasagne with courgette and local artisan cheeses.  Saturday, tajarill, the hand-pulled sagne of Teramo province, with tomato and basil, following an old recipe. Our stuffed frittella (fried pizza) with wild onion, the region’s famous ‘cipollata’ made from onions gathered that morning as well as things straight out of the comune oven to taste.

What to Order

Frittella con cipollata selvatica: This is Abruzzo’s fried pizza dough, which is often served simply with ham and cheese. Here, it’s filled with a sweet and savoury onion stew made from wild onions picked that morning. It’s a great place to start.

Timballo di Coatto: Arsita is famous for coatto, a slow-cooked mutton dish cooked for hours until it’s completely tender. Selvatico has taken this local speciality and turned it into a timballo, a twist no one else has tried before.

Tajarill: These are hand-pulled sagne from Teramo province, made with just flour and water, no egg. They’re older and heartier than tagliatelle.

Panini: Choose pulled mutton or the del Territorio with ham and cheese, served just as it was during harvest breaks.

Tagliere Selvatico: A selection of local artisan cheeses, salumi, and produce from small Abruzzese producers, perfect for sharing slowly with a good glass of wine.

Coming up from the Coast

It’s less than an hour from the beaches at Roseto and Silvi, but it feels like a whole different place when you get there. In August, while the coast is hot and every restaurant serves the same menu, Arsita stays cool and quiet, offering food you won’t find anywhere else in the region. Selvatico is open on Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the summer, just when you might be looking for something new after a day at the beach.

Arsita also hosts Valfino al Canto, a three-day folk music festival from Sunday, August 9 to 11. It’s the biggest event of its kind in central and southern Italy. Selvatico will be open for Sunday lunch on August 9 to celebrate the festival’s first day.

Visiting

Season. Open from the summer to September, plus themed events in spring and autumn such as San Martino and La Notte delle 7 Stelle.

Hours

Summer

• July: Friday and Saturday, 18:30 to midnight.
• August: Friday and Saturday, 18:30 to midnight. Sunday by booking, including Sunday lunch on 9 August for Valfino al Canto.
• September: Friday and Saturday, 18:30 to midnight.

Each weekend has a different theme, so it’s a good idea to check what’s planned before you pick your date.

Booking is preferred. You can reserve a table through the website, by email, or by phone.

Menu and Prices

The à la carte menu features five or six dishes that change with the seasons and what’s been gathered. Set menus are available only for special events. Dishes range from 4 to 12 euros.

Dietary Options

Vegetarian and vegan dishes, as well as a children’s menu, are available on request.

Parking and Access

There’s free parking in the village, and it’s a straightforward walk to the door. The road is easy to drive, with just the last few meters on the village’s cobblestones.

Accessibility

The restaurant is accessible and suitable for people with disabilities.

Payment

All cards and cash are accepted.

Languages

Italian and English are spoken.

About the Kitchen

We’re a small family business from Arsita, the village we love and where we grew up. For years, we dreamed of opening a place that could bring together what we found on our travels, where food, people, and stories all come together.

Our recipes are rooted in Abruzzese tradition, inspired by our grandmothers’ stories and by the meals shared by people who have always cooked to bring friends and family together.

What we love most is seeing Selvatico full of life, not just as a memory, but as a place that keeps creating new moments worth sharing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Selvatico a trattoria?

No. It is a foraging restaurant. The kitchen cooks what has been gathered and what small local producers have to hand, which is why there is no fixed menu and why every weekend has a different theme.

Does Selvatico have a menu?

An à la carte card of five or six dishes, rewritten around each weekend’s theme and each season. Set menus are only for special events.

What is coatto?

The dish Arsita is known for is mutton cooked slowly with local herbs and peperoncino for several hours until it falls completely apart. Selvatico serves it inside a timballo, which is its own invention.

How far is Arsita from the coast?

Under an hour from Roseto and Silvi, and a good deal fresher in the evening

Do you speak English?

Yes.

Is it suitable for vegetarians?

Yes, with vegan dishes and a children’s menu on request. Say so when booking.

Arsita developed from the historic settlement of Bacucco, known by that name for centuries. The ruins of the old castle remain visible above the village. The weekly market takes place on Thursday mornings from 8:00 to 12:30, offering an opportunity to meet local food producers.

Arsita is located in the production area for Pecorino di Farindola, one of Abruzzo's renowned cheeses. Three local dairies produce it, and all can be visited by appointment. The surrounding valleys are also home to honey producers, smallholders, and shepherds who continue traditional practices.

The Sentiero dei Mulini is a 7km trail that passes three historic watermills, one of which remains operational and can be visited by reservation. The route is accessible and suitable for families. Another path leads to the source of the river Fino, at the base of a large beech tree, and continues to the Gola dell'Inferno Spaccato. Climbers can visit Pietra Rotonda, a bolted crag in the woods. The CAI maintains a well-marked network of trails, primarily of low to moderate difficulty.

Nearby, Bisenti and its murals are just ten minutes away (5km). Campo Imperatore, known as the Piccolo Tibet, is approximately twenty-five minutes by car, while the coast at Roseto degli Abruzzi and Silvi Marina is about fifty minutes away. It is entirely possible to enjoy the sea in the morning and the mountains in the evening with a traditional dinner.

The Arsita Year 

• January. Sant'Antonio Abate, and the blessing of the animals.
• June. Dlen Dlen, an independent music festival that has pulled in Italian and international indie acts.
• Late June. The transumanza verticale. The flocks go up to the summer pastures on Monte Coppe, and there is a walk up to the Fonte Torricella refuge behind them.
• 9 to 11 August. Valfino al Canto, three days of folk music with no stages, musicians from several countries playing in the streets and on the corners, and one of Europe's most significant popular music gatherings. The Guardian has written about it. The sagra del coatto runs on the same days.
• 31 August. The forecast at the Quercia di Santa Maria. An old man of the village reads the sunset behind the mountains beside a centuries-old oak and a small sixteenth-century church, and tells everyone what the coming months will do.
• November. San Martino, chestnuts and autumn.
• December into January. Capolenta, Arsita's New Year outdoors, built around polenta.