Did you know there are 250 different dishes in Teramo? Hard to imagine? Consider this: a wedding lunch can include over 130 courses. The province of Teramo is one of the least known areas of Abruzzo, despite being an incredible territory lacking for nothing, with products from the sea, hills and mountains such as Gran Sasso and Mount Piselli. To tell us all about it is Luigi Valori, a special man in love with his region and the producer of a wine that is its highest expression: Chiamami quando piove.
Glimmers of Teramo cuisine
Teramo’s cuisine boasts an immense variety of dishes: classic fish, traditional meats, and many (many!) fresh vegetables and handmade pastas – particularly all’uovo. Among these, the symbol par excellence of Abruzzo gastronomy in general is the chitarra con le pallottine alla teramana, a pasta made with a chitarra – a special rectangular wooden tool – and topped with meatballs.
A classic of Teramo alone, however, is goat alla neratese, from the town of Nereto, which is cooked in a pan for at least four hours, along with tomatoes and peppers. Along with other delights from the province are fricandò or fregantò, to be tried as part of the local cuisine at Ristorante Zenobi. The recipe, in which vegetables are “fried,” was created to fool Antonio who did not eat them (“fregare” means “to fool,” hence the name). And ubiquitous in any province are arrosticini, which in Abruzzo come made with sheep. But in the Teramo tradition, there is one truly unique dish. It’s prepared for three days with more than 120 ingredients.
Le virtù: more than 120 ingredients
In the countryside, the worst month of the year is May: the fruits of winter are finished, and those of summer are yet to come. In the past, that was when the barn was scoured for whatever was left and everything was cooked for a long time in a large pot: 120 separately cooked vegetables, to which legumes, meat, cheese and other ingredients were added according to availability. This is the origin of le virtù teramane, celebrated every first of May: “Today it’s an interesting dish from a food and wine point of view, no less as a celebratory dish, but in reality for us in Teramo, virtù represents extreme hunger,” says Luigi Valori. In fact, this preparation of peasant ingenuity should make us reflect on everything we throw away instead of finding a use for – an important statement on the issue of waste and the use of leftovers. What’s for sure is that le virtù need to be paired with a wine like Cerasuolo, a light table wine typical of Abruzzo’s farmers and ideal for refreshing the mouth, or Montepulciano, a classic local that is king of the region’s tables. Obviously, all the better if it’s Luigi Valori’s.
Chiamami quando piove
When the great Gianni Masciarelli tried Luigi Valori’s wines at a tasting, he said: “This is the only wine you can drink.” From there they became inseparable friends and his wines became part of Masciarelli Distribuzione, today “Gianni’s Selection.” Luigi Valori is first and foremost a real person – the type who leads with his heart, as authentic as his wines. He has two degrees, one in agriculture and another in theology, and a past as a soccer player in Serie A, playing for Ascoli. It was during his years as an athlete that Luigi began to learn about and drink quality wines, becoming a passionate connoisseur. Then, at the end of the 1990s, he decided to abandon his soccer career and dedicate himself to producing wines from his native region alongside his wife: “I love her as much as I did the first time I saw her. I’d pick her again from among a thousand others and I’d remarry her every day.” The idea of his label, Chiamami quando piove (Call me when it rains), is not only beautiful and brilliant, but also holds a very precise meaning: “When the sun is shining, we farmers work; you can call us when it rains because that’s when we’re not working.” He produces five wines, all of which are soon to be organic: first is his Organic Pecorino DOC, a taut and energetic wine with character; then there is the ever elegant Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, both as the Biologico DOC and the Riserva Vigna Sant’Angelo DOCG Colline Teramane; no less excellent, though seemingly modest, is the Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo Biologico DOC, while more serious yet softer and more welcoming than ever is its other reserve, Inkiostro Merlot IGT Colli Aprutini. “There’s so much work, so much effort behind each bottle; if it were up to me I wouldn’t sell a single one!” So let’s consider ourselves lucky to be able to taste its wines, along with Teramo’s cuisine, using all our senses to explore a region still ripe for discovery.