Oily fish, olive oil and a bread baked on stone

Two economies have always met on the Gargano: that of the fishermen on the coast and that of the shepherds on the plateau. The cooking holds them together without mixing them: down below you eat fish, up above lamb and cheese, and the olive oil is the same everywhere.

The sea

The fish eaten here is the oily kind: anchovies, sardines, mackerel, grilled over embers or marinated. Then there is octopus, beaten on the rock and curled, and cuttlefish. The dish to ask for in the harbour trattorias is the Vieste fish soup, made with whatever the sea gave that day and eaten with toasted bread.

The land

The paposcia is the bread of the Gargano: a dough rolled thin and baked in a wood oven, then split open and filled with caciocavallo, rocket or sausage. Caciocavallo podolico is made with the milk of a breed of cattle that grazes free on the plateau and is one of the rarest cheeses in the south. Among the first courses are troccoli and orecchiette with turnip tops.

The oil and the citrus

Olive groves cover the whole southern side of the promontory, and some trees are more than a thousand years old: the oil that comes out is fruity and bitter. At Rodi Garganico and Vico they grow citrus instead, oranges and lemons with the Igp, which ripen late because the sea keeps the temperature up even in winter.

To drink

The Gargano is not a land of great wines, but the Puglia around it is: Nero di Troia and Primitivo come from the Capitanata and the Salento, and Cacc'e mmitte di Lucera is made an hour's drive away. Otherwise you drink cold white with the fish, and at the end of the meal there is bay or myrtle liqueur.