A few days after arriving home, I found this draft that I had begun while in the Gargano Peninsula; I thought it was lost. So will follow up with this restaurant, and another in Vieste, and then attempt to post some notes on a few of the other destinations we visited during our 3+weeks in Italy last month (September, 2023).
So, continuing on with Masseria San Salvatore, about a half hour’s drive inland from the gorgeous coastal town of Vieste. The only problem common to most of the restaurants we sampled on this trip was that was there were so very many tempting items on offer and our appetites were far too small to sample even a small fraction of these!
The Masseria sells some of their products; probably the most interesting to outsiders are the jars of grilled lampascioni. These look like small onions when you see them raw, in the markets, but are really the bulbs of a type of hyacinth which are gathered in early spring before the flowers bloom. I’ve seen them often further south in Puglia but they are apparently eaten throughout the region and north into Abruzzo.
Oven where most of the cooking takes place; this was originally the home of the grandparents of the current owners:
After consuming all of our welcome platter of local sheep cheese, with the farm’s olives, we began with the sole primi: LASAGNOTTE AL RAGU DI CINGHIALE (18 euro)…hearty perfection.
The dish of the evening proved to be the milk-fed roasted goat, with our contorni of roasted peppers and potatoes flanking the succulent and absolutely unforgettable meat. I could have eaten double the amount of this course! (22 euro)
Partner was equally ecstatic with his milk-fed pork chop. (18 euro):
Shared dessert: Bigne, round p[astry filled with salted caramel cream (8 euro)
With water and one glass of local rosato, total bill=95 euro, about the cost of the proposed RT taxi fare. (Since the driver did not pick us up, after waiting a half an hour, we caught a ride back to our hotel on the beach in Vieste, with a couple from Mantova, and had great fun getting lost, despite GPS, and chatting food the entire way!
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!
Exterior of MASSERIA SAN SALVATORE, outside Vieste, Puglia: