From 7 to 10 days to prepare the Virtu', 7 of legumes, meats, vegetables, types of pasta, cooked in 7 hours because 7 are the Christian virtues.
An incredible territory where nothing is missing, with products that come from the sea, hills and mountains such as Gran Sasso or Monte Piselli could only have a very rich traditional cuisine. Over 250 traditional dishes with a princely dish Le Virtù which alone contains more than 50 ingredients. Teramo cuisine has an immense variety of dishes: ranging from fish classics to meat traditions, to many fresh vegetables and pastries, especially egg and strictly handmade. Among these is the guitar with pallottine alla teramana, a pasta prepared with the guitar, a special rectangular wooden frame, topped with meatballs. Another very elegant dish are the ‘Scrippelle ‘mbusse teramane’. In the dialect the word ‘mbusse means ‘soaked’ precisely because the scrippelle (very thin creams made with water, flour and eggs) are soaked with a rich and tasty meat broth that makes them soft and very tasty. And then, being in Abruzzo, the arrosticini, strictly sheep, are ubiquitous in any province.
But in the tradition of Teramo, there is a truly unique dish, which is prepared for three days with more than 120 ingredients. The Virtues, more than 50 ingredients. The virtues are a very rich soup of seasonal first fruits, wisely mixed with all the leftovers of the winter pantry and which is consumed on May 1st in Teramo and Teramo. On April 30, it was considered by the peasant calendar to be the watershed between the end of winter and the beginning of the fruitful season. With the arrival of the summer, in fact, at the end of April, the Abruzzo houseboxes used to clean up the sideboards of all the leftovers of dried legumes and the various types of pasta that during the winter had broken or that had remained unused. The virtuous women used, therefore, to combine all these winter remnants with the first fruits of the season, which the earth was about to produce in abundance. Legend has it that virtues are so called because they had to be prepared by 7 virgins, using 7 legumes, 7 flavors, 7 meats, 7 seasonal vegetables, 7 types of pasta, cooked all in 7 hours... 7, because there are 7 Christian virtues. In short, the virtues are a truly exceptional dish, normally it takes 7 to 10 days to prepare it. In truth for the virtues we need over 50 ingredients, each family jealously guards and passes on their version of the recipe. Beans of various qualities, chickpeas and lentils, cicerchie, peas and fava beans; zucchini, carrots, potatoes, artichokes, chard, endive, escarole, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, chicory, spinach, fennel, turnips and then garlic, onion, marjoram, sage, thyme, celery, par And then again raw ham, cutles, pork feet and ears, minced beef in meatballs, lard, bacon, bacon; Not to mention pasta: durum wheat, short, fresh with egg and of various shapes and sizes. Oil, salt, tomato pulp and pecorino cheese.
To preserve the authenticity of the recipe, a group of experts and restaurateurs from Teramania have carried out a specification, also recognized by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Policies. From the origin of the preparation of this particular food and up to the present day, the first of May translates in Abruzzo into a convivial and lively experience, where every family, guardian of the secret of the recipe, meets to spend a happy moment together. Ancient feast for the harvests, for the earth it took on the meaning of celebration of the gods to propitiate the fertility of the earth and the abundance of the summer harvest. If you have never tasted them, the time has come, available from May 1st until the middle of the month, the Virtues will know how to steal your heart combined with an excellent Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo.
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