Abruzzo is a rugged region east of the Italian capital, which has for centuries been known as Rome’s larder. And, as we head towards September, the next few weeks make a great time to raid it. It’s soon the start of the olive picking season and the last summer tomatoes hang heavy on the vines.

The scraggy, sunbathed slopes are surprisingly fertile, and are ripe with Abruzzese culinary traditions – perfect for a foodie weekend. I stayed at Fireflies and Figs, a small retreat in the Maiella mountains, an hour inland from Pescara airport. Hosts Fern Green, a food writer and stylist, and her husband Jono, worked as private caterers in Corfu, Fez and Spain before settling on this steep slope five years ago.

Fern and Jono live in the main farmhouse, and guests stay in one of two secluded yurts, or in a nearby 17th-century farmhouse. Twice a year, they organise a harvest-to-plate retreat for up to six couples: at the end of June, when summer salad leaves and soft herbs are in abundance, and the eponymous fireflies and figs are out in force; and in September, too, when guests turn their hands to picking and bottling the last of the season’s tomatoes and chillies. Local olive oil and wine tastings are always part of a weekend, too.

Fern’s cooking credentials are impeccable. She has written countless recipe books, and styled food for Jamie Oliver’s team. One of her recent books, Breakfast – Morning Noon and Night, is a celebration of round-the-clock brunching. Needless to say, breakfast – buckwheat porridge, roasted red grapes, maple syrup, toasted hazelnuts and a dollop of mascarpone, and light, sticky, homemade banana bread – sets the bar high.

For a first jaunt, we head to Bucchianico, a small town in the province of Chieti, where a 17th-century olive press has been transformed into a small, family-run olive oil museum. Francesca, an olive oil sommelier for the Italian chamber of commerce, and owner of 600 olive trees that produce an award-winning brand of oil, shows me round. She explained what to look for when buying oil: colour isn’t that important (some producers dye their oil to give it that grassy appearance we associate with freshness and quality). Instead, look for oil made from a monocultivar – a single kind of tree, rather than a blend of olives from different groves. I blind test a few varieties – drinking them from small plastic shot glasses. Soon, I’m able to distinguish between the grassy green, peppery monocultivars and the flat, bland supermarket stalwarts. After the tasting, Francesca serves a homemade lunch of pasta e fagioli (simple, soupy pasta with white beans), a bright yellow frittata and juicy peperonata.

That evening we gather around their outdoor pizza oven for dinner. We begin with a “basil blush” cocktail (vodka, rosé, basil and lemonade), then munch through no fewer than seven thin-crusted pizzas with toppings such as n’duja and peppers, pumpkin puree, honey and gorgonzola and pesto, rocket and courgette. We finish with a scoop of homemade olive oil ice-cream, made with oil from the couple’s own small grove of trees.

The next morning, I help scrabble around the veggie patch for tomatoes and chillies. I string up the chillies to take home and dry and pluck bucketfuls of tomatoes from the vine, blanching then squidging them through a mouli – a handheld food mill.

After coffee, I take the just-bottled passata to the neighbouring farm. Here, Vincenza, a local woman in her 60s, shows us how to make spaghetti alla chitarra – a flat Abruzzese spaghetti made with an implement that resembles a guitar. I take my turn at pushing the yellow, translucent dough through the chitarra, before Fern and Vincenza boil it up for lunch and serve it with the passata. A lemon meringue pie with a farro (spelt) flour crust is presented by Vincenza for dessert. “Un esperimento,” she declares. Eaten in the courtyard under gentle, early autumn sunshine, this is Italian scratch-cooking at its very best.

More wine tasting follows at Castello di Semivicoli, a historic hotel owned by the celebrated local Masciarelli winemaking family, where I particularly enjoyed a Trebbiano Riserva (made from 100% trebbiano d’abruzzo grapes). Dinner is at a local taverna, where Fern is the only one brave enough to order the horse-meat ragù – another Abruzzo speciality.

Later, back at home, an email comes through with a selection of recipes, including Vincenza’s pasta and the sugo al pomodoro. Buckwheat porridge has already become a Sunday morning staple, and I will carry on making dishes inspired by my trip long after my bottle of Fireflies and Figs olive oil has run dry.

• A four-day, three-night harvest-to-plate retreat costs £525pp based on two people sharing, including all meals and activities. The next retreat runs from 20-23 September, ffretreats.co.uk. Ryanair flies from Stansted to Pescara

More food holidays in Italy

Tuscany

Le Ceregne is an organic farm in Valtiberina, eastern Tuscany, with five apartments, a pool and a farm-to-fork restaurant serving typical local dishes. The 60-hectare estate produces its own wine and olive oil, while chef Lena runs cooking classes and guests can pick fruit and vegetables from the organic gardens. There are pizza, pasta and focaccia-making classes for children, too. The old town of Arezzo with its hilltop cathedral is a short drive away.
• Rooms from €65 a night, €480 for a week, €8 for breakfast, cooking packages from €60 a class, tuscanyfarmholiday.net

Lake Garda

Learn to cook a traditional three-course Italian meal in a professional restaurant kitchen on a three-day break in Albisano, close to the village of Torri del Benaco, overlooking Lake Garda. Chef Andrea teaches classics – such as lemon risotto with taleggio and tiramisu, depending on the season – as well as wine pairing and ingredient selection; you’ll eat your creations for lunch. Accommodation is in a suite on the top floor of the house where the cookery school is (there are alternative options nearby).
• From £271pp, including two nights’ accommodation, cookery lesson and breakfasts. golearnto.com

Olive oil festival, Liguria

The OliOliva festival in Liguria (9-11 November, promimperia.it) celebrates this liquid gold. Held in Imperia on the coast, the weekend sees the old town’s squares and back streets crammed with stalls selling new-season oil – and all manner of related produce. There is also the Museo dell’Olivo to visit, an olive press that opens to the public, along with walks to take through olive groves outside town.
• Il Mirto B&B is about a mile from the town centre with one-bedroom apartments sleeping two adults and two children for €154 a night

Umbria

La Volpe e L’Uva is a lovely agriturismo just outside Perugia, with accommodation in five apartments on the farm and a shared pool. Owner and chef Raffaella offers cooking packages of two, four or seven nights for groups of between two and eight, where she’ll share recipes for everything from bruschetta to arrabbiata. Guests dine on the four-course meals they’ve made, accompanied by lots of wine. Various themed foodie tours of the region are also on offer.
• A four-day cooking vacation costs from €370pp, based on two people, with three nights’ accommodation and two cookery classes, cookinumbria.it
Aliya Siddique

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