We spent one night in Tursi, in a charming apartment:
The owner, Martine, is a jewel and knows about all there is to know for a tourist in this relatively undiscovered area of Basilicata; here she stands, on a typical street in the ancient Rabatanna, where our B&B was located:
I’m guessing that Tursi will within a decade, find its way onto the tourist trail in this region…almost no tourists now…but just waiting…
We had a SUBLIME dinner at the PALAZZO DEI POETI, which also encompasses hotel rooms in a complex renovated by Paolo, who was our host for what might have been the best dinner of our trip:
It’s hard to read the menu in my photos but Ii began, after a “welcome” dish, with a first course of pasta with cruschi peppers, tomatoes, bread crumbs, and smoked caciocavallo. This one will live in my memory. HOWEVER, later on I was advised by another chef not to add bread crumbs to any dish containing tomatoes, as the tomatoes would make sodden the bread crumbs…who knows…must tear into this topic and experiment…Suffice to say, this was one spectacular dish!!
Equally great was partner’s primi of local pasta, “miskiglio,” with local sausage, mushrooms from nearby Pollino park, and my favorite, peperoni cruschi. Miskiglio is yet another exampole of the cucina povera dishes of this area. Because the semolina flour pastas were so costly, the terroni (forgive if that word is an offense) would blend other grains into the flour including barley, garbanzo and ceci beans…a spectacular example of making great use of ingredients that were accessible to local farmers. and shown with great result in this dish at PALAZZO DEI POETI, in TURSI:
Secondi:
Shared dish of young beef from the local Podolica breed. (25 euro) Succulent, and perfumed with a sauce infused with juice, and slices of the local Staccia oranges from Tursi, which are also included in the SlowFood PresidiumArk of Taste…
Walk back to the B&B through the atmospheric lanes of the Rabatanna of Tursi:
Bravissimo to Paolo and to his wife, the chef at PALAZZO DEI POETI…FIVE STARS…ESSENTIAL STOP ON ANY TRIP to the Matera province of Basilicata!
Next stop, an hour;'s easy drive from TURSI:
MATERA, site of two wonderful dinners, details to come, and also the site of one of the most memorable hotels I’ve experienced in Europe.
