Browse Techniques

Basilicata's iconic summer vegetable stew — related to but distinct from Neapolitan ciambotta — celebrates the region's intensely flavoured hill-grown produce. Diced aubergine is salted and pressed, then fried separately in abundant olive oil until golden. Peppers (both sweet and friarelli), courgettes, potatoes and ripe tomatoes are cooked in sequence in the same pan: potatoes first, then peppers, then courgettes, each partially cooked before the next addition. The aubergine and crushed tomatoes join last, along with fresh basil and dried peperoncino. The stew braises covered over low heat until unified — approximately 40 minutes — developing a thick, jammy sauce. Served at room temperature, never hot.

The Lucana version of the ancient pairing of wild chicory and dried broad beans (fave e cicoria) — found across southern Italy but with distinct regional character here. Split dried fave are soaked overnight and boiled until they collapse into a thick, rough purée with no water remaining. Wild chicory (or cultivated catalogna) is blanched in heavily salted boiling water then plunged into ice water to set its colour and remove excess bitterness. The greens are then ripassata — briefly tossed in a pan with olive oil, crushed garlic and dried peperoncino over high heat. The fave purée is spooned into the base of a warmed bowl; the ripassata cicoria is mounded on top; the whole is flooded with newly pressed Lucana olive oil (olio nuovo) with its characteristic peppery finish. Served with toasted cracked-wheat bread.

Strascinati are hand-dragged fresh pasta shapes unique to Basilicata and adjacent Puglia — small pieces of semolina dough pressed and dragged across a wooden board or ribbed surface with two or three fingers, creating shell-like shapes with ridges that cup the sauce. The sauce combines 'nduja (Calabrian spreadable spicy salame) melted directly into a pan of warm olive oil with halved dried tomatoes (pomodori secchi sott'olio) and a splash of pasta cooking water. The 'nduja dissolves completely into the oil, staining it deep red and releasing intense porky, spiced fat. The cooked strascinati are finished in the pan, tossed vigorously for 60 seconds with torn fresh basil and a final tablespoon of raw olive oil.