When Franco saw me taking pictures of my food yesterday, he made that wide smile of his: “Food porn, no?”
The seafood risotto at the Masseria Le Fabriche (just a few kilometers from the Ionian sea) was SENSATIONAL last night and the fried jumbo shrimp and calamari rings the best I’ve ever had…
When time permits, I’ll devote a post to frise (FREE-zeh) and friselle (free-ZEHL-leh) — a type of crunchy bread, sometimes soaked in water, dressed with various toppings.
That’s one of the Pichierri granddaughters at Vinicola Savese (incredible visit, btw). She’s a heartbreaker!
There’s no denying it: so far, the Radici Wines gathering has been one of the best tasting festivals I’ve ever attended in Italy. In past years (now its fourth), the festival was limited to Apulian and Lucanian producers. But this year it includes more than 100 producers from Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, and Campania.
And even though the unusual “speed-dating” format can lead to some awkward silences, it’s been fantastic to taste and chat one-on-one with so many interesting producers.
There’s no time this morning to begin posting on the many amazing wines (1997 Gaglioppo, anyone? 1975 Primitivo?). But I’ll get to them soon enough.
In the meantime, fiordilatte — literally, crème de la crème, one of the many wonderful “plastic” cheeses produced here in Apulia — and crusty bread were just what I needed for lunch…
But the dish that really blew me away at last night’s dinner at Le Fabriche was this housemade almond paste pastry, a classic of Apulian gastronomy. The combination of nuanced texture and gentle sweetness was sublime.
The pastry paired stunningly well with Le Fabriche’s Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale, which surprised me with its balanced alcohol and gorgeous fruit (and it thrilled the crowd of top-flight wine writers).
The first tastings of the festival begin this morning and then we head out for a winery visit at Pichierri this afternoon (SUPER psyched for that, one of my favorite Apulian producers)… Stay tuned!
That’s the charismatic Alessia Perrucci (left), our host and owner of the agriturismo Masseria Le Fabriche, with Franco Ziliani (center), who’s one of the Radici Wines festival’s curators, and Nicola Campanile (right), festival organizer.
The food at last night’s welcome dinner was wonderful. I LOVED the handmade orecchiette (one of Puglia’s classic pastas) with veal meatballs and pecorino. The chef’s marretto — a loaf made of lamb offal — was also exceedingly delicious…
It’s difficult to convey the ubiquity of olive trees in Apulia. Our hosts at the Masseria Le Fabriche in Maruggio believe this beauty to be more than 1,000 years old.
There’s so much to be said about these trees and their fruit… but not enough time today… posting in a hurry as I prepare for the first day of the Radici Wines festival devoted to indigenous grapes of Southern Italy…
I joined Paolo and his crew last night for dinner at the famous and homey Lecce restaurant Le Zie, where owner Carmela Perrone insisted on showing me how to dress my fave e cicorie (puréed favas and sautéed chicory) and fed me my first bite, telling me to make a wish (I’ll tell you if it comes true this Christmas).
However simple, her rendering of this dish was no less than a masterpiece.
La tiella (taieddhra in Leccese), named after the teglia or earthenware pot it’s cooked in — baked mussels, potatoes, and zucchine. Unbelievably delicious… Life-changing, really.
We had sat down for dinner at around 10 p.m. and by the time we arrived at the second course, there were no more of the white-wine braised meatballs. And so Carmela breaded and fried some of the meatballs reserved for the next day. This was perhaps the mother of all meatballs…
I don’t have time to post properly on the amazing meal we had there but I will in upcoming weeks… Today, I’m headed over to Manduria on the west coast of Apulia for the preview tastings for the Radici Wines festival… Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
Paolo and I went swimming yesterday before lunch at Torre dell’Orso, my first time in the Adriatic.
The water isn’t quite as warm as it will be in another few weeks, said Paolo, but, man, was it great… On a clear day, he said, you can see Albania on the other side of the sea.
The positive response to the Italian Grape Name and Appellation Pronunciation Project has been wonderful… Yesterday, S. Irene Virbila gave the project a shout-out in the LA Times… Check it out here…
Thanks so much to everyone for speaking Italian grapes! :-)
Paolo and I sat down for dinner at about 9 p.m. last night at La Quinta Stagione in downtown Lecce where this fantastic, creative take on the classic ciceri e tria (chickpeas and long noodles) reminded me of what Tony always says: “For Italian food to be authentic, it must be a balance of the classic and the creative.”
The photos simply do not do justice to Chef Franco Tornese’s deft hand.
That’s the amazing chef Franco (standing) with Cataldo Ferrari, vineyard manager at Paolo’s family’s winery Cantele.
Do Bianchi 