Tradition is that families will get together for a big meal.
This year, the family I am visiting decided to go for something a little lighter with a few small courses. Then things got out of hand....
Slices of pecorino cheese topped with a cream or marmalade made from Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine:
Cremini Abbruzzesi. Pastry cream that's deep fried. Sickly sweet:
Olive Ascolane: stuffed olives, fried:
Pizza di Scarola: more or less a stuffed pizza in white. No tomato sauce, no cheese. Filling is escarole, olives, pine nuts, etc.
Bocconcini di fior di latte: bite size pieces of cow's milk mozzarella, served with cherry tomatoes and basil.
Tonno con maionese. Tuna fish salad with mayonnaise
Two different appetizers on one serving plate (running out of room): salmone affumicato e carapaccio di tonno rosso: smoked salmon and carpaccio of red tuna
Ventricina abrruzzese: a traditional abbruzzese type of salami, see http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricina, but in the form of a spread:
Two things on this service plate: Coglione di Mula and Salamino di Cinghiale: Coglione di Mula is a type of mortadella that contains a piece of lard in the center, and they're cured by tying a pair of them on a string and then hanging the string over a pole; so they look like the balls of a mule, and that gives it it's popular name. See http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortadella_di_Campotosto
Salamino di Cinghiale is small salami of wild boar meat.
Focaccia con prosciutto: focaccia is a thin flaky bread that's similar to a pizza dough, here it's just wrapped with prosciutto.
Two appetizers on this tray: Fiori di Zucca Ripieni and Formaggio Fritto: the lower half of the picture has Zucchini Flowers filled with ricotta, battered, and fried. The upper half has battered fried cheese, usually pecorino.
Focaccia con Lardo di Colonnata: This is a thicker focaccia than that in the other picture, and it's covered with a special gourmet lard from Tuscany:
Fichi con prosciutto: these are fresh figs (I helped picked them that very morning) with prosciutto.
So, if anyone is counting, that's 16 dishes so far. Those were the appetizers. We have not even started the real eating yet!
There were only two "primi piatti" on this day. (I told you it was a light meal)
Timballo: this is the abbruzzese version of lasagna, and instead of being made with pasta made from grain, it's made with crepes.
Pasta fresca con sugo di gorgonzola e pistacchi: fresh pasta with a sauce made from gorgonzola cheese and pistacchio.
Pane: two types of locally baked fresh bread. I am including them here with the primi piatti because the bread is so often used to help with eating the sauce.
That's it for the primi piatti. After the first plate comes the second plate. This was a light meal, remember, so we only had one second plate and a few side dishes (contorni).
Two things in this photo. The meat is the "secondo piatto", it's what counts. The pepperoni on the left is one of the contorni.
Arrosto di maiale e peperoni fritti: Roasted pork and fried red peppers.
Melenzane arrostite: roasted (really lightly pan fried) eggplant. The little red things are a spicy red pepper.
Peperoni con patate: Roasted red peppers and potatoes.
That's all for the first and second plates. All that's left is the fruit and the dessert.
Frutta fresca di stagione: fresh seasonal fruit. Kiwi, pescocce (a yellow flesh peach with a very solid body, see http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percoca), grapes, banana.
Torta Sacher: sachertorte. Not an abbruzzese tradition, just happens one of the family recently had a birthday and their favorite cake is a sacher torte.
So that's it. If you count all the dishes, including the fruit, the cake, and all the photos where there were two dishes in a photo, you come up with a 26-course lunch. Not counting three wines (spumante, montepulciano d'abbruzzo, and a brachetto) and the coffee. This is "a light meal" here.
One last picture for you all:
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