Parco naturale regionale Gola della Rossa e di Frasassi

Grass pea is not often used in the Italian cooking tradition. It has a particular taste and can survive in places whose environment is not adequate for its cultivation. The seed is tiny, angular, with a gray-brown color, while the skin is not very tough and absolutely not bitter. Grass pea does not need particular attention, it also grows in conditions that would be difficult for other plants. Indeed, the lack of water gives the seeds a floury and pleasant taste. It is sown in spring and harvested in August in bunches with all the roots. It is kept drying on the threshing floor and then it is beaten with the traditional "vivillo" separating the seeds from the pods. The resulting material, consisting of the pods and dry plants, is used to prepare the sheaf to use as fodder for the animals during the cold and rainy winter periods. It was considered "the meat of the poor" and today it has been rediscovered and enhanced.