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The food of Lecce, the Salento and Puglia in general is some of Italy's favourite and in deed, Puglia is where Italians themselves go to vacation, the entire nation often citing 'the food' as the reason, just after the beautiful beaches (Like Florida, Puglia is actually defined by water, in this case the Ionian (Jonio in Italian) and the Adriatic (Adriatico). The Salento, the region of the bottom of the heel of Italy's famous 'boot', has always employed a core and periphery-type relationship with the city of Lecce, its capitol: the food is exactly that too, part, poor -country cousin, part regal, urban aristocratic food, the two feeding culinary concepts back and forth to one another, in a constant dialogue. Two of the three major crops of Puglia, grapes and olives, but not much grain, drive the local cuisine in ways easy to understand from outside. The region always wrestles with Sicily as the top producer of wine and olive oil, two products that show up consistantly in the local food, as well as often providing the lion's share of employment opportunities. The kitchen of Lecce comprises many of the standard elements of the Mediterranean diet: a whole grain and vegetable base, topped with fish and shellfish for protein, with little red meat, sugar and alcohol, on the whole. A typical dish, say, le frise, is the Salento in on a plate: a deep brown, barely and whole grain bread, moulded in a biscuit-shape, then fired twice (the word Biscotto, from where Americans and Australians get the name, albeit, using it for the singular, Biscotti, actually means just that, cooked twice). In an effort to use less fire wood, and in deed, own fewer ovens, the bread is fired rock hard in the second cooking, to be later rehydrated as need be. A Salentino would simple dip the frisa in spring or even sea water, slice a wild onion, some wild herbs, a tomato and some of the local oil, and enjoy the true Mediterranean diet with little daily effort, nor need for a city store or market. This has fostered a great deal of individual family independence and even today many family's still can and put up many of the foods they consume throughout the year. Pasta While much of Italy has taken towards the habit of daily pasta consumption, even the regions that historical ate very little or none at all,(most of the north, from Rome and on, contrary to modern popular conception), it is the Salento that one still finds pasta as it has been since antiquity: brown from non-semola-based flours, chewier, and most often as the meal itself, versus the national classic menu of satisfying only the 'primo' portion of a complete menu. So little has been written about the pasta of the Salento because the region is made up of small villages and individual country homes called masserie, leading the spelling and actually idiosyncatic definition to change within a single kilometer: the pastas resist easy codification. In general, a visitor can expect pastas to be darker here, to be dressed with vegetables, often bitter, and olive oil, silkier and sweeter than northern and central Italian oils. Ingredients also drive shape and, unlike the soft wheat flour and eggs of the northern pastas, the absence of glutten prohibits those of the south from being rolled out with rolling pins. Shapes tend to be single, definable, and hand-formed with just a butter knife, or perhaps a single, knitting needle shaped rod called a ferretto. You find 'little ears', 'little cobble stones', and surprising to non-Italian speakers, 'little weenies', or 'little pricks', as many are surprised to learn of Italy's fascination with vulgar culinary nomenclenture. The rougher grain content, coupled with the imperfections brought on my hand production, tend to grab onto the olive oil-based sauces, creating an effect not possible with factory-made pasta, and in deed this is what most Italians believe that lacks in pasta made and consumed outside of Italy. Typical Recipe From The Salento, Ciceri E Tria |
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