Francis Ford Coppola ate here

Today I was taken to lunch at Le Zie, a trattoria somewhere in Lecce. Its main claim to fame is that Francis Ford Coppola has eaten there and there is a picture on the wall to prove it. Francis Ford Coppola comes from Lecce.

Antonio is Melina’s husband and today I met his sister Daniella, her husband Cosimo and their son Roberto. Also at lunch were Melina, Astrid, Ilaria and Maria and Irena who you met in a previous post.

Sunday is very important in Italy. It’s the day for the family to gather, often including the extended family, for a big lunch and then afterwards the men watch the soccer while the women chat in the kitchen. You either eat at someone’s house or you go out to what is essentially a family restaurant serving home style food that you (ie the women) don’t have to cook yourself. That’s what Le Zie (the Aunties) is.

Le Zie has a nondescript front and sign in a nondescript street well away from the fashionable part of town. The décor will not win awards and nor will the food. But today for me was the sort of experience that travelers crave but rarely have because to find places like Le Zie you either need local knowledge or you need to be lucky enough to bump into one by accident. Local knowledge was on my side today and we had a great lunch.

What we ate
I must add here I didn’t eat all this myself. It was put on the table and shared.

Anti pasti
Frittata, Potato and Artichokes, Grilled Eggplant, and Pettole (light, savoury, deep fried balls of dough).

Primi Piatti
Orrechiette with tomato sugo and meatballs. Instead of grated pecorino I was persuaded to try mine with ricotta forte. This is a fermented, creamy, salted ricotta that tastes a bit like gorgonzola only stronger. Delicious but packs a punch.

Pasta e ceci (chick peas). Fresh, wide fetuccine is made (1cm wide). Some is deep fried and set aside. The rest is then added to the cooked chick peas when they are nearly cooked. The crispy fried pasta is then added to the dish. The result is a delicious double textured dish that I can’t do justice to here. I liked this one the best.

Zuppa di grani, fagioli e salsiccia picante. In the south they often substitute cooked wheat for pasta or rice. This was one such dish – a rich stew of wheat, cannellini beans and spicy sausage. Yum.

Potato, mussel and zucchini bake. A stunning dish of layered zucchini, potatoes and mussels with a little tomato, herbs and finished off with breadcrumbs.

After all that we passed on the meat and went to the fruit and dessert.

Fruit and greens
Slices of sweet honey dew melon, prickly pear, and young fennel, cool, aromatic and firm in the mouth.

Dolce
Pasticiotto torta – a delicious custard filled flan that was to die for. Local delicacy.

Ricotta casatta – best described very inadequately as sweet ricotta ice-cream.

Crostata – Another flan this time filled with an almond, hazelnut and walnut paste. Again my description is very inadequate. Sublime.

All finished off with coffee and liqueur. I had a smooth fennel liqueur that caressed my throat as I imbibed.

After all that it was back to the house to watch the soccer. No dinner tonight.