Where to eat ON HOLIDAY IN LECCE

Pasticciotto and coffee, the combination of the perfect Salento breakfast, is also a cult of post Sunday lunch. You will find this shortcrust pastry filled with custard in every café and pastry shop in the city. At Caffé Alvino, you can enjoy it in front of the Roman Amphitheatre and, again, you can sample another delicacy, the Rustico Leccese, a baked product made of puff pastry and filled with mozzarella, bechamel, pepper and tomato. If you want to know the original recipe for pasticciotto, however, you have to go to Pasticceria Ascalone in nearby Galatina. Take advantage of the out-of-town excursion to visit the splendid Gothic-Romanesque basilica of Santa Caterina, in the city centre. Coffee is a real ritual for the people of Lecce and you absolutely must try the summer variant, on ice with almond milk. Now a true trademark, the original Leccese coffee is the one prepared with Quarta Caffè blends.

Where to eat on holiday in Lecce: traditional and revisited Salento cuisine.

The authentic Lecce cuisine is traditionally a poor cuisine based on legumes, fresh garden products and extra virgin olive oil. There is no shortage of meat that, in the past, was only eaten on festive occasions. And, being only a few km from the sea, Lecce’s culinary tradition is also enriched by fish dishes. You cannot end your holiday without trying at least one of the sea or land specialities of the Salento gastronomic tradition.

Lu sugu cu li pezzetti

Never heard of this delicious dish? Let’s remedy that right now. The sauce with horse chunks has a long tradition of Sunday lunches in Salento and is a speciality you can try in a typical trattoria or take-away delicatessen It is a sauce used to season fresh homemade pasta, particularly “sagne ‘nncannulate”, a long, spiral-shaped pasta, but also to stuff sandwiches and pucce. Horse meat is also used to prepare meatballs, which you will certainly find if you ask for a complete starter and mixed fritters.

Frittini, a mix of pittule, fried meatballs and potato croquettes.

Frittini are part of a typical starter in Salento cuisine. In particular, try pittule, fritters made from a leavened dough. You can find them in their classic ‘plain’ version or with some tasty pizzaiola, cauliflower or codfish fillings.

Ciceri e tria, one of the tastiest dishes of “cucina povera”

Ciceri e tria, another of the specialities from the world of poor cusine ‘, is a tasty soup which combines all the flavours of Salento’s Mediterranean cuisine. It is a first course based on fresh pasta (tria), partly boiled and partly fried, seasoned with chickpeas (ciceri). If you want to immerse yourself in a true Salento gastronomic experience for a modest price, you can try all these and other traditional dishes, in their original version, in many typical trattorias: Trattoria Da Nonna Tetti, a typical location made of Leccese stone in the heart of the old town, with wooden furnishings and a serveware  made of terracotta crockery and Salento ceramics. La vecchia Osteria da Totu, a quiet, historic trattoria set in a characteristic alleyway in the town centre.

The Red Prawn of Gallipoli and seafood crudités

You cannot end a holiday without trying these specialities. Excellent for an aperitif or seafood starter, the crudités are accompanied by fresh white wines of local production. Chardonnay and Fiano di Puglia enhance the flavours of mussels, clams, sea urchins and prawns. The high-quality Gallipoli red prawns are a local excellence that will win you over. In Lecce, you can try the two specialities at Alex Ristorante, in an elegant location in Piazza Sant’oronzo, with a choice of à la carte or tasting menus, with food and wine matched, at a rather high price range but justified by the high quality of the products and service. Do not expect traditional cuisine, but rather be prepared for something experimental and innovative.
Blu Notte Open Lunch Restaurant is located in a delightful little alley close to Porta San Biagio, It is an elegant fish trattoria where you can treat yourself to seafood cuisine that embraces the  Salento tradition, but revisited and fine locally produced wines.
The crudités at L’Ostrica Ubriaca Seafood are definitely a cheaper alternative. You will not find the precious Gallipoli Red Prawn, but an assortment of fresh seafood at a medium price range. You can enjoy a seafood aperitif with mussels, clams and prawns and decide to continue your lunch or dinner with a selection of fish starters and main courses. Let yourself be enchanted by the breathtaking view of Porta Napoli while you enjoy delicious crudités on the elegant terrace of the historical building housing the location.

Starred Restaurants in Lecce

In addition to its typical trattorias and traditional cuisine, Lecce is a city that has managed to enter the world of high-level cuisine so much so that it has four starred restaurants. If you want to try something more exclusive, with definitely high-end prices, you cannot miss the chance to try the Michelin-starred restaurants, which not only offer the highest quality products and service, but a truly refined and innovative food and wine experience. Then you must try: Duo Ristorante, a gourmet restaurant, which will surprise you with a variety of entrees; Bros’ and its avant-garde, sensory cuisine, with spectacular, theatrical presentation of dishes and background of selected music; Osteria degli Spiriti with its delicious Mediterranean cuisine, which looks at tradition in an completely innovative approach; Primo Restaurant, with its refined and elegant cuisine, simple but never banal, which privileges the ingredients from Salento and Apulia, revisited with bold creativity.