Visiting southern Italy : Apulian cooking

If you are a naturist gourmet and a wine amateur, visiting southern Italy should be a pleasure.

The Naturist Resort Grottamiranda which is located in Apulia Region, gives you the possibility to taste a local refined wine collection as well as tasty dishes of Apulian gastronomy.

 Culture of vineyard has characterized Apulia since Phoenicians first settled in this region.  Through the years, vineyards have been so thoroughly worked that Apulia has been named “wine cellar of Italy”.

Nowadays, if Italy can be considered as the biggest world wine producing country, is thanks to the Apulia Region which guarantees 17% of the total country wine production.

With its Mediterranean breeze as well as rich and fertile territories, Apulia produces dark coloured wines as well as delicious spiced wines.

To tickle your taste buds, we have a selected a wine-list :

-          Primitivo is a dark skinned wine grape used to make intense inky red wines that seem to be soaked in sunshine. Its body also allows to produce high sugar level wines.

-         Negroamaro is a dark skinned grape variety and is valued for its deep colour wines. The variety is characterized by a bitter flavour with the addition of some almond tones. It also shows chocolate tones whenever the vines achieve ripeness.

-         White Pinot such as Favonio, characterized by discrete flavour, is renowned as being a summer wine par excellence.

The best way to discover Apulia wines is to taste them joyfully at the Naturist Resort Grottamiranda. If you are a wine-friendly naturist, come over to our Resort, in the first half of September to join the “Fiesta de lu Mieru”.

It’s a three-day town feast that takes place in Carpignano Salentino.

Apulia is mainly an agricultural region and its typical dishes are cooked with local food such as durum wheat, tomatoes, globe artichokes, fava beans, rocket, zucchini, fennel, peppers, onions, cheese as well as lamb boeuf. Here’s our selection of the most prized dishes:

-         “lasagnettes with anchovies”

Discover lasagnettes with anchovy, marvellously paired with Primitivo wine.

-         “Melanzane ripiene”

Think to taste stuffed Aubergines which are a kind of stuffed Aubergines. Enjoy this delicate dish that can be paired with a Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG wine of Sicily.

-         “Orecchiette alle cime di rapa” homemade pasta in the shape of ears. Orecchiette with broccoli rabe is a typical Puglia dish and is made with a mixture of broccoli rabe sauce, garlic cloves, tomatoes and ricotta. White sauvignon is proposed to be paired with it.

-         Oven Roasted Lamb if you love lamb meat, “Oven Roasted Lamb is made for you! That typical Apulian dish is made with seasoned chunks of lamb, olives and lampascioni which are tiny bitter tasting wild onions originating from the Apulian mountains. Enjoy this typical dish with Barolo DOCG wine from the Piemonte Region.

The Naturist Resort Grottamiranda, gives you the possibility to cook up Italian dishes by yourselves. Apulia cooking classes are scheduled at our resort.

To taste typical dishes cooked by the Apulians themselves, you may join the Cooking Festival of San Pietro and Paolo that takes place each year at the end of June, in Otranto in Lecce province .