Where the countryside meets the sea

Between Oltranto and Santa Maria di Leuca there is a small town by the sea half an hour from Lecce where Maria Desdemona has cultivated a passion for cooking that weaves together products of the local area and of the sea.

Guests are welcomed according to season, in the town or in the countryside, by clean air, far from the pollution of the city and where the atmosphere is calm and verdant.

The appetizer could be considered "terracqueo" because on one hand it uses the fresh fruits of the sea, octopus, squid, black mussels, shrimps, and on the other produce picked from the field carrots, celery, fennel and olives.

The home made orecchiette with turnip tops, anchovies, capers, garlic, chilli pepper and pecorino, represent an authentic version of a dish from Puglia that has often lost it's native identity.

The stuffed Focaccia with vegetables, caciotta, olives and capers is a refined version of the classic puccia leccese dish which is accompanied by a puree of dried broad beans married with wild cicorietta, fennel, garlic and chilli pepper, a background of pane casereccio always home made and cooked in a friendly oven.

The vegetable course is a green salad from the garden.

The biscotti della mamma of endless varieties are almost like expressions of maternal love, invigorated by the sacredness of the lacrima del salento, crowning this menu and leaving space for the limoncello and the grappa all'aroma di finocchio, obviously home made.