The flavors of Salento

la frisa salentina con olive e rucola

What to eat in Salento?

Typical dishes and delicacies of the heel of Italy

The question we are most often asked by our guests is: “What to eat in Salento?”

It is natural, in fact, that when you are on holiday you do not visit only places, but meeting people, experiencing traditions and trying new flavors. Let’s talk about those from Salento. What are the must-have dishes? The typical Salento cuisine is substantially poor, consisting mainly of pasta, legumes, greens, small-sized fish and simple portions of meat.

Let’s start from the first…

which are also a rich single dish: on the podium the “Ciceri e Tria“: a tasty dish of homemade pasta similar to tagliatelle and chickpeas, but which also has the fried pasta. The particularity of the dish, in fact, is that  pieces of pasta, the trie, are fried in olive oil, obtaining the so-called frizzuli, which give a crunchy note on the plate. Another very tasty and simple pasta is the “Sagne ‘Ncannulate“, a homemade pasta in the shape of a long twisted strip, similar to tagliatelle, usually seasoned with a fresh tomato sauce and basil with the addition of ricotta forte or ricotta “scanta”, slightly spicy. On the podium of typical dishes there are certainly “Cicoredhe cu le fave nette”, a poor and nutritious dish typical of Mediterranean cuisine. A mashed broad beans, accompanied by wild chicory boiled and seasoned with a drizzle of oil. Simple and tasty. With legumes, we recall the “Cecamariti” a poor man’s dish quickly prepared in simple homes  with leftovers from previous days, made up of legumes, vegetables, and stale bread that was fried .

Seconds

Among the meats, the “Pezzetti di cavallino” must certainly be mentioned, cubes of horse meat, a very tender part, cooked in a pignata, a large earthenware pan set on the fire, with local aromas for about eight hours, and accompanied by crusty bread. Again with the pignata and slow cooking the “Polpo alla pignata” which becomes so soft that it literally melts in the mouth. Cooked with potatoes that capture their juices and with tomato sauce. There are many traditional dishes that you can savor during your holidays, but it is also worth mentioning the “Pittule“, leavened and fried dough that accompanies many dishes or serves as an appetizer tasty, and the “Frise“,  a bagel of durum wheat or barley, cooked in the oven and  cut in half horizontally. Wet in water (sponsato) it is seasoned with tomatoes and vegetables in oil. We thank the Foglia Matta for allowing us the use of the photographs Read also the Itineraries to visit the lower Salento

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