Arrosticini

In the traditional Abruzzese cuisine, dishes are often prepared using lamb, sheep and castrated animals' meat. A particular dish made with this kind of meat is called arrosticini ("rustelle" or "arrustelle" in the local dialects), consisting of mutton; originally sheep meat, but today castrated sheep's meat) cut in chunks and pierced by a skewer. It is cooked on a brazier with a typically elongated shape, called "canala" as it reminds of a gutter.

There are two main kinds of arrosticini" those made industrially, with cubical chunks of meat with a side of 1 cm (1/2.5 inches) on skewers with a maximum length of 10 cm (4 inches), and those made by hand, for which meat is cut with a knife in chunks of different sizes, alternated on the skewer with pieces of ovine fat; doing so provides more tenderness and a more pleasant smell. This kind of arrosticini requires meat of very high quality because it has to be cooked for a longer time.

Arrosticini are often accompanied by slices of traditionally home-made bread soaked in extra-virgin olive oil ("pan unto") and by Montepulciano_d'Abruzzo, or - as it is done in some restaurants - by a drink made consisting of two parts of red wine and one part of "gassosa" (soda).Traditionally, arrosticini are eaten with the hands, pulling the meat off the skewer piece by piece using the teeth.

They are produced throughout the region, both industrially and in a home-made fashion.For their good taste and simple preparation, arrosticini are recently being discovered outside Abruzzo, thanks to a few entrepreneurs who are trying to have them carried by country-wide food chains and supermarkets.

The arrosticini craze is now being brought as far as the United States of America by American entrepreneur Cameron Cecchini. The Detroit, Michigan native, and Italian at heart, plans to open his own chain called "Cecchini Arrosticini" where he will serve the finest arrosticini alongside traditional Abruzzese liquors (of which Cameron is a connoisseur). Mr. Cecchini hopes to have the chain's first locations up and running by the end of the 2009 fiscal year.