Salento, food tour with journalists

The Salento food tour was successfully experienced by a group of national and international journalists during the 41st educational organized by Carmen Mancarella, director of the Mediterranean tourism and culture magazine Spiagge (www.mediterraneantourism.it).

FIRST STOP CEGLIE MESSAPICA, CAPITAL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

The aroma of freshly baked biscuits in stone ovens reminds us of Ceglie Messapica. We are in the small yet grand Allegrini bakery, Allegrinitaly, where with locally sourced eggs, sugar, and almonds, the most healthy and delicious biscuit in the world is prepared, with a heart of cherry jam.

“The biscuit,” says Mr. Allegrini, “is like a monument of Ceglie, like a stone of the mother church or an ancient Greek vase. It is part of our history.”

Each family has its secrets to prepare it and boasts of holding the original recipe. In reality, the biscuit with its small secrets and variations is good everywhere. Whether filled with cherry jam or sour cherries, it’s worth a trip. Like homemade recipes: the bombette, pittule seasoned with strong ricotta, wild vegetables. It is from this extraordinary culinary tradition that 60 taverns, osterias, and restaurants have emerged in just 25,000 inhabitants, attracting eager diners from all over Italy every evening. Each has its specialty. And to sit at the table, reservations are required well in advance.

THE MED COOKING SCHOOL

Representing the great culinary tradition of Ceglie, today is the Med Cooking School, the international gastronomy school, chosen by Gualtiero Marchesi as the only venue of Southern Italy of Alma. Here, young people eager to pursue the prestigious chef career meet, as well as simple enthusiasts attending basic courses that are increasingly popular. Located in the heart of the historic center, this school has been heavily supported and invested in by the municipal administration led by Luigi Caroli, who managed to attract international partners such as Beko.

The idea for the project was initiated by Angelo Ricci, father of Antonella from the famous Al Fornello. Chef Antonella Ricci enchanted journalists with a lesson on making orecchiette from the Med cooking school. As inscribed at the entrance of the school, Angelo writes: “My land is an open-pit mine of food and wine culture, an ideal place for a cooking school.”

Respecting the zero-kilometer principle and the land, the ingredients used by aspiring chefs during the courses come from the garden and vineyards cultivated next to the Municipality: an abandoned land transformed into an urban garden.

Expression of Ceglie‘s gastronomic knowledge is the Food Festival. In early August, the streets of the historic center come alive with starred chefs who engage the public in dish preparation while music accompanies all gatherings and fine wines flow in glasses, featuring Negroamaro from Lecce, Primitivo from Manduria, and Verdeca from nearby Locorotondo DOC.

Although years ago it was common to speak of Ceglie as the unmissable foodie stop in Puglia, and keeper of Mediterranean diet knowledge, a new absolute novelty is the cultural renewal the city has experienced in recent years. The Grottoes of Montevicoli have opened to the public, a sequence of suggestive formations of stalactites and stalagmites created by nature over millennia.

Walking through the historic center of white houses and rich noble palaces, you arrive at the ducal castle housing the Emilio Notte Art Gallery, one of Italy’s leading futurism exponents, who in Ceglie, his hometown, donated his famous Crucifix and the Pietro Gatti Library.

You will be surprised to find, on the first floor of the castle, young people chatting and doing research (despite the internet’s advance) among ancient parchment books and numerous encyclopedias and works by the best Italian and foreign authors.

Other pillars of the museum complex include the Archaeological Museum, which hosts the finest vessels of the Greco-Messapic civilization, including private collections, and the Contemporary Art Museum, which also serves as a workshop space.

All these treasures of Ceglie, respecting the best local traditions, are part of the SYSTEM CULTURE ART.

The taste of Ceglie, its elegance, the countryside and the town where the archaic is rediscovered, have attracted intellectuals and affluent managers from all over Italy and the world, making this town their ideal residence. Ceglie has been compared to the new Capalbio, where the most elegant people lead a refined lifestyle, enjoying the energy emanating from centuries-old stones and millenary olive trees.

MELENDUGNO: CITY OF THE SEA AND EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

After a summer season with full houses, nearing one million visitors, our journey reaches Melendugno: amidst thousand colorful lights and band sounds at the end of summer, San Niceta is celebrated, a martyr from the East depicted on horseback. The mayor gives him the keys to the city, festivities begin, a toast to joy and togetherness. Lights are turned on to the rhythm of music. Wooden scaffolds hanging in the sky or leaning against houses, adorned with scrollwork and a thousand bulbs inspired by Lecce’s baroque.

