Salento
Haven’t you decided to spend your next summer holiday in Salento yet? Salento is a magnificent land of sun, sea, beaches and wonderful cultural attractions for visitors to experience and enjoy.
You may well have an idea about places to see and where to go, but there may also be plenty that you do not know yet, so it is important to read up on Salento and really find out what there is to see and do!
Traditional Salentinian cooking
Salentinian cooking is well-known throughout the world with some dishes better known than others; however, if you are looking for information on what to do, or let’s say taste, in Salento while you are on holiday you should not miss out on the pasticciotto salentino o leccese – a traditional sweet shortcrust pastry with a delicious custard filling. While taking a pleasant and relaxing stroll along the sea front, do not miss out on the opportunity to enjoy one of these delicious warm cream-filled pastries and experience the divine warmth of Salento’s cuisine – its delicious, tasty and unique filling is sure to delight your palate!
The pasticciotto’s origin may be traced back centuries to the older customs of a simpler and thriftier style of cooking and baking. According to tradition, the
LEcce
pasticciotto was invented in about 1745 by a local pastry chef who did not want to waste any of his ingredients, so he came up with a special dough to be baked in the oven and offered his new pasticciotto to his customers. It was an immediate success and in little time came to be the well-known and much loved sweet pastry that we know today throughout the Salento area.
Festivals and events not to be missed!
Feste nel salento
The food festivals in Salento are a fantastic attraction throughout the summer and even beyond. Depending on when you want to come on holiday to Salento, you will definitely find a festival in which you can participate and enjoy the many tastes and flavours of our local foods.
Salentinian cooking is internationally renowned and our food festivals and other similar events focus on presenting a vast array of culinary traditions, dishes and local products from the region – all the more enriched by the time-honoured recipes and traditions of the “heel of Italy”.
Just for example, in the month of August, there are a great number of food festivals held in various towns in the Salento area. In Porto Cesareo, you should not miss the Sagra del Pesce seafood festival held in July. In Cannole, the Sagra della Municeddrha – celebrating local dishes with Italian ‘escargots’ – takes place between August 10th- 12th. On August 8th, there is a fried seafood festival, la Sagra del Pesce Fritto, in Santa Maria Leuca, that also offers many tasty local recipes and variations on our traditional dishes. These are but a few of the many events that would also include similar festivals in September with the focaccia festival, the Sagra te la Fucazza between September 15th – 17th , which takes place in Lequile – about 5km from the city of Lecce.