Puglia: il cibo

Maybe it's typical of me to start a series of posts about Puglia with a list of foods, but I'd been counting the days til I could mosey down south and try the cuisine. A lot of it's peasant food and much is vegetables, which suits me just fine. And when you go to the market you see hand-scrawled signs over the fava beans and tomatoes and oranges that say "locali," local, something that doesn't happen so often in Lomarbadia. And the orrecchiette, the pasticiotti, the olive oil, the wine...My favorite meals took place in Lecce, but Gallipoli seemed to be a paradise for lovers of fresh seafood caught that morning. Anyways, a selection:

orrecchiette, the famous ear-shaped pasta pugliese, with respectively pesto leccese, a pesto made with arugula instead of basil (top) and a tomato sauce with thinly sliced zucchini and eggplant

potato foccaccia?! layers of deliciously oily potato sandwiching tomato, olive, and onion

my new favorite pastry, the leccese rustico, delicate buttery dough surrounding a gooey hot center of mozzarella, bechamel, and tomato

our daily breakfast: the pasticiotti salentini, a crumbly pastry filled with sweet custardy cream, and a cappuccino

pizza really is neopolitan, not pugliese, but the pizza we had our first night--tomato sauce, fresh cherry tomatoes, butter smooth mozzarella di bufala, and grana--was to die for

frittura di paranza, an assortment of little unfortunate fried fishes, so named for the small boat used to catch these critters, not eaten by me

spaghetti con le vongole, spaghetti with clams, also not eaten by me

ricotta with arugula, walnuts and honey

(not pictured but nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed: ciceri e tria, crisply friend pasta with chickpeas, la primavera, a first course of fava beans, green peas, and artichokes cooked in broth with mint that comes out tasting like the spring itself, red beets with olive oil and mint, pasta with salted ricotta forte, green beans with tomatoes and spicy pepper, salted turnip greens, cakes of ricotta cheese and marzipan...if only my stomach had been larger)