During the first year of my PhD, I was staying in our institute’s student house, or Grand hotel, L’aquila. La Grotta di Aligi Osteria opened in 2019, under the Grand hotel. The osteria serves the typical flavours of Abruzzo region, like most other restaurants in the city. Chef Mario Caponio was born and brought up in Abruzzo and works towards putting a delectable meal on your plate.
I was staying in the Grand hotel around that time, and due to the convenient location, I delayed my visit to this osteria. After 2-3 months, I finally climbed down to the basement for an early dinner. During the summer, they also have an outside sitting available. I was in a mood for primo, so I just ordered a classic cacio e pepe. The presentation was quite ritzy. The pasta was served on a crispy baked cheese bowl, and topped with generous amount of freshly grinded black pepper and the baked cheese scrappings. The mouthfeel of the pasta was quite complex. It had the sharp saltiness from the cheese, the crispy baked cheese adding a nice contrast to the smooth pasta sauce and the kick from the freshly ground black pepper. It was a basic pasta dish elevated with the chef’s imagination, however, it was a bit too salty for my taste.
My second visit to this place was 2 years later, in 2021, for a departmental social dinner. We took the full meal experience with two antipasti, two primi and one secondo along with their house wine. As you can guess, it was a lot of food considering that my dinners are usually quite light. As soon as we sat down, the first antipasti came around. We were served with a plate consisting of cold cuts of pork (brawn, prosciutto) and some aged pecorino cheese from Abruzzo. There was a particularly interesting cheese that was on the platter. The 12 month old pecorino was infused with dandelion, which imparted a wild floral flavour and complemented the saltiness of the cheese. If you’re a fan of cold cuts, this is the antipasto you should go for.
Next was a warm starter in the form of trippe soup. Trippa is the lining of stomach from animals. It might sound digusting, but the stomach is cleaned and the fatty parts are removed. The process is called dressing, and there is a professional trippe dresser who carries out the boiling and bleaching process of trippe and certifies it to be edible before selling it in the market. The one we had were from sheep, and it’s cooked the same way, we would make a chicken soup. The soup base was made from tomatoes, and the trippe was chewy and soaked in all the flavours from the broth. With a truck load of pecorino cheese shavings adding saltiness, and fresh parsley for the freshness, the soup was heartwarming.
After loading on a bunch of protein and fat, it was time for carbs in the form of primi. The first one was quite seasonal. The sauce was made with pumpkin, which reminds you of Autumn. The fresh homemade tagliolini was carefully wrapped in the pumpkin sauce and topped with guanciale (pork cheeks) and tartufo nero which was another seasonal ingredient. It was my favourite dish from this restaurant. The sweetness from the pumpkin, the crunchiness and saltiness from the guanciale and the flavour bomb from the truffles along with the chewiness of the fresh pasta: a combination made in heaven. I am definitely going to recreate this sauce at home.
The second primo brings us back to Abruzzo. Instead of using beef and pork, the sauce uses lamb meat. It was a classic tomato sauce with fresh herbs, rosemary being the dominant flavour. The umami is brought by the soft and juicy lamb meat and adds richness to the sauce. The spaghetti is again homemade and has a flavour of its own. Overall, a great comfort food, if you don’t want to be experimental.
We were full after the primi and decided to walk around to make space for the final dish. It was a piece of lamb meat covered with breadcrumbs and baked in an oven. It came with a side of salad. The meat was with the bone, so it retained its juiciness and did not dry out in the oven. It had a crunchy texture outside and a soft perfectly cooked meat inside. The sheep meat in Abruzzo is of optimal quality, since they graze along the mountains and are provided with proper care. In Abruzzo, while cooking lamb meat, not a lot of flavouring agents are used since it will hide the taste of the meat.
We were offered a canestrelli to end the man-sized meal. Canestrelli (little baskets) is a sweet biscuit shaped as a flower and originates from Monferrato, Piedmont. Primarily made with butter, icing sugar, egg yolks, these cookies are best enjoyed with an afternoon cup of tea or coffee. We had their homemade canestrelli, which is not the typical dessert you would expect when visiting a restaurant, but for that day it was the ideal option for dessert.
Having experienced a full course dine-in, I consider myself eligible to review this restaurant. The food is not exceptional, it is good. Since there are a lot of restaurants serving the specialties of Abruzzo, it doesn’t stand out. Nevertheless, it is hard to find a bad osteria in Italy. If you are a part of GSSI, or anywhere near Villa Communale, and want to go to a restaurant, definitely visit this place. The location is extremely convinient, and probably the only restaurant serving pasta around this area.