Reiseführer Lecce und Salento: Reiseführer Lecce und Salento, Italien - Nozio 0%

Lecce Eating And Drinking, Italien

The cuisine of Lecce and of the Salento is typically Mediterranean, made up of humble but tasty dishes, rich in the perfumes of this land and the products of the sea.

For a tasty snack, you may try frise, or friselle, large farina donuts that are bathed and dressed with oil, tomatoes, capers and oregano.

Among the starters, the specialty identified with Lecce is called "ciceri e tria": lasagna mixed with chickpeas, flavored with pieces of fried pasta. The homemade pasta takes on a great variety of forms (orecchiette, minchiareddhi, troccoli, chiancarelle, gnocchetti…) and is dressed with tomato sauce and spicy ricotta, turnip greens, meat ragout or fish sauce.

Among the second courses, specialties of Leccese cuisine include "turcinieddhi" (roulade of grilled lamb), the "taieddha" (terrine of onions, potatoes, zucchini, mussels, tomatoes and parsley), octopus with potatoes, calamari and stuffed cuttlefish. For robust palates there is the "scapece", fried parr in grated breadcrumbs soaked in vinegar and sprinkled with saffron.Naturally, all the second courses are accompanied with the delicious greens of this land: for example, you may try fava bean puree with wild chicory.

The cheeses are delicious: pecorino, scamorza, caciocavallo, provola and burrata, not to mention the spicy ricotta, to spread on toasted bread.

Among the sweets, do not miss the rich "pasticciotto," rolls of pasta filled with custard or jam. The sweets prepared for the festivals have the flavors of the orient: the "purceddhruzzi" (balls of fried dough with honey, almonds and pine nuts), the "ncarteddhrate" (sweet dough with anise seeds and honey, in the shape of a rose) and the "mustazzoli" (muffins based on flour, almond, honey and other aromas, covered with a glaze of chocolate).

Wine in the Salento

The Salento region, sometimes distinguished by production that aimed at quantity rather than quality, now has numerous producers who, investing in modern technology, promote native vineyards: Malvasia Nera, Malvasia Bianca, Primitivo and Negro Amaro. There are DOC names of great quality, such as the famous Primitivo di Manduria and the Salice Salentino, but there are many other excellent labels, although less well-known.