A
dish for all seasons
The culinary
tradition of the Matera hills.
Matera's culinary tradition, as well as
Basilicata's in general, reflects the genuineness and simplicity
of the farming world from which it originates. It is a
tradition influenced by dishes from nearby regions, dishes
that have been adapted to take advantage of locally available
produce and to meet local taste. The basis of local nutrition
is to be squarely found in durum wheat. This kind of wheat
is used to create the dishes that are most frequently found
on local tables, starting from pastas such as orecchiette,
cavatelli, scorze di mandorle, maccheroni al ferretto,
etc.....
Matera Bread is also made from this particular kind of
wheat. This bread, something that's always been at the
heart of the local diet, becomes the basis for some of
the most traditional dishes. 
Hot Cialledda is bread garnished
with egg, bay leaf, garlic and olives while the cold version
dampens old bread with water and garnishes it with tomatoes
and garlic. There's also the Pane a Tacconi made with rapini
greens and cooked bread. The classic Bruschetta, made from
old bread toasted over an open fire, is garnished with
oil, salt, cherry tomatoes and garlic. Taralli and Cancelle
are dry, salted biscuits made with durum wheat and dotted
with fennel seeds.
Meat was available to few, so that bread was often accompanied
by dishes rich in vegetables and legumes. What once was
poor man's food, today has become the backbone of our tradition:
well known are fava beans with chicory, pasta with rapini
greens, chick peas, lentils or beans, soups made out of
various kinds of legumes and fava beans prepared in a variety
of delicious ways.
Besides our daily staples, dishes that are prepared on
special occasions are also heavily reliant on our farming
traditions.
Carnival
This celebration used to end with the butchering of the pig.
Calzoni stuffed with ricotta cheese and sugar and served
with orecchiette, are in fact dressed with a pork sauce.
Maccheroni of all kinds, strascinate, al ferretto, cavatelli
are all served with a pork sauce also and are prepared
to highlight the craziness of the carnival's festivities.
The desserts that mark the carnival are the Chiacchere, irregularly
shaped pieces of dough, fried and dusted with powdered sugar,
and a ricotta cake garnished with whatever is available (chocolate,
powdered coffee, cinnamon.....).
Easter
After Lent's long fast, during which the diet consisted primarily
of legumes and vegetables, there came the dishes that make
up our Easter tradition. Cardoncelli, a wild and prickly
green, are well garnished and sautéed for Easter
Day. Scamorza (a seasoned cheese), eggs, salami, fried
lamb, all contribute to make a vegetable dish particularly
tasty. To follow, of course, lamb; there was a time when
it was not available to all.
Sweet biscuits, made with white flower and covered with sugar
glaze, bring the meal to a close. The Panarella was born
as Easter Monday's dessert. The particularly hard dough of
which it is made, was supposed to keep the shape given to
it, so that children could play with their biscuit that looked
like a basket or a doll for the girls, or like a horseshoe
or a swallow for the boys.
La Festa della
Bruna
On the eve of the 2nd of July, the day in which the patron
saint of Matera is celebrated, the traditional pignata
is always prepared. It consists of mutton and potatoes,
with onion, celery, tomatoes, salt and hot salami, all
baked in a terracotta dish placed inside a wood oven that's
working at a steady low temperature. Rather than having
a regular lid, the terracotta dish is covered with bread
dough. On the day of celebration no one can give baked
pasta a miss. Curly lasagne is dressed with tomato sauce,
meatballs, salami and scamorza cheese.
August
Thanksgiving celebrations held at the end of the harvest
gave everyone an excellent reason to get together and have
a good time. Thus the Crapiata is born, consisting of a
minestrone made with a variety of legumes and potatoes
that is put together by the entire community and cooked
in very large pots. Amid the dancing, singing, joking and
drinking, everyone shares of the food.
The Immacolata
On the eve of the Immacolata 
(8th dicember), the evening
meal is attended after having fasted all day and it consists
of dried codfish boiled or pan-fried, accompanied by a
special kind of bread prepared just for the occasion: the
Ficcilatiddo, a large biscuit made of white flour and fennel
seeds.
Christmas
When
it comes to food, this is certainly the holiday that steals
the show. Pettole are fried dough balls with either raisins
or anchovies. Cartellate and Pordceduzzi are delicious 
desserts
made of a kind of puff pastry, the first ones in the shape
of do noughts while the second are similar to gnocchi in
shape and both are either covered in honey and sugar, or
served with cooked wine. Other desserts include the Strazzate,
flour biscuits with almonds, sugar, eggs and bitter chocolate.
Christmas’ lunch generally consists of cardoni (the
thin, green branches of the artichoke plant) cooked in turkey
broth, while the turkey itself is served as a second course.
Lamb however is often served in its stead. Turkey broth used
to be New Year’s Day’s main course also, albeit
served with homemade egg noodles. If the Christmas meal consisted
of lamb, Boxing Day’s lunch presented its diners with
Marro, a large roll made with the lamb’s organ meat
and baked in the oven with potatoes. Buon appetito!
(Palmina Frascati)
