Le Virtù
Back when spring cleaning was a thing, the women of Teramo would make a meal of it.
At the end of April, they would clean out the pantry of all leftover vegetables and pulses and freshen up drawers and shelves in readiness for the summer fruits. The wilting winter greens and various fresh and dried pulses – beans, chick peas, lentils – would then be combined, together with a ham bone or two and the new spring herbs foraged from the fields, in a hearty, flavoursome minestrone and served for lunch on May Day.
Origins
Exhausting though spring cleaning may be, it can leave you feeling virtuous, which is the most likely explanation for the name. Some say, instead, that it comes from Roman times when the fruits of the earth were known as ‘Virtutes’.
According to legend the original recipe called for seven of each type of food – seven pulses, seven herbs, seven types of vegetable etc. – to correspond with the seven Christian virtues. The most pernickety customs have thankfully fallen by the wayside, including the need for the dish to be prepared by seven virgins.
Lucky for us, nowadays there are a few restaurants in Abruzzo – and some dedicated, hard-working women – to carry on the tradition.
May Day
And so here we are on the first of May, hungry and eager to taste Le Virtù prepared for us by Fiorella.
Rather untypically, the day is miserable and wet, so we have gathered in Annarita’s cosy garden house. It’s an informal gathering but she has taken pains to use lots of red in the table setting in honour of the workers’ holiday, adding some white and green for the Italian flag.
Outside the rain lashes down but there is a party atmosphere as Le Virtù are ladled onto plates and passed around the table. After a joyous exchange of Bon Appetito! our boisterous group falls on the food and into a religious silence. For a while there is only the sound of the rain outside; then come murmurs of appreciation, a spontaneous ripple of applause, and finally, requests for seconds.
No one feels guilty about asking for more. The dish is so evidently wholesome and nourishing that just eating it makes us all feel virtuous.
The Abruzzo attitude to food
As I clean my plate I reflect that perhaps this dish, more than any other, reflects the Abruzzo attitude to food: the need to use everything and throw nothing away, the hard slog, care and time that go into producing a meal, the importance of celebrating the seasons with seasonal fare.
I’m grateful to the hard-working people who allowed me to share this treat.
Click here for a traditional ‘Teramano’ recipe.
