So, Lecce.
This is another place where the best thing to do in town is wander. They do have an archaeological museum, but most of the fun is in checking out the Leccese baroque, on display for free all over town.
First things first, though - we went in search of breakfast. Unfortunately, the two places we had information on as good stops for pastries and coffees were closed - one, for a probably much-needed January vacation, and the other for good. So, we went to a forno (oven - store selling breads) and bought a couple of tasty Leccese specialties - rustici and pasticiotti.
Rustici are kind of like panzerotti, delicious pastry pockets filled with tomato and mozzarella. We tried two, one fried and one baked... the fried was tastier. Isn't that pretty much always true, though?
Then, for afters, we tried out a local pastry called a pasticiotto (pasticiotti for the plural). It's the ubiquitous pasta frolla (or short crust pastry, apparently) stuffed with pastry cream. They looked a tad overdone, but were really good - though in my mind a cup of coffee would have been the perfect accompaniment.
Full and happy, we walked over to the Piazza del Duomo to see it in daylight.
After seeing Santa Croce the previous night, it was a bit of a letdown - ornate, but not insane. Unfortunately, it was also closed. This is one of the more difficult parameters of travel in southern Italy - the pausa, or Italian siesta, can be up to 4 hours in the middle of the day and shuts down just about everything of interest. (Here in Florence, the pausa is rarely more than an hour.) In the summer, this is fine - you probably don't want to be outside in Lecce in July at 2 pm anyway. In the winter, it's frusturating, since many things don't reopen until just after it gets dark outside.
Anyway, Lecce's piazza del duomo is well worth checking out, even if everything is closed - there's so much texture to be found there.
That is a view of the only entrance to the piazza - in times of war, sometimes the entire population of Lecce would seek refuge in this large piazza, kept safe by lack of access.
Since the pausa was now on in full force, and nothing would be reopening until at least 4, we took some time to do a little laundry and get our next few days of hotel stays planned.
Several hours later, laundry done and travel arrangements made, we found ourselves once again standing in front of the craziest building I think I've ever seen - Lecce's Santa Croce.
This time, we got a couple of closeups. The level of detail on this facade is completely amazing. How much time must it have taken to carve all of this?
Our favorites were the variety of creatures holding up the second level of the building. There were knights, and gryphons, and strange manbearpigs, along with this she-wolf - perhaps suckling Romulus and Remus?
Our next stop was at the church of San Giovanni Battista - St. John the Baptist. It was the last project of Lo Zimbalo, the architect responsible for the flamboyance of Leccese Baroque.
The enormous fruit-bowls topped by birds are certainly a highlight, but I was most taken with the columns on either side of the main entrance. They were not only fluted on all sideways, but also carved with lots of intricate little whirls and flowers! These things make Corinthian capitals look seriously boring.
We actually went inside this church, where we were confronted with altars that were more ornate than the froufrou outside!
Want a quick break from all this baroque? Since Lecce is, well, in Italy... there was an awful lot of tagging.
I've never thought of the Queen as needing to lose any weight, but apparently this kid disagrees.
We stopped at another small Baroque church on our way back to Piazza Sant'Oronzo (we were by now really ready for a snack, and were starting to fear that the McDonald's there might be the only thing open). This scary cartapesta Jesus waited for us in the dim light inside.
I can't get over the obsession with the wounds - they're all so lovingly detailed.
There are some things about Catholicism, especially as it seems to be practiced over here, that I just can't wrap my head around. Towns eat cookies shaped like eyeballs lost by martyrs, or in the form of breasts to remember saints... and there is this absolute obsession with the blood shed by Jesus. It's very different.
Well, we were still hungry - and we were very relieved when we arrived back in Piazza Sant'Oronzo to find that the forno had reopened for evening business. We bought a couple of stuffed breads.
We took part in the passeggiata for a little while, then returned to the hotel to change for dinner. The little alimentari next to where we were staying had these hanging in the front, and I remembered an old Food Network show I had seen where Tyler Florence of all people visited a woman in Southern Italy who preserved August tomatoes for months by hanging them.