Melendugno, famous for its five beaches (Torre dell’Orso, Torre Sant’Andrea, Roca, San Foca, and Torre Specchia Ruggeri), accounts for 4 percent of regional extra virgin olive oil production. It also boasts an immense stretch of ancient olive trees, where harvest will soon begin, and mills will work tirelessly day and night.

ACAYA, THE IDEAL RENAISSANCE CITY

A delectable stop at Trattoria Acaya in Oliviero Carlino, the poetic innkeeper. Acaya is a story within a story: when Renaissance man felt the measure of all things, Giangiacomo dell’Acaya designed it, beautiful and rational with its grand castle and perfectly perpendicular streets, contrasting with the disorder of medieval villages. The city and Trattoria Acaya are worth a trip—spearheading for weeks on Prova del Cuoco, the well-known Rai 1 show hosted by Antonella Clerici, to savor the taieddha, a typical Salento dish with rice, potatoes, and mussels, and the orecchiette di Sant’Oronzo, with sauce and a layer of baked golden mozzarella.

Poetry also arrives at Acaya: the VINO E POESIA event is now an unmissable appointment every early September, where authors and musicians meet to compare and be captivated by the love poetry of Giovanna Politi and the beautiful singing of Rosanna Mancarella.

Giovanna Politi is a poet who has gone beyond words, transforming them into emotions. Rosanna Mancarella, with vocal extension from mezzo-soprano to soprano, sings with a full, warm, moving voice with endless shades, speaking directly to the listener’s heart. She has performed in the most famous theaters from San Carlo in Naples to La Scala in Milan and the Konzerthaus in Berlin.

However, after reflecting on the tragedy of immigration, do not leave Guagnano without stopping at the San Donaci winery, just six kilometers away. You will be won over by its robust negroamaro wines and lively, almost sparkling rosés, ideal for cocktails and chatting with friends even before dinner.

GUAGNANO

The aromas of the grape harvest lead us to Guagnano in the Lands of Negroamaro, seven large wineries in just 6,000 inhabitants that export wine worldwide.

In autumn, the must is already in the tanks, and the entire town prepares to celebrate the Madonna del Rosario on the first weekend of October, closing the harvest on a high note and bringing good omen for winter and the wine to come from the barrels.

The Terre del Negroamaro Prize takes place on the last Friday of August: a festival honoring renowned professionals, actors, and singers who have significantly contributed to the development of Salento.

Don’t miss a visit to the Negroamaro Museum, just a short walk from the main church, where you can admire tools used by vintners of the past.

Our visit is accompanied by the poet-songwriter Mino De Santis. His songs—poems—are portrayals of daily life and express the slow pace of life in Salento, the pain of seeing a child leave, and the great irony dedicated to the so-called radical chic classes.

Guagnano looks forward with confidence to young Salento artists. The paintings of Arianna Greco, composed exclusively with wines from Negroamaro and Barbera, age like the Portrait of Dorian Gray and are now so sought after they are turning into a film: Oenological Art.

Regarding the tragedy of immigration, the short film FARIDA, produced by Maria Irene Vetrano, a young actress and screenwriter, tells two true stories—one happy, of integration (Fabien’s story), and the other sad (the death of a young Syrian girl on a boat of despair, Farida). The short was also shown at the recent Venice International Film Festival, in the Migrarti section, where it was highly praised by critics. It involved the Anelito Invisibile cultural association with support from the Mibact. Filmed in Guagnano, Porto Cesareo, Leverano, and Rome, it received sponsorship from the Guarantee Authority for Children and Adolescents, the “Marina Protetta di Porto Cesareo” entity, the municipalities of Guagnano and Porto Cesareo, the associations “Ciao Onlus” of Rome, and “A Parent Like a Friend” of Prato.

The project was supported by the Giovanni Paolo II Comprehensive Institute of Rome (notably the parents of class 3 B), Port Authority of Porto Cesareo and Gallipoli, and local Salento professionals and artists.

Press tour partners

Municipalities of Ceglie Messapica and Guagnano, the farms of Melendugno Limbitello, Masseria Baronali, Tenuta Kiryos, Borgo Sentinella, Bosco Mazza, country B&Bs Tenuta Calitre and L’ape Trachi, agriturismo Antares, real estate agency Adriatica 2000, hotel Belvedere Salento in Torre dell’Orso, and Trattoria Acaya.

Pubblicato in TravelNews