The oil

The taste and the aroma of the oil to use while cooking is to be chosen depending on the food to be prepared. Strong and dense oil match vegetables very well. Chicory or “Zanguni” picked up in “ red ground” lands are to be boiled and then dressed with an oil endowed with intense taste contrasting the bitterish taste of this vegetable, usually eaten together with local corn-bread or with dried broad-bean purèe. This is also valid for roasted “mucchiaruli” mushrooms, that together with boiled “ampascium” (dressed with oil and vinegar), the “cuzzede” and snails with tomato sauce sliced and grilled aubergines and dressed with garlic, pennyroyal and a generous fruity oil-sparkling with slivers of cheese (pecorino). The typical “ frisedda” ( a slice of crackling bread) wet and dressed with oil and local, red little tomatoes dry cultivated, therefore more tasty Soups and pulses traditionally cooked in typical terracotta pots, on a fire made of wood; the local terracotte from Grottaglie are particularly good. Tasty oils can be used also in pastry such as the typical “focaccia” (kind of flat bread) full of vegetables and onions, or the “scarcedda” that can be prepared as a salted pizza or as a cake with a full egg, symbol of Easter tradition. Light, sweet and delicate oils match best with fish, the Ionio sea provides, and in fried cakes (pettole, purciduzzi,cartiddate). The traditional dishes are really good, particularly together with a glass of red wine coming from the local production.