The exquisite food of Apulia and Salento is the essence of Mediterranean. Sun, sea, rich soil and multiple cultures blend in the intense flavors and aromas of this region's unique products. One of the major assignments of our trips is to let our visitors enjoy the exquisite, tasty, simple and healthy food of this region.

Cuisine in Salento is based mainly on the local agriculture and fishing, within the typical mediterranean traditions. Apulia is known and famous in Europe as the land of extra virgin olive oil and wine (no doubt, among the best in the world). The region is #1 olive oil and #1 wine producer in Italy. It is also a land rich of genuine and very healthy traditions and the observance of those concerning the production of typical products coming from the rural society is a moral and cultural habit which continues nowadays from generations. Among Apulian wines and olive oils, those of Salento are very typical and appreciated for their very rich aroma and taste (show list of wines and olive oils of Salento).

Bakery. Bread and other delights cooked in the oven are another part of divers cooking of this region; many types of bread can be found in Apulia’s bakeries among which the typical bread, made with hard wheat flour. Pizza and focacce, a type of deep base pizza, among which there is the calzone, a pie made of two sheets of thin oil based pasta stuffed with a mix of cooked onions, black olives and wild celery. We can also find taralli, the most common are made with flour, oil and white wine; sometimes they’re flavored with chili and fennel seeds. One of the most renowned local products are frisedde; it’s a sort of dry bread, made with flour and little olive oil, baked in the stone-oven; people used to store keep for several months in case of food shortage. They are eaten in a very traditional way: first they are dampened with little water then  dressed with small tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, salt and marjoram; or they are used as the base for cialledde, a cold summer soup made with frisedde broken into small pieces, fresh tomatoes and cucumber, sliced red onions a little cold water, salt and pepper. Puccia is a very typical variety of bread cooked with tomato, onion, olives. This is a simple and healthy diet which is appreciated for its rich and wonderful variety of flavors and inventiveness.

Appetizers (antipasti). Other typical products are small and sweet tomatoes (pomodorini), preserved without any type of treatment. This way they gain a particular flavor which gives a particular touch to the dishes in which they are used. They can also be dried up and preserved in olive oil.
Preserving raw eggplant and peppers in olive oil is a very old Apulian tradition. They're are  served over toasted slices of good bread.
Fava bean puree with chicory is made with nothing more than cooked and pureed fava beans, flavored with the dense, fruity olive oil of the region and served with boiled chicory.

First course (primi). Among first courses there is pasta with mussels, one of the most famous Apulian dishes, cooked in a very simple “white” sauce (i.e. with no tomatoes); ????? a soup prepared with fish and shell fish cooked in terracotta pots, with tomatoes, pasta with bread crumbs; l’ampanad, a mix of mashed dried beans, boiled green vegetables (chicory or white beets) and bread which has hardened a little. The tiedde is oven cooked,  made with rice, potatoes and mussels. There many varieties of hand made hard wheat pasta; the famous orecchiette con cime di rape, little hand made ear shaped pasta, cooked with turnip tops, is no doubt one of the flagship dishes of Apulia and Salento.

Main coarse (secondi). Moving to the main course we have fish and meat, typically barbecued on olive trees hot coals, giving it a unique taste and aroma. The most widely used fish in Salento is sword fish, gilthead, bass, mullets. Sea urchins (ricci), mussels (cozze), clams (vongole), cuttle-fishes (seppie), squids (calamari), are also abundant and are often eaten raw by the local people, with just few drops of lemon juice. Octopus (polpo) is very tasteful if barbecued and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, parsley, lemon juice or vinegar.

In truth, meat is not the major item of the Salento cuisine. Nonetheless, a specialty is lamb and mutton, barbecued on the spit. Nghiummerieddi are made with little pieces of lamb meat (including kidney and liver), tied up with stripes of well cleaned intestine.

The most typical Salento desserts (dolci) are cakes and pastry made of ground almonds; cartellate are ribbons of pastry twisted into circles and covered with either honey or mulled wine; pittule  (or pettole) are small balls of pastry fried in olive oil (eaten at Christmas or Easter), diavulacce are made with almonds and coco, sweet taralli of various types and shapes, dried figs dressed with toasted almonds, sometimes coated with chocolate and quince jam.