Arrosticini with unoaked Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
ArrosticiniMontepulciano d'Abruzzo raised without woodMontepulciano
Arrosticini are sheep skewers cooked fast over a long narrow brazier, seasoned with salt and nothing else. There is no sauce to match, so the wine works against two things only: mutton fat and char. Montepulciano handles both because its tannin is soft rather than grippy, which means it coats the fat instead of fighting it, while the acidity resets the palate between skewers. Wood is the thing to avoid. Cataldi Madonna makes Malandrino with no wood at all, Tenuta I Fauri raises Baldovino in steel, and Agriverde's Riseis carries wild berries and sour cherry with soft tannins and freshness. Any of the three leaves the smoke on the meat where it belongs.
Maccheroni alla chitarra with ragu and Cerasuolo Superiore
Maccheroni alla chitarra with meat raguCerasuolo d'Abruzzo SuperioreMontepulciano
Egg pasta cut on the chitarra is thick and square edged, and it is dressed with a ragu cooked for hours, so the dish carries both egg fat and reduced tomato. A light rosato disappears under it. The Superiore tier of Cerasuolo is the answer because it is made on a red wine frame: Cataldi Madonna's Pie delle Vigne uses the old svacata, adding a share of red vinification to a white one at mid fermentation, and the estate itself names chitarra al ragu on the sheet. Valentini's version spends a year in 35 hectolitre cask and carries salinity that pushes back against the tomato. Orlandi Contucci Ponno's Vermiglio is built on the same structured lines in the Colline Teramane.
Brodetto alla vastese with Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
Brodetto alla vasteseCerasuolo d'AbruzzoMontepulciano
The Vasto brodetto goes into the pot layered and is never stirred: cuttlefish, sole, red mullet, weever, gurnard, monkfish, scorpionfish, ray, mantis shrimp, clams and mussels, with cherry tomatoes, garlic, sweet peppers and parsley. That is oily fish, shellfish and tomato acid in one dish, which rules out both a delicate white and a tannic red. Cerasuolo sits in between: it has the weight of a red from Montepulciano skins but a white's acidity, so it meets the tomato without being flattened and has enough body for the darker fish. Tiberio's is pressed by gravity alone and raised in steel, Jasci and Marchesani's Nerube is organic and fresh, and Feudo Antico's steel fermented bottling is the Tollo version of the same idea.
Scapece alla vastese with cask aged Cerasuolo
Scapece alla vasteseCask aged Cerasuolo d'AbruzzoMontepulciano
Scapece alla vastese is ray floured, fried and then steeped in vinegar coloured and flavoured with saffron. Vinegar is the hardest thing on a wine list because it strips a wine of its own acidity and leaves the fruit hanging. The only rosati that survive it are the ones with structure of their own. Valentini's Cerasuolo is fermented in 35 hectolitre oak casks and held a year in wood, and WineMag found salinity amalgamated into the palate rather than sitting on top, which is the texture the dish needs. Marramiero's Colle Sant'Andrea is a Superiore picked by taste from one corner of the Rosciano estate, and Barone Cornacchia's organic Casanova Superiore carries 14.5 percent alcohol as ballast.
Pallotte cacio e ova with Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
Pallotte cacio e ovaCerasuolo d'AbruzzoMontepulciano
Pallotte cacio e ova are meatballs with no meat in them: grated sheep's cheese and egg, bound, fried and then finished in tomato. The result is salt, fat and fried crust against a sharp sauce, and it is heavier than it sounds. Pasetti names the dish on its own sheet for the Testarossa Cerasuolo Superiore and says the acidity balances the richness, which is the mechanism exactly. Nicodemi's Le Murate is a Colline Teramane Superiore the family uses to read each vintage, and it has the 14.5 percent weight to sit alongside fried cheese. Tenuta Terraviva's Giusi is organic and raised six months in steel, a leaner reading of the same match.
