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The White Widow – a Punch Abruzzo cocktail
It seems to me that this coming summer everyone will be in Abruzzo.
Some friends are traveling to visit their ancestral villages and towns. Others, like food writer Domenica Marchetti, are leading culinary tours – taking hungry travelers through this pastoral land, sampling local cuisine and visiting artisanal food makers along the way. Travel to this largely undiscovered region is picking up, and that can only be a good thing. The cuisine, rich and borne of the land, is at once hearty and delicate, nuanced and bold. Cheeses, wines, olive oils and truly divine pastries – Abruzzo has it all. Some of Italy’s finest dried pasta comes from there too. And so does one of my favorite liquors, Punch Abruzzo. Read the remainder of this entry »
Maccheroni alla Chitarra con Ragù d’Agnello
From Abruzzo comes Guitar Cut Pasta with Lamb Ragù
Abruzzo – from the majestic Gran Sasso to its beaches on the Adriatic Sea this part of Italy has postcard perfect terrain. To walk in the mountains of Abruzzo is to walk the age old route of the transumanza – the seasonal sheep migration, and indeed, sheep figure prominently in the socioeconomic history of this region and its cuisine.
Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti
Born 1894 Montesilvano, arrived New York 1913, died 1967 Los Angeles, California
My grandfather, Gaetano Crocetti was born in Montesilvano, Abruzzo. He loved the food of his homeland, and although I have written previously about Ferratelle, the Abruzzese take on Pizzelle, this region has as its most singularly recognizable contribution to Italian cookery an implement known as the chitarra, a tool used to cut pasta. In her book Food and Memories of Abruzzo Anna Teresa Callen writes that this tool appears in manuscripts dating as far back as the thirteenth century.
Indeed la chitarra is part of Abruzzese culture, Read the remainder of this entry »