Arrosticini are a traditional dish from the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 region

Regions of Italy

The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....

 of Abruzzo

Abruzzo

Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...

. Arrosticini (rustelle or arrustelle in the local dialects; also known as spierini or spidducc') are typically made from castrated sheep's meat (mutton), cut in chunks and pierced by a skewer. It is cooked on a brazier

Brazier

A brazier is a container for fire, generally taking the form of an upright standing or hanging metal bowl or box. Used for holding burning coal as well as fires, a brazier allows for a source of light, heat, or cooking...

 with a typically elongated shape, called canala as it resembles a gutter

Rain gutter

A rain gutter is a narrow channel, or trough, forming the component of a roof system which collects and diverts rainwater shed by the roof....

.

There are two main kinds of arrosticini: those made industrially, with cubical chunks of meat with a side of 1 cm (1/2.5 inches) on skewers with a maximum length of 10 cm (4 inches); and those made by hand, for which meat is cut with a knife in chunks of different sizes, alternated on the skewer with pieces of ovine fat (doing so provides more tenderness and a more pleasant smell). This kind of arrosticini requires meat of very high quality because it has to be cooked for a longer time. Arrosticini originate from the food consumed by shepherds and other inhabitants of the mountainous areas in Abruzzo within the villages of Civitella Casanova, Carpineto e Villa Celiera, who were accustomed to eating even less refined food than hard sheep meat.

Arrosticini are often accompanied by slices of traditionally home-made bread soaked in extra-virgin olive oil (pan unto) and by Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a red Italian wine made from the Montepulciano wine grape in the Abruzzo region of east-central Italy. The wine was classified as Denominazione di origine controllata in 1968 with a separate Denominazione di origine controllata e Garantita for wine produced around...

 wine, with big amounts of peperoncino in olio or — as it is done in some restaurants — by a drink made consisting of two parts of red wine and one part of gassosa (roughly the Italian equivalent of beverages like Sprite

Sprite (soft drink)

Sprite is a transparent, lemon-lime flavored , caffeine free soft drink, produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in the United States in 1961. This was Coke's response to the popularity of 7 Up, which had begun as "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" in 1929...

).

Traditionally, arrosticini are eaten with the hands, pulling the meat off the skewer piece by piece using the teeth.

They are produced throughout Abruzzo, both industrially and in a home-made fashion. They are also found in other areas with large populations of Abruzzese.