During your stay in Masseria Spartivento, situated in Melendugno, in the district of Lecce, in Salento, in Puglia, you can taste the rustic flavors of Salento, in Puglia.
Pitta di Patate
The Pitta with potatoes is a traditional recipe of Puglia, particularly of Salento. They prepare a focaccia with a mixture of potatoes, eggs, bread crumbs and cheese. Pitta is stuffed with tomato sauce, onions, capers and olives. It is cooked in a pan, creating the layers of potatoes and sauce and then is baked in the oven, until the surface becomes crispy. Once baked it is left to cool before tasting, it is a delicious and tasty rustic dish! The pitta with potatoes has peasant origins and is still widely used especially for picnics and outdoor trips.
Pitta with potatoes photo ricettaidea
Morzi fritti
The fried morzi (which means fried bites) are small pieces of stale bread fried in olive oil and seasoned with garlic and chilli. The fried bites are accompanied with vegetables and traditionally are made with fava beans, cabbage, or peas. There are many variants of this dish because in the past they used to put together the leftover bread with the vegetables that were available in the house from time to time.
Taieddha
The taieddha or tiella is a dish made with rice, potatoes and mussels. The taieddha is a unique and very old dish, some people believe that has some similarities with the Spanish paella. It is prepared in a pan with layers of rice, potatoes, mussels, bread crumbs, olive oil, tomato, onion, garlic and parsley. It is browned in the oven and you get a dish full of ingredients which represents the meeting between land and sea, typical of this region. The recipe is known in all Puglia, but in the Salento variant there are also the zucchini.
Ricotta dolce con mosto cotto e fichi secchi
This dessert brings together three traditional elements of the region, and is traditionally eaten in winter. The cooked must, or cooked wine, is obtained by boiling the grape juice until you get a thick and sweet cream, used in the preparation of many desserts. The cooked wine was a way to preserve the must and use it in the following months, as well as figs left to dry in summer and eatable up to Christmas.
Desserts of the bride
Dolcetti della sposa
These delicious desserts have an ancient history. It is said that the nuns invented them for the wedding of Lucrezia Borgia. The wedding, however, was not celebrated, but the diners ate the cookies anyway, here’s the reason why they are called desserts of the bride, also called sighs. Traditionally they are prepared for weddings. They have a base of sponge-cake, filled with pastry cream and then covered with the typical icing. They decorate it with candied cherries or sugar. Today, the icing is made of different pastel colors from pink to blue, and the decorations have become more sophisticated.