I haven't actually seen tomatoes preserved in this manner anywhere else, so we went in to ask the grocer if that was indeed what they were - and they are. I can't imagine why they don't rot - that sun must be hot and DRY.
We resolved to buy some the next day for our train picnic to Bari.
Dinner our second night in Lecce was planned for Trattoria Casereccia - we called and made reservations, even though the majority of the restaurants we'd eaten in on this trip had been all but empty.
It turned out to be a really good thing we reserved, since we arrived for our 9:30 reservation to find a restaurant with 10 tables - every one full. We waited a little while for a table to finish its dinner and were seated.
The thing about this place - no menus. A young woman wearing a clean white apron approached us soon after we were seated to ask about drinks, and she then rattled off the antipasti menu. Melanzanefagiolifrittipastaalici...
We said... "Un misto, per favore?" - A mix, please? and a few moments later, these plates were deposited on our table.
Some very nice, lightly grilled eggplant, marinated anchovies, and a cold bean salad with celery. Good, solid, but not particularly inspiring. Then, the owner herself came out of the kitchen and put this down between us.
Nestled in amongst the perfectly fried slices of zucchini were little... I guess I will describe them as Italian hush-puppies. They were bits of pizza dough with chunks of tomato, capers, and tiny (unpitted!) black olives. I haven't had a fried thing that good in a long time.
The lady herself came back to list our options for primi, and she was very patient with us and spoke as slowly as we needed. She somehow steered us towards ordering three primi for the two of us - I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I didn't complain...
The first to come out was what she described as a "sformato" - made with sliced squash and potatoes, and a few mussels. It had a strong home-cooked feel to it, perhaps due to the pooling olive oil, or the fact that just a couple of mussels flavored the whole dish. It seemed like something a housewife would make with what was around. It was delicious, too - lots of crispy potato bits and soft squash.
Next came our two pasta dishes. We had to try her ciceri e tria, to stack it up against the previous night's. It was really good, with a different texture caused by the wider noodles, but I think we have to give the flavor edge ever-so-slightly to Alle due Corte. Not that this wasn't delicious.
The next dish was made with a pasta shape we had been seeing all over town, called sagne. They look like a wide noodle, somewhere between tagliatelle and pappardelle, that then seems to be loosely fomed around a long tube. It makes a shape sort of like the curls I've always imagined that insufferable girl in Ramona the Pest having - you just want to tug them so you can watch them spring back into shape.
Surprisingly, they keep that spring-shape when cooked. Here, they were served with a tomato sauce flavored with ricotta forte, and some really nice moist meatballs that were probably mostly bread.
We barely managed to finish our plates, and when we were asked if we'd care for secondi, I managed to ask weakly for some raw fennel (I had seen people at another table enjoying it, and it looked delicious). Husbear, however, had other ideas, and ordered a plate of one of the meats Puglia is famous for - horse.
I know, but... when in Rome?
My fennel was so good. I could smell it coming to me from across the restaurant, it seemed. They grow a lot of the stuff in Puglia; there are fields of it everywhere, and I was really shocked at the difference in flavor and smell. It was so strong it almost made my tongue numb. I loved it.
The horse... well, Pugliese eat a lot of horse. We saw it on just about every menu in Lecce, and we resolved to try it - and this seemed like a good place to do so.
We were right. It was actually wonderful - most likely roasted then braised in a slightly spicy, rich tomato sauce. Really, really good.
After all of this food, we knew there was no way we'd be venturing anywhere near dessert - so we stuck to our usual question about local digestivi. This time, the question produced a flood of about six liqueurs made in house, so we ordered laurel (alloro) and nespolino, which turns out to be made from the nut of the medlar tree.
I preferred the laurel, which has a really nice herby interesting flavor. The nespolino wasn't bad, it was just sort of insipid. Kind of like a mild sweet almond flavor
All in all, though, this was one of the best meals we had on our trip, and I would highly recommend them. Even though the outside looks a little... suspect. But definitely reserve, because if they were like this on an off-season Wendesday, I can't imagine what it's like during tourist season.
Trattoria Casareccia: Viale Archimede Contadura 19, Lecce. 0832.24.51.78
