Travel: Eating your way through Italy’s Abruzzo region

Italy’s Abruzzo region specializes in history, spectacular sights and culinary delights. And when it comes to that latter point, here’s what travelers should add to their itinerary:

Dining in Abruzzo

Confesercenti, the Italian trade organization, named Abruzzo the best place to dine in Italy. When eating out, diners should consider ordering the following:

• Brodetto (Abruzzese fish stew)
• Mussels stuffed with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in a sauce of tomatoes, red pepper and garlic
• Sliced octopus served over polenta
• Rintrocilo, a thick noodle pasta, topped with a sugo (meat sauce) containing lamb, pork, chicken, pancetta or veal
• Ricotta-filled ravioli with a saffron cream sauce
• Wild rabbit over pappardelle pasta
• Turkey scallopini in a porcini mushroom sauce
• Tongue in a red wine sauce
• Macheroni alla chittara (square pasta strands made with guitar strings) in a minced lamb, pork or goose ragu
• Timballo alla teramana, an Abruzzese version of Italian lasagna, with crêpe layers sandwiched in-between layers of minced beef, vegetables, tomato sauce and parmesan
• Baccheri (thick tube-shaped pasta with pumpkin cream and black truffle sauce)
• Scapece (fish fillets fried in olive oil and marinated in a vinegar and saffron broth)
• Veal tripe in tomato sauce
• Salty cake (a blend of prosciutto, cheese, carrots, eggs and herbs)
• Gnocchi caratti, pasta flavored with guanciale or pancetta, eggs and pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese)
• Lengua guazzetto (tongue and mixed vegetables splashed with wine)
• Lamb liver, heart and lung in a spicy gravy (a mountain dish)
• Arrosticini (sliced grilled mutton); it’s the king of street food.

Also: In Italy, experiencing all that Abruzzo has to offer

Recommended restaurants

Sulmona

• Osteria dell’Arco
• Don Ciccio
• La Cantina di Biffi
• Hotel Ovidius restaurant
• BuonVento

Scanno

• Trattoria Il Vecchio Mulino

Rocca San Giovanni

San Salvo Marina

• Ristorante Al Metrò (1 Michelin star)

Vasto

• Le Cisterne
• Il Re Pescatore
• La Votta di Mare

Foods and products

• Red garlic of Sulmona
• Saffron from Navelli or L’Aquila
• Confetti from Sulmona
• Pasta Giuseppe Cocco (available on Amazon)
• Porchetta sandwiches, sliced off a whole roasted pig stuffed with garlic, fennel and hot pepper flakes at the Sulmona farmers market on Wednesdays and Saturdays
• Guanciale amatriciano (cured pork cheek meat)
• Ventricina Del Vastese (lean salami seasoned with sweet and spicy peppers, garlic, black pepper and fennel seeds)
• Cured Maiale Nero (black pig); it’s succulent, with enticing meat aromas
• Mortadella di Campotosto (salami in an oval shape sold in pairs tied with string, locally known as “mule balls”)

Wines and spirits

• Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (red)
• Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (white)
• Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo (rosé)
• Pecorino (white)
• Vino Cotto (Montepulciano wine reduced in a copper pot for hours, resulting in a fortified product with a distinctive smoky, semisweet caramelized flavor)
• Goccia di Genziana (typical Abruzzese digestif, best served cold)