We spent 2 days in Basilicata and 7 days in Puglia. There were four of us. We shared most of the plates.
Let’s start with the Basilicata experience.
We managed to visit Castelmezzano. It is a spectacular mountainside village in the Dolomiti lucane. The sight of this settlement when you are approaching by car is breathtaking. At the same time it is relatively easy to reach from Potenza (less than 1 hour) or Matera (1h 15min). The place must be an impressive view any time of the year. A few Basilicata natives to whom I mentioned my intention to visit the location immediately stated that I have to eat in Al Becco Della Civetta. Coincidentally I already made a reservation there. The place has Slow Food snail endorsement and Bib gourmand status. We went for lunch. The restaurant was not very busy. Interestingly they required my credit card number prior to reservation. It was the only restaurant in Italy which requested this information during the last trip… The shared appetizers included salumeria cuts, fried zucchini flowers and fresh zucchini plate, baccala coquets and fried cruschi peppers (very local dish!). We enjoyed all of them. My wife and one of our friends shared veal with cardoncelli mushrooms and truffles. Both of them enjoyed it very much. I had strascinati (fresh flat round local pasta) with cruschi. It was good, but the one I will write about later was much better. Our vegetarian friend had a plate of nice ravioli with ricotta. He liked it. We shared a bottle of local aglianico rose which was very crisp and delicious. I highly recommend this destination.
As magnificent as Matera is, our decision to stay there during the early July was not very intelligent. We were warned, but did not take the warning seriously. The lime stone heats up creating a sensation of being in a sauna while walking the streets and passes of the Sassi. We had a wonderful walking tour conducted by Nadia Garlatti (nadiagarlatti@tiscali.it) Thanks to the recommendation of erica1!!! The scenery is mesmerizing any time of the day or night. The food situation is a bit more complicated. All the restaurants have an inescapable touristy feel. It is not surprising because the people living in Sassi do not eat in the restaurants. We had two dinners. The first night we ate in Stano. Although the same touristy feeling was present, we enjoyed the meal very much. Most of the combined antipasti and salumeria plates were very delightful. I recommend both. Couple glasses of local aglianico. My main dish was fusilli (looking more like trofie from Genova and not like the American supermarket fusilli) with cruschi peppers. That plate was fantastic. I have enjoyed it much more than the one in Castelmezzano. My wife liked her braised veal cheeks. The ravioli, one of my friends tried, had could have been skipped. We finished with sharing delicious and light milifollie. I think it is a good option for dinner in an extremely touristy environment.
The second night was much more disappointing. Despite being somewhat endorsed by Slow food, La Lopa was a very mediocre restaurant. It is a very busy place with multiple rooms. None of the plates we tried made us happy. I do not want to describe the meal because it was just not good. On the positive side, on the way to the lower levels of the restaurant there is a TV showing all the movie episodes featuring Matera.
Probably consider Da Nico ( I looked at the menu and liked it) or La Latteria Rizzi.
I will deliver my comments on Puglia soon.
