In Abruzzo, la Cucina Genuina

On many a trip to L’Aquila with Pino, we savored that abruzzese cucina genuina (rough translation, “authentic Abruzzo cooking”) at Agriturismo San Gregorio, just outside the town. On a recent trip, we asked owner Massimo to fix us up an antipasto abruzzese. First came bruschetta with a patè di fagioli (“bean pate’ – of cannellini beans) and bruschetta with the season’s last tomatoes – and just-pressed olio novello.

Small bowls of savory temptations followed: first came tripe with winter squash and then, a borlotti bean dish with local veal, winter squash and seasonal herbs. Plump chickpeas in a tomato sauce followed. Massimo set down a jar of olio santo (‘holy oil,’ i.e. olive oil spiced with chili pepper) to drizzle on top of any or all. Coratella could not be missing, logicamente, a typical dish of the abruzzese shepherds whose cucina povera – “poor man’s cooking” – used every part of the animal. The key ingredient in this one? Lamb innards.

The menu at San Gregorio always depends on the chef’s whims and seasonal goodness. For our primo piatto, Massimo suggested ravioli stuffed with local sheep’s milk ricotta ad Swiss chard. Ravioloni, actually: they were giant. Three for each of us. Mine with tomato sauce and Pino’s with just butter and sage.

No room for a secondo piatto after the abundance of the antipasti and primi.

Before leaving, I asked chef Enrico where he had learned to cook up such tasty abruzzese goodness. He had taken culinary courses but, he said with a wide smile, “there was no better cooking school than the kitchens of Mamma and Nonna.”