About Casina Rossa
- Based in
- Roccascalegna (Chieti), Abruzzo, Italy
- Founded
- 1960
- Known for
- hand-prepared Abruzzese antipasti and tomato sauces
In 1960 Don Antonio was farming in Roccascalegna and working out ways to keep his vegetables longer. Donna Antonia sold the products at the weekly markets in Roccascalegna and Chieti and in local shops, and before long people around the area knew the family's olive oil and jars of vegetables.
Their son Nicola De Laurentiis took over in 1999 and runs the business with his wife, Paola, their sons Marco and Andrea, and his parents. A new production plant followed in 2018. Tomatoes for the sauces are still picked by hand every day, and the antipasti take a good deal of handwork, using sun-ripened vegetables and house-made spice blends.
Antipasti are traditionally set out with bread and cheese before dinner.
Casina Rossa questions
What are antipasti?
Antipasto, plural antipasti, means "before the meal" in Italian: it is the first course of a formal Italian meal, served before the pasta course. Small preserved vegetables, such as peppers kept in oil, are typical. Casina Rossa makes its antipasti in Abruzzo from sun-ripened vegetables and its own spice blends, work that takes a good deal of handwork.
Does Casina Rossa grow its own saffron?
Yes. The family grows saffron in the Abruzzo highlands, whose climate suits the crop, and began after a customer asked for it. Saffron is the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus, the thin red threads at the center of the flower, and Casina Rossa's workers separate them from each flower by hand. It takes roughly 150 flowers to make one gram of dried threads.
