The tourist, the hiker and the mountaineer too cannot pass through Abruzzo without crediting this wonderful region of central Italy with the paternity of the traditional preparation of arrosticini.
A BIT OF HISTORY:
Sheep farming in Abruzzo has to be rediscovered within the history of shepherding in central and southern Italy.
Gabriele D'Annunzio writes in his poem “I pastori” (The Shepherds):
“September, let us go. It is time to migrate.
Now in the land of the Abruzzi my shepherds
leave the folds and go towards the sea:
they go down to the wild Adriatic
that is green as the pastures of the mountains.”
[…]
Although transhumance has its origins in the Bronze Age, the first great tradition came to be consolidated around three centuries before the birth of Christ, when in the Roman age the organisation and the economic and administrative structure of the peninsula were strengthened.
The tradition of transhumance in the Abruzzo mountain and foothill belt remained consolidated until recent times, when the great road and rail infrastructure and intensive farming techniques arrived.
The transhumance towards the Abruzzo uplands involved shepherds and flocks from the plains of Lazio and Puglia, who sought lush meadows to graze in these mountain areas.
Today transhumance is in sharp decline, except for the flocks that move from the Ristese province towards the mountain areas of Abruzzo.
The three breeds we find in Abruzzo are the Sopravvissana, the Pagliarola and the Appenninica. It has to be said that the reduced variety of sheep breeds in the Apennine regions is diminishing the quality of the meat produced. With the extinction and disappearance of some sheep breeds an enormous heritage has been lost: the variety of meats has been lost, as well as the varieties of wool, milk and cheese. A certain rusticity is still preserved in those farms, as in the case of the Abruzzo ones, that are still tied to transhumance towards the mountain pastures and stazzi (shepherds' stone enclosures).
In the light of the long history of livestock farming in Abruzzo you realise how eating lamb is part of the very life of the shepherds and mountain people of this wonderful region.
PREPARATION:
Arrosticini are made with adult sheep meat. They are skewers of meat cut into cubes of 1 cm by 1 cm, threaded onto wooden sticks, avoiding cane sticks, which give off aromas not entirely belonging to the Abruzzo tradition.
The cubes of meat should be threaded onto these sticks taking care to press them tightly against each other. A deep-red skewer will weigh roughly thirty grams, depending on the length of the stick chosen.
They should be cooked over glowing embers, made (ideally) from oak wood, or over charcoal. Cooking is fairly quick, and at the end the arrosticini should be salted and in some cases seasoned with spices and herbs. The best way to eat them is straight after cooking and piping hot, so as to bring out their flavour.
In everyday life, for anyone who manages to get hold of some arrosticini to cook at home, a red-hot griddle is recommended, or as a last resort a non-stick frying pan. Oven cooking is not recommended, as the constant, even heat of the oven would melt the 25% of fat in the meat, making it lose much of its typical flavour.
It's a good idea to accompany arrosticini with well-aged red wines such as Rosso di Montalcino and, naturally, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.
Bibliographic notes:
Atlante dei prodotti tradizionali d'Abruzzo - ARSSA Regione Abruzzo
La grande Cucina Regionale (Abruzzo e Molise) – Corriere della Sera
Zootecnia Speciale – Giuseppe Tucci – CittàStudiEdizioni
Antologia Italiana “Gran Pavese” – V. Verusio – D'Anna Editrice (1960)