Food in the Salento Region

Tradional Salento cuisine can best be described as poor man’s cuisine. This is reflected in the types of infredients that were used;
locally cultivated and wild vegetables, peche azzurro – bluefish (mackerel, sardines and anchovies), the cheaper flour from barley instead of wheat. For the less well-off, meat was only once a week on sundays, mixed with a lot of bread to make meatballs. Horses were used to work the fields and when they were old they were eaten. Nothing went to waste.
During easter when it is tradtional to eat lamb, the local population would prepare dishes from the offal, such as turcinieddhi, also called gnommareddhi or mboti. Ciceri and tria is another traditional dish orginitating from the Arabs who ruled Puglia in the past. It is fresh pasta, like tagliatella but without egg, partly fried in extra virgin olive oil and partly boiled together with chickpeas and some other vegetables may be added.
The Salento cuisine is characterized mainly by the presence of vegetables which are the real foundation of the traditional Salento diet.
You will find all the seasonal vegetables: turnip tops (or rapacaule), various types of cabbage (cabbage, mugnuli, cauliflower, cabbage), chard beets (in dialect seuche or gneti), cardoon, tomatoes ( or pummitori), peppers (or pipirussi), aubergines (or marangiane), artichokes (or scarcioppule), porraie (or spunzali) onions,also used as a side dish for legumes); all legumes: beans (or pasuli), chickpeas (or ciciri), peas (or pisieddhri, and fava beans.

Snacks and Street Food

Pittule

In effect they are small balls of fried dough, also widespread in Basilicata, Campania and Calabria.

Pirilla Salentina

Also knows as Brocula, Simeddhra, or Frizzulu , is a tasty bread baked on a stone oven typical of the southeastern area of Salento (Lecce). It is the traditional peasant focaccia made from durum wheat flour, with a very particular and characteristic taste. Generally it is eaten hot, stuffed with strong ricotta, anchovies and sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil.

Puccia Salentina

Puccia leccese without breadcrumbs is a particular very soft semolina sandwich, typical of the Apulian and mainly Salento gastronomic tradition.

Rustico Leccese

A puff pastry with a stuffing, often tomato and mozzarella. Its eaten warm. Filling and delicious.

Turcinieddhi

A roulade of offal (liver, kidney, lung) wrapped in lamb or kid gut and flavored with parsley, pepper and wild fennel. Other names fo this meal are gnommareddho, mboto, turcinelli, mbujacati.

First Courses – Primi

Muersi fritti

This recipe is about recovering what was left over the day before, of cooked vegetables, and bread, also left over from days before.

Faveneddhe e Cicureddhe

Simply put its a mash of broad beans with chickory

Sagne Ncannulate

Handmade twisted pasta, often served with tomato and cheese sauce.

Ciciri e Tria

Very traditoinal dish with Arab origins: pasta and chickpeas. Almost half of the pasta is fried to give the dish extra taste and crispiness.

Main Courses – Secondi

Polpette di carne fritte

Meatballs – as meat was traditionally eaten once a week on Sundays, many still consider this to be a festive main meal. These can also be taken as a starter. Made with pecorino cheese or other cheese. Can be served with tomato sauce. Variations include Popette al Sugo – with tomato sauce, Polpette di polpo – made with minced octopus.

Pollo Cusutu Nculu

traditional recipe from Salento that was usually prepared for the feasts. The way the poultry is bred (free range) gives the meat a special taste. Oven baked chicken stuffed with its entrails.

Pezzetti di Cavallo

Simply put, this is a horse meat stew.

Scapece Gallipolina

As Gallipoli suffered sieges, people had to find ways to survive. Small fish is fried and marinated in layers of breadcrumbs soaked in vinegar and and saffron and then stored in chestnut wood vats.

Cecamariti

Fritters made up of flour, onion, zucchini, tomatoes, capers, olives, and peppers. Small delights to be enjoyed as an appetizer or as a main dish. Believed also to be an aphrodisiac!

Dessert – Dolci

Pasticciotto

Pastry filled with custard

Bocche di Dama

Almond based cookies from Puglia

Pitteddhe

Short bread with a filling of grape jam or similar