Lenticchia di Santo Stefano di Sessanio

Tiny, round, purplish brown, a few millimetres across, and grown nowhere but the slopes of the Gran Sasso, above 1,000 metres inside the national park. Some plots go as high as 1,600 metres, though the best come off about 1,200. Being so small and permeable they need no soaking. They taste of a great deal and are best in a plain soup: covered with water with a few peeled cloves of garlic, bay, salt and olive oil, lidded and simmered until tender.