A people who lived on agriculture and breeding

The traditional recipes of Abruzzo are the heritage of a people who lived on agriculture and breeding. However, despite the use of fresh ingredients, their taste is delicious and authentic. The credit for this belongs also to housewives, who made do with the ingredients available and invented simple, yet creative and delicious recipes.

Basically, meals consisted of carbohydrates: bread, pasta and legumes were consumed daily, while meat was consumed on Sundays and on holidays.

It isn’t difficult to imagine that all housewives were able to prepare homemade pasta.
The “sagne a pezze” (also know as “tacconelle”) are an example.

The dough is very simple and contains durum wheat semolina, soft wheat flour, water and a pinch of salt. The recipe contains also other special ingredients such as quality, skilfulness and bronze dies. Once ready, the dough is rolled out until a thickness of 2 mm is reached. Then, it is cut into oblique stripes (of about 4 cm), which are in turn cut into diamonds.

It takes about 5 minutes to cook the “sagne” properly and different condiments are possible.

You can serve them with a sauce prepared with fresh diced tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil and a handful of grated pecorino cheese, but there are many other alternatives, including asparagus or fresh broad beans with pork jowl bacon. In fact, “sagne” and legumes chime perfectly, so you can use also chickpeas and beans.
According to other recipes, you can also use vegetables (such as broccoli) or other sauces, such as that made with “ventricina”, which is a local salami.
In short… creativity is no doubt one of the basic ingredients, so you can try different experiments.

Book a holiday in Abruzzo and discover all the pleasant tastes of the local tradition.
We would be glad to welcome you to Sextantio!