May 21, 2005

Abruzzo, Italy Food

We attended a parnada during our recent vacation in Italy!!

"The local cooks are expert at cooking tender lamb that has been fed on the juicy mountain grasses, usually over a scented wood fire. They have wonderful cheeses and fantastic cured meats to see them through the winter. All the skills and traditions that these mountain people link to eating and drinking come together in the panarda, a traditional banquet, where the courses never number less than thirty. It is absolutely forbidden to stop eating if you are a guest at a panarda. It is your duty to see it through until the end."

We saw it through to the end, a 50th birthday party for a friend's brother in a little mountain restaurant high in the mountains of Abruzzo above Campo diGiove near the San Leonardo Pass in the Maiellas. The panarda lasted from 1:00 pm to midnight with a Mass at 6:00 pm!

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