5 traditional Salento dishes that will blow your mind
Salento in spring is like a hot chocolate in winter: you can't really do without it. You always hear about Salento in the summer, known as the Italian Caribbean, but few still know that the best season to visit this corner of Puglia is precisely spring, exactly between April and June. Quite coincidentally, this is also the period in which you can enjoy some of the traditional Salento dishes that will blow your mind: the Easter period in southern Italy indeed is the perfect travel solution for food and wine lovers. That's why Salento in spring is always a good idea: you can enjoy the landscape in full bloom, avoid the groups of tourists that instead make it chaotic in summer, you can savor all the taste of local cuisine with the traditional Salento dishes in the Easter period. In addition, if you want to add a touch of authenticity to your trip, you can discover Salento by bike, to come into contact with local culture and live your holiday in true slow style. 
But now we want to talk to you about typical Salento food and give you some ideas for your next trip in the name of taste, so here are 5 traditional Salento dishes not to be missed! La Cuddhura It is also called in other ways, like puddhica, palomba or panareddhra, but the essence does not change. It is a sweet made with shortcrust pastry, which represents an intertwined tarallo with a hard-boiled egg in the middle. This sweet is typically Salento, but there are very similar variants in other regions of southern Italy. It is usually eaten on Easter Sunday and is often made in different shapes from the traditional tarallo. For example, some make it in the shape of a girl, others in the shape of a rooster, but all are united by the presence of a hard-boiled egg. Cicureddhe cu le fave nette (wild chicory with fava puree) The Salento cuisine is very healthy and perfectly reflects the canons of the Mediterranean cuisine. In the typical Salento dishes, you often find wild herbs, which are normally cultivated in the countryside and their uniqueness gives dishes a unique flavor. An example is the wild chicory accompanied by fava puree, in Salento dialect Cicureddhe cu le fave nette. It is a very simple recipe: just cook the beans with garlic, onion, potatoes, tomato and celery until they are almost pureed. The whole is then accompanied by wild chicory boiled in salted water. This is the perfect dish for those who do sports: nutritious and healthy.
Sagne 'ncannulate Salento Tiella This is also a very popular dish during the Easter period, perfect for also being transported for outdoor lunches and picnics. It is rice, potatoes and mussels, there is also a Bari variant and a Taranto one. It is a very tasty dish and in this case also very healthy, with few genuine ingredients. It is perfect to enjoy even warm or at room temperature, reason why it is one of the traditional Salento dishes that cannot be missing during the Easter picnic or Easter Monday. Sagne 'ncannulate This is one of the main dishes of Salento cuisine: the sagne 'ncannulate are a type of homemade pasta. Small tagliatelle are created, which are then rolled up on themselves, hence their name 'ncannulate. They are usually accompanied by a fresh tomato sauce, basil and ricotta or by a delicious fish sauce. Granu stumpatu (crushed grain) This typical Salento dish perfectly represents the rural origins of Salento. The crushed grain is a very ancient recipe, which has been revalued in recent years. Its origins date back to the Second World War, when the peasants couldn't go to the mills, so they recovered large stone mortars called stompi, in which they actually mashed the grain. Today the granu stumpatu can be tasted accompanied by a tomato sauce or with a fish sauce, but in reality it is good with any type of dressing. In addition to the classic puccia and the rustici from Lecce, Salento cuisine is characterized by ancient dishes, full of history and flavors. If you are a lover of good food and traditions, you cannot miss a trip to Salento in general, exploring this extraordinary corner of Puglia.
Granu stumpatu Article by Travel On Art
