Plan Your Trip Eat & Drink Like a Local - Southern Italy - page 54

Puglia, Basilicata & Calabria
Head southeast to Puglia for peppery olive oil, crunchy pane (bread), and honest cucina
povera . Carbolicious snacks include puccia (bread with olives) and ring-shaped taralli
(pretzel-like biscuits), while breadcrumbs lace everything from strascinati con la mollica
(pasta with breadcrumbs and anchovies) to tiella di verdure (baked vegetable casserole).
Vegetables play a leading role in Puglian cuisine, with herbivorous classics including mar-
itata, a dish of boiled chicory, escarole, celery and fennel layered alternatively with
pecorino (sheep's milk cheese) and pepper and covered in broth.
Puglia's coastline delivers spiky ricci di mare (sea urchins), caught south of Bari in
spring and autumn. They might be a challenge to crack open, but once you've dipped your
bread into the delicate, dark-red roe, chances are you'll be glad that you persisted. Easier
to slurp is zuppa di pesce (fish soup), riso cozze e patate (baked rice, mussels and pota-
toes) and polpo in umido or alla pignata (steamed octopus teamed with garlic, onion, to-
matoes, parsley, olive oil, black pepper, bay leaves and cinnamon).
Basilicata and Calabria are masters of salami and sausages - pigs here are prized and
fed on natural foods such as acorns. Basilicata's lucanica or lucanega sausage is seasoned
with fennel, pepper, peperoncino and salt, and eaten fresh - roasted on a coal fire - dried,
or preserved in olive oil. The drooling continues with soppressata, the pork sausage from
Rivello made from finely chopped, pasture-grazed pork that is dried, pressed and kept in
extra-virgin olive oil; and pezzenta ('beggars' - probably a reference to their peasant ori-
gins) made from pork scraps and spicy Senise peppers. Across the border, the Calabrians
turn pig's fat, offal and hot peperoncino into spicy, cured 'nduja sausage.
In August, look out for red aubergines, unique to Rotonda, Basilicata, and originally
from Africa. Spicy and bitter, they're often dried, pickled or preserved in oil and served as
antipasti. Come autumn and the mountains yield delicious funghi (mushrooms) of all
shapes and sizes. A favourite of the ancient Romans was the small, wild umbel oyster,
eaten fried with garlic and parsley or accompanying lamb or vegetables. One of the best
spots for a little mushroom hunting is Calabria's Parco Nazionale della Sila, which even
hosts a fungo -focussed sagra (local festival).
Sicily
Sicily's history as a cultural crossroad shines through in its sweet and sour flavours. The
Saracens brought the aubergine and spiced up dishes with saffron and sultanas. These an-
cient Arab influences live on in western Sicily's fragrant fish couscous, as well as the is-
land's spectacular sweets. Sink your teeth into cannoli, cuccia (grain, honey and ricotta