In short. Three things to order in Gallipoli: sagne ‘ncannulate — twisted ribbons of pasta that hold sauce better than anything — the bright yellow scapece sold from wooden tubs, and a zeppola from any pastry shop in town.
Gallipoli sits on an island in the Ionian, joined to the mainland by a bridge, and it has a fishing tradition that still lands on the plate every morning.
🍝 Sagne ‘ncannulate
Fresh pasta of wheat or barley, made at home, shaped like pappardelle but twisted along their length. That twist is not decoration: it makes them hold the sauce far better than a flat ribbon, which is the whole point of the shape.
The traditional dressings are tomato with ricotta forte, or tomato with cacioricotta grated over. Also common, and heavier: tomato with small pork meatballs or nuggets of pork.
Ricotta forte, again. If you have not met it yet, this is the fermented sheep’s ricotta that turns up all over the Salento — sharp, creamy and unmistakable. A spoonful melted into a tomato sauce changes the whole dish. There is a pasta recipe with it.
🐟 Scapece, the yellow one
Gallipoli is the home of scapece: small blue fish — pupiddhi in the local dialect — fried, then packed in layers of breadcrumb soaked in olive oil, vinegar and saffron. The saffron is what makes it that startling yellow.
You do not need a restaurant to find it. Scapece is street food here, sold out of big wooden tubs at the town’s feasts, and it is a genuine local speciality rather than something invented for visitors.
🍩 And a zeppola, whatever the month
The zeppola belongs to Saint Joseph’s day in March, but the pastry shops of the Salento now make it all year, and it will be sitting in the case with the small pastries. Choux pastry, filled with plain or chocolate confectioner’s custard, most often fried and sometimes baked.
How to order like a local. The pasta at lunch, the scapece from a tub in the late afternoon while walking the old town, the zeppola standing at the counter of a pasticceria. Three courses, three different places — that is how the day works here, and it costs very little.
More Apulian cooking: the recipes.
