Trattoria Fiori Di Zucca

Typical Salento products have been home for nine years now: the Fiori di Zucchini restaurant is a refuge for lovers of solid and genuine flavours seasoned with love for all-around necessity. Located in the southwest area of the capital, in a side street of Viale Marche, the Fiori di Zucchini trattoria recalls in its furnishings and, above all, in its welcome, that sense of familiarity that makes you immediately empathize with the owners, Bepi and Lucia. Crossing the restaurant's threshold is like entering the dining room of a close relative, where the kitchen's scents mix with the furnishings' warm wood, the jars of jam in the sideboard, and the dried tomatoes hanging from the ceiling. Inside there are 40 seats, plus 25 outside in the summer.

The couple knows how to do the honours of the house with joy, putting at ease from the very first occasion all those who want to taste the authentic cuisine of Lecce. Bepi, like a true pater familias, has an attentive eye on the room and the dishes, of which she constantly guarantees authenticity and adherence to tradition. Lucia, a tireless and thoughtful chef, selects raw materials and recipes with care and love, keeping them like a family treasure. The menu, which changes daily based on the availability of products, is a riot of seasonal vegetables, local meats, cold cuts and cheeses, fresh pasta and desserts made with dried fruit, just like the grandmothers of Lecce used to make them. In addition to the characteristic courgette flowers in batter, the sage 'cannulate, the pieces of a horse with sauce, and the poached rape cannot be missing. The seafood menu is based on oily fish. At the end of the meal, here are the morsels of almond paste that melt in your mouth. But Fiori di Zucca is also attentive to health, having a separate hob for coeliacs to avoid contamination. Even the homemade pasta, upon request, is prepared with whole grains from organic farming with shallow gluten content.