Have dinner at Alle due Corti
One of the most important and memorable meals we’ve had in Italy.
Off the back of featuring in Anthony Bourdain’s spontaneous visit in Parts Unknown and coverage in the New York Times, we knew a reservation was mandatory, but were surprised that there would still be an hour-long wait in the alleyway outside for our table.
However, the biggest surprise was that this no longer secret restaurant was struggling to survive.
Opened by Rosalba De Carlo in 1998, Alle Due Corti pioneered putting Lecce’s traditional cucina povera at the heart of her menu. In this historically very poor and rural part of southern Italy, the ‘food of the poor’ was based on what they grew and the meagre amount they could afford to buy. Meat was little-used due to expense, and eggs and dairy were the preserve of the wealthy’s diet. The poor made do and adapted, using methods of curing, salting, frying, substituting, and to make up for what they lacked. Indeed, so poor was Italy’s south, that some in the north mocked them as ‘turnip eaters’.
From these limitations, an entire set of ingredients and dishes that grew to be synonymous with Italy were created.
At Alle Du Corti though, the traditional receipes of the poor are stripped back to their original form, rather than adapted to the modern palate or ‘updated’ with the abundant levels of produce one can cheaply purchase today from any market. There’s the 100% vegetarian ciceri e tria, where the chickpeas are fried to imitate the crunchy pork fat they couldn’t afford. The polpette di melanzane (aubergine meatballs) where the texture is something that an aubergine has no right to achieve, and the Puglian favourite of orecchiette con cime di rapa, where those turnips take pride of place in the pasta. Severals of the menu’s dishes will be found elsewhere in Puglia, but some will only be found here or in the heads of nonne.
In short, she’s a gastronomic historian, and she’s been doing something for decades that is now the raison d’être of many a fancy restaurant and superstar chef.
Fast-forward to our visit, where Rosalba and her husband were enjoying a meal in the corner whilst their adult children ran the tables and kitchen (her son is the Giorgio is now the chef), and we were so sad to learn her that the restaurant was facing severe challenges and threats to their very existence. Despite being so clearly popular, the challenging years of Covid, rising costs, and finding good…
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