Traditional Meal In A Farmhouse Restaurant

I’d passed by Il Casolare (the farmhouse) many times before I finally stopped to have lunch there. I’d heard good things about it from my friends in Loreto but I never tried it. Because it’s on the route of a walk I do regularly in order to try to stay healthy, stopping there and eating seemed a little counter productive.

Il Casolare (closed on Mondays) is found at Contrada Fiorano, 93, a 10 minute drive outside the town of Loreto Aprutino (see note below).

The restaurant is run by Dea Finocchio, and when we finally got around to having lunch there I understood what all the fuss was about. The setting is perfect. Just outside the restaurant are lines of vines and across the road are lines of olive trees. If it is warm enough eating outside is a real treat.

So on a sunny day in October we got stuck into plates of bucatini alla trescatora. It was fantastic. Bucatini alla trescatora is a local dish that is traditionally prepared for the harvest festival, Festa della Trebbiatura. The festival was on the 24, 25 and 26 of July this year, so look out for it if you are in the neighbourhood next year. Bucatini is a thick spaghetti like pasta with a hole (buco) running through the middle.

The sauce confused me though. I believe I was told by Dea’s son Massimo that the meat came from the stomach of a chicken. It may well have, but any local I talked to about it said it was a duck (anatra) sauce. Maybe there was a misunderstanding between my Italian and Massimo’s English, but the mystery didn’t end there.

When I googled bucatini alla trescatora I saw references to sugo di papera. My dictionary says a papera is a young goose (oca) but this Wikipedia article says it is a colloquial word for a duck.

So what was it? Well it tasted like duck to me, very rich and full of flavour. But if you want to be certain you’ll have to go to Il Casolare and try it for yourself! If you solve the mystery please let me know.

Whatever it was, it was wonderful. We were outside, eating fresh local food, drinking Montepulciano d’Abruzzo – just perfect.

Dea and Massimo were very gracious hosts. When I expressed an interest in a building across from the restaurant Massimo insisted on showing it to me. It was fascinating to walk around the rooms of what I was told was an old convent. It needs a lot of work to restore it but Massimo is determined to succeed.

Note:
The address of the restaurant as printed on the card that Dea gave me is Contrada Fiorano, 93 Loreto Aprutino (PE). But any online reference to the restaurant says the address is Contrada Fiorano 85. I think 93 is right based on its google maps position, but either way it is sign-posted so you can’t go too far wrong.

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