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Traditional Salento peas

Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Puglia

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In brief

History and origin

The Slow Food Presidium brings together three peas of the lower Salento, each tied to its own town: the riccio of Sannicola, the dwarf pea of Zollino and the dried pea of Vitigliano, a hamlet of Santa Cesarea Terme. All three are listed in the Regional Register of Apulian varieties, which protects local genetic resources at risk of disappearing.

The Sannicola riccio was described as early as 1914 under its dialect name «pesieddu rizzu». Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was grown on the slopes of the Serre facing the Ionian Sea, between Alezio, Tuglie, Sannicola, Parabita, Neviano, Aradeo and Nardò, and from the port of Gallipoli it reached the markets of Naples and Rome as an early crop. After the Second World War it helped many towns around Gallipoli recover economically.

The Vitigliano pea appears in the 1929 agricultural land survey and was once grown as far as Tricase and the Capo di Leuca; the Zollino pea, in the Grecìa Salentina, has been handed down for more than a century.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Piselli tradizionali salentini · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello riccio di Sannicola · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello secco di Vitigliano · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello nano di Zollino · BiodiverSO (PSR Puