‘It’s like bringing the kitchen into the piazza’: seven of the best Italian village food festivals
Sagre – the historic local events that pop up in villages across the country in summer – are the perfect way to get a taste
Sagre – the historic local events that pop up in villages across the country in summer – are the perfect way to get a taste of regional cuisine and culture I cannot remember a summer when at least one evening hasn’t been spent following signs to a local sagra.
Not quite a food market and not quite a village fete, a sagra is like a village moving its kitchen outdoors for a few nights. When I think back to those nights from childhood, the first image that comes to mind is of a woman’s hand closed into a fist above a pan of hot oil.
Through a tight circle formed between her thumb and forefinger, she would squeeze soft lumps of batter, one small ball at a time, into the oil. In a few seconds, each soft mass would become a pittula, a small Salento fritter: swollen, uneven, golden, too hot to eat straight away but too good to wait for.
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