Wonderful Basilicata, cradle of ancient Mediterranean flavors
3 minutes
Bread, pasta, cheese, sausages, vegetables, lamb and kid meat, extra virgin olive oil, wine: these are the components of traditional Lucanian cuisine, an admirable expression of the Mediterranean area.
Join us to discover the temples of food and products of Basilicata, enriched by different variants linked to trade with neighboring regions, such as the dishes of the Materano area that speak Apulian, those of the Potentino area that recall the Campanian tradition, and those of the Pollino and Lagonegrese districts that look to Calabria.
Bread is the ultimate food, rigorously kneaded with durum wheat flour, salt and natural yeasts, cut into varying sizes and shapes and often baked in wood-fired ovens.
Among the handmade pastas, typical are cavatelli, similar to gnocchi, as well as "ferretti" or fusilli, shaped with a thin iron used to make pierced macaroni, lagane, similar to tagliatelle but thicker, strascinati, and orecchiette.
Refresh your eyes, and taste buds, with lucanica, the sausage, an "imperial" product and icon of the region. Also superb are the prosciutto and meat dishes, roast lamb and kid prepared over charcoal.
In your gastronomic baedeker, you cannot miss the caciocavallo podolico cheese, made solely from the milk of cows raised in the wild and only at certain times of the year. It tastes initially sweet, buttery and mild, then becomes spicy and aromatic over time due to the cattle's diet of wild herbs.
Also note the Beans Igp of Sarconi, a prince of Lucanian tables, with soft flesh and immediate baking that makes them suitable for accompanying a variety of recipes, and the peperoni cruschi (crunchy), originating in the area of Senise (Pz), called the red gold of Lucania. With a sweet fragrance and unmistakable texture, they are dried with the effect of air and sun, then fried for only a few seconds in extra virgin olive oil, becoming crispy.
And if you have been savoring a dish made spicy by chili peppers, here used in fresh or dried versions, a glass of Aglianico del Vulture Doc, the full-bodied and aromatic "lord" of the Lucanian table, is on the way. This is what happiness in Basilicata is all about, too.
Between Metaponto and Matera, 48 kilometers of delicacies and succulent products
We suggest a tasty Lucanian itinerary that stretches from Metaponto to the City of the Sassi, a UNESCO heritage site.
The center, one of the most important of Magna Graecia, is the realm of fruit, with oranges, tangerines, clementines and strawberries, called the red gold of Metaponto, but also of Acquasale, with eggs, onion and stale bread, and codfish a "ciauredda" with fresh spring onions and chili peppers.
Reach Pisticci, where the Amaro Lucano secret recipe is kept, handed down from generation to generation, while respecting the blending of more than 30 herbs.
Also in Pisticci, you can try the various types of pasta such as tapparédde (rhombus-shaped), rucchélé (ruccoli, concave gnocchetti), tagghiariédde (noodles) and Burrino, a characteristic pear-shaped cheese with a tasty buttery heart inside, also known as Butirro or Manteca.
Ferrandina is the kingdom of the Majatica Olive, black, large and with lots of pulp. The fruits destined to be eaten are scalded in boiling water for a few minutes, then drained, salted and seasoned with oregano and wild fennel. Try the oven-baked black olives, which go well with cured meats and aged pecorino cheese, as well as in orange salad, yellow squash soup, or with moist codfish.
Lastly, in the city of stones, you can also taste Matera bread, a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) product unrivalled for the crunchiness of its crust and the softness of its interior.
Typical dishes
Strascinati all'aglianico with braised sausage
Here is a first course with an exquisite flavour, characteristic of the Potentino area, with strascinati at its centre. These are made from durum wheat flour, as are other pastas from Basilicata, and are made by hand, hollowed out three or four fingers and dried open. The lion's share is the sausage browned in Aglianico wine,
If you want to try your hand at making this dish, arm yourself with cardoncelli mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and smoked provola cheese, to be grated in large flakes over the steaming strascinati.
Pork roast with fried Tursi oranges
A cheery dish for the cold seasons, both because of its sweet-and-sour flavour and because of its appetising colours, orange and red, which are brightened up by the oranges cut into cockscombs, as a garnish for the dish, and by the flaked cruschi peppers from Senise Igp. Their crunchiness comes from proper sun-drying. Two drops of truffle vinegar, added at the end of cooking, embellish the dish.
