Food & Wine of Abruzzo Italy - Travel Guide & Information

This description page of Abruzzo will guide you planning your trip to Italy and find useful travel information about the Food & Wine of this region of Italy.

Food (Cibo)

If in Abruzzo nature plays a determining role, it is obvious that we find genuine ingredients in its typical dishes.

From the coastal areas to the inland areas, the abruzzese cuisine is simple and delicious.

One of the main ingredients is lamb, used in: Agnello cacio e uova (lamb with cheese and eggs), arrosticini (barbecued lamb), pecorino cheese, castrato, used also in the sauce for the traditional maccheroni alla chitarra, home-made pasta, for which a particular tool is used with metallic strings, which calls to mind a guitar. Mutton, goat, and pork are also widely used, such as in cif ciaf (ribs, sirloins, and fried bacon with spicy peppers).

The sausage too, is very tasty, such as: the Ventricina di Guilmi, the Ventricina di Crognoleto, the small mortadellas of Campotosto and the famous Capicollo, neck of pork made with pigskin, cartilage, and leftovers boiled and flavored before being made into sausages.

The entire region is also famous for its farmyard dishes: duck, goose, pigeon, and guinea fowl with a vast choice of fresh vegetables.

Along the coast the Abruzzo Cuisine features a number of excellent fish dishes such as: sprats and anchovies fried in pans or used for making pasta and timbales, Scapece alla vastese (fried fish covered with saffron and preserved in vinegar) and seppie alla sanvitese (cuttlefish) and the typical regional sea food soup, the Brodetto made with prawns, cuttlefish, cod, mullet, scorpion fish, grey mullet, sole and smooth hound, cooked with olive oil and paprika. 

The cheese from Abruzzo farms is fabulous, such as: Caciocavallo, Burelle (a pear-shaped cheese filled with butter) and the Caciotta, cheese made from a mixture of cow’s and sheep’s milk and occasionally spiced up with a touch of paprika.

One of the local specialties is the Virtu from Teramo: a typical spring soup made of cereals, vegetables, pasta and ham bone.

There is also a rich assortment of sweets: soft nougat and sugared almonds from Sulmona, famous world-wide, Christmas’s Calgiunitte (fried pastries filled with jam, chick-peas, dried fruit and nuts), Parozzo, named by the poet D’Annunzio, Pizzelle (wafers made with a rectangular iron heated over a flame)and Bocconotti (pasty filled with cocoa and dried fruit).

Abruzzo is also known for its excellent olive oil: smooth, aromatic and its golden color.

Another lesser known but high-quality product from the Abruzzo region is truffles. 

Wine (Vino)

A third of the region is composed of coastal hills: a good place for grape-growing, particularly around the Province of Chieti.

Abruzzo’s wines are excellent and have recently obtained important international acknowledgement. The red Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, the delicate red Cerasuolo, and the fresh and inviting white wine Trebbiano are only a few of the notable wines of the region.

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