Scrippelle 'mbusse with Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
Scrippelle 'mbusseTrebbiano d'AbruzzoTrebbiano Abruzzese
Scrippelle 'mbusse is a Teramo dish of thin egg crepes rolled around grated pecorino and served soaked in hen broth with a little nutmeg. Everything in it is soft and savoury, so a wine with tannin or oak would sit on top of it. Trebbiano d'Abruzzo is the local answer, and it is a denomination rather than a grape: the rules allow Trebbiano abruzzese and Trebbiano toscano, singly or together, for at least 85 percent of the blend. What the pairing needs is acidity to cut broth fat and salinity to meet the pecorino. Tiberio's bottling is unfiltered Trebbiano abruzzese from massal selection vines, Nicodemi ferments Cocciopesto in jars of crushed brick, and Illuminati's Costalupo is raised in steel at Controguerra.
Timballo alla teramana with Colline Teramane Montepulciano
Timballo alla teramanaColline Teramane Montepulciano d'AbruzzoMontepulciano
The Teramo timballo replaces pasta sheets with scrippelle and layers them with ragu, egg, milk and butter before baking. It is the richest thing on an Abruzzese table and it is local to the same hills as the Colline Teramane DOCG, which is the reason the pairing has held. The dish needs tannin, but cask tannin rather than barrique grip, because there is no crust or char to push against, only baked fat. Illuminati names timballo teramano on the Zanna sheet, and Zanna spends 24 months in Slavonian oak and comes out velvety and soft tannined. Nicodemi's Notari blends three old Notaresco vineyards, and Cerulli Spinozzi's Torre Migliori Riserva works the same register at Canzano.
Pecorino di Farindola with Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
Pecorino di FarindolaTrebbiano d'Abruzzo with bottle ageTrebbiano Abruzzese
Pecorino di Farindola is made on the east side of the Gran Sasso from sheep's milk set with pig rennet, which is the detail that makes it unlike any other Italian cheese, and it is a Slow Food presidium made in very small quantity. Aged, it is salty, dense and slightly sharp. The instinct is to reach for a red, but the salt is what does the work here and salt sharpens acidity rather than tannin: a white with mineral length and bottle age reads longer against it than a young red does. Valentini's Trebbiano, opened at eighteen years by Luciano Pignataro, still showed hazelnut and candied fruit over fresh acidity. Terraviva's Mario's 49 spends twelve months half in concrete and half in steel, and Barone Cornacchia's organic Casanova Superiore is lees aged with weekly batonnage.
Costa dei Trabocchi fish with Abruzzo Pecorino
Grilled fish on the Costa dei TrabocchiAbruzzo PecorinoPecorino
The trabocchi are the timber fishing platforms strung along the Chieti coast, several of which now serve the catch on the deck itself, mostly grilled whole with oil and lemon. Grilling concentrates a fish rather than diluting it, so the wine needs body as well as freshness, and that is where Pecorino separates from Trebbiano. Pecorino ripens to higher alcohol and keeps high acidity with it: Tiberio's runs to 14 percent, gets five to six hours of cold skin contact and shows sage, rosemary, green fig, peach and grapefruit, so the herb register meets the lemon on the plate. Contesa's organic version is cryomacerated and steel raised, and Cantina Frentana's Donna Greta Superiore is skin fermented and lees aged a year for a richer reading.
Ventricina with Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
VentricinaCerasuolo d'AbruzzoMontepulciano
Ventricina from the upper Vastese is pork cut coarse and dressed with dried sweet pepper, fennel flowers or seed, salt and chilli, then cured in the pig's own stomach. The pepper and chilli are the problem: capsaicin makes tannin taste harder and alcohol taste hotter, so the obvious local red is the wrong reach. Cerasuolo has almost no tannin, since the skins leave the must within hours, and it keeps the acidity that cuts the fat. Contesa's is known locally as the wine of one night for exactly that reason, Tenuta I Fauri's Baldovino is steel raised and cool, and Cataldi Madonna's Malandrino Cerasuolo is made at 13 percent, low enough not to amplify the heat.
Lenticchie di Santo Stefano di Sessanio with unoaked Montepulciano
Lenticchie di Santo Stefano di SessanioMontepulciano d'Abruzzo raised without oakMontepulciano
The lentil of Santo Stefano di Sessanio is tiny, dark and grown on the Gran Sasso foothills without irrigation, and it is usually cooked simply with oil, garlic and a little sausage or pork rind. The flavour is earthy and low in fat, so a wine with new wood on it tastes sweet against the dish. The Montepulciano to reach for is the one raised in inert vessels. Tenuta I Fauri ferments and ages Ottobre Rosso entirely in concrete at Villamagna, Emidio Pepe uses glass lined concrete and no oak at all, and Agricola Cirelli buries terracotta amphorae for two years at Atri. All three keep the savoury, slightly dusty side of the grape that pulses answer.
Navelli saffron dishes with Abruzzo Pecorino
Saffron dishes from the Navelli plateauAbruzzo PecorinoPecorino
Zafferano dell'Aquila is a DOP grown on the plateau around Navelli and a handful of neighbouring comuni, and it turns up in the local kitchen in risotto, in lamb and in the vinegar of Vasto scapece. Saffron is bitter and honeyed at once, and it is easily buried: an oaked white puts vanilla over the top of it, and a red puts tannin in the way. Pecorino is the match because its own register is herbal rather than fruity. Cataldi Madonna grows Giulia in the L'Aquila uplands at Ofena, Tiberio finds sage and rosemary alongside green fig and peach in its Cugnoli bottling, and Torre dei Beati's organic Abruzzo Pecorino carries medicinal herbs and honey over a mineral line.
Incanestrato di Castel del Monte with Cerasuolo Superiore
Incanestrato di Castel del MonteCerasuolo d'Abruzzo SuperioreMontepulciano
Incanestrato di Castel del Monte is an Abruzzese sheep's cheese shaped in rush baskets in the L'Aquila uplands and another Slow Food presidium. Aged, it goes hard, salty and faintly piccante. A big red reads as bitter against it, because the salt sharpens tannin as well as acidity. Pasetti names an aged canestrato on the sheet for its Testarossa Cerasuolo Superiore and calls the match surprising, with freshness and minerality cleaning the palate, which is what a structured rosato does that a red cannot. Masciarelli's Villa Gemma Superiore is given twelve hours on the skins and raised on fine lees in steel, and Chiusa Grande's organic DNA D'Eusanio spends three months on fine lees after a day of skin contact.
Parrozzo with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva
ParrozzoMontepulciano d'Abruzzo RiservaMontepulciano
Parrozzo was invented in Pescara in 1920 by the pastry maker Luigi D'Amico: a domed almond and semolina cake finished in dark chocolate. Sugar plus a dry red is usually a losing trade, but this cake leans on almond and bitter chocolate rather than sweetness, and that is a register Montepulciano Riserva already has. Masciarelli puts a bitter chocolate dessert on the Villa Gemma Riserva sheet itself, and the wine shows dark fruit, spice and cocoa with firm tannin. Feudo Antico's Tullum Rosso Riserva carries liquorice, cocoa and integrated toast from its tonneaux share, and Talamonti's Tre Saggi is the lighter option if the cake is served on its own rather than after a meal.
Confetti di Sulmona with Abruzzo Cococciola
Confetti di SulmonaAbruzzo CococciolaCococciola
Sulmona has been making sugared almonds since the fifteenth century, and the trade is still worked in the town today. This is the one Abruzzese pairing with no clean answer, because the region's denominations here are all dry and a dry wine always tastes thinner after sugar. Worth saying plainly rather than pretending otherwise. What gets closest is a wine that shares the almond rather than trying to match the sugar: Cantina Frentana's Costa del Mulino closes faintly on almond and keeps brisk acidity at 12.5 percent, and Contesa's pergola grown organic Cococciola is lighter still. Serve either properly cold, take the confetti one at a time, and treat the wine as a palate cleaner rather than a dessert match.