Remarkable Places to Eat - Puglia - Channel 4

After crossing the mesmerising Taranto Bay by boat, Dermot and Fred arrive in Gallipoli, a fishing port that dates back over 3,000 years. One of Puglia’s culinary capitals, it is a real jewel showcasing the fishing and seafood that dominates the area. The fish market here is always bustling first thing in the morning as the locals come to get the catch of the day. 

Dermot takes Fred to his favourite restaurant, Il Bastione which showcases the historic food culture that has been firmly rooted in the peasant tradition, cucina povera. The food doesn’t cost a lot of money, but the taste is perfection. Il Bastione enjoys the most beautiful views from its position high up on the old city walls.  

This family run restaurant has been owned by the Quintana family for nearly 30 years earning its reputation for having some of the freshest seafood in Gallipoli with local prawns, urchins and crudo taking pride of place on the menu. Fred and Dermot enjoyed a raw seafood platter for starters which include langoustines, prawns, mussels, sea urchins and local delicacies. The prawns are famous here for their red colour and intense flavour that just melts in your mouth with an almost sweet taste. The urchins also have a really powerful, intense flavour and as much as it is strong, it is delicate at the same time.  

For their main course, the duo enjoyed the fruits of the sea, zuppa di pesce (fish soup) with a side of gamberoni rossi di Gallipoli sotto sale, the famous red prawns baked in salt. The diversity of the fish is cooked to perfection and full of flavour – heaven on earth! In the past, fishermen would add stones from the sea to add flavour to the soup if they didn’t have enough fish. Adding the water from the sea is so unique as the salty water and the freshwater combine to make a different flavour and that is the secret of Gallipoli.   

Where to stay?

Enjoy a stay in Lecce with our handpicked hotels below: 

The next stop for the pair was Masseria Le Stanzie in rural Puglia to taste the cuisine of the land with a traditional Puglian dish showcasing a different side to the food of this area. Just 20km from the coast, the landscape changed completely as they arrived at the 600-year-old fortified farmhouse that remains a working farm today and is home to Le Stanzie Restaurant, famous for its cucina povera. Every effort has been made to preserve the history of this farmhouse and stepping through the door is like stepping back in time.  

The farm grows much of the food they serve in the restaurant and keeping with Puglian tradition, they work the land with their hands like they did in the past with nothing treated with chemicals. A real symbol of Puglia’s rustic cucina povera is turnip tops, le cime di rapa. The farmers collect the most tender leaves, and the harvest is done with such care and precision.   

Puglia’s most iconic dish is orecchiette con le cime di rapa and you can buy the pasta anywhere today, but it actually originated in the 13th century in Puglia and is still shaped by hand at Le Stanzie by combining just two ingredients – water and flour. 

The people of Puglia have been growing vegetables and making pasta by hand for years, keeping traditions alive. They are firm believers that not everything that’s good in the world is new.  

To make this iconic dish, the cime di rapa is blanched with a pinch of chilli flakes, oil, and a few scoops of pasta water to create a sauce. It is then topped off with a sprinkling of well-seasoned breadcrumbs toasted with garlic and olive oil. After all, Puglia is the largest producer of olive oil in Italy!  

Orecchiette con le cime di rapa is a dish synonymous with cucina povera containing locally grown ingredients that have been lovingly and respectfully transformed into a meal that has sustained the people of Puglia for centuries.  

Where to stay?

Enjoy a stay in Otranto with our handpicked hotels below: 

 

All recommendations made in this article are by Channel 4.