Arrosticini — Abruzzo Lamb Skewers

Abruzzo — arrosticini are documented from the late 19th century in the transhumance traditions of the Abruzzo highlands, where shepherds would cut small pieces of castrato and grill them on improvised metal rods over open fires. The preparation is now an Abruzzese identity marker, consumed at every communal event.

Arrosticini are the iconic Abruzzese preparation — small cubes of castrated male lamb (castrato) and its fat, threaded alternating onto thin wooden skewers and grilled over the 'furnacella' (a long, narrow charcoal grill designed specifically for arrosticini, where the skewers rest across the trough and are turned continuously). The preparation is deceptively simple: the lamb is the only ingredient. The quality of the castrato — specifically the alternating lean-and-fat of the castrated sheep raised on the Abruzzo highland meadows (the Gran Sasso, the Maiella) — is everything. The skewers are served immediately from the grill, in bunches of 10-15, eaten holding the wooden end with no cutlery.

Arrosticini from the furnacella are eaten burning-hot, the fat glistening, slightly caramelised at the edges. The castrato has a flavour that is neither lamb nor mutton — deeper than lamb, cleaner than mutton, with a mountain-meadow sweetness from the highland grazing. The alternating fat cube bastes every lean cube during cooking. Five skewers in and you understand why Abruzzesi say there is nothing else like them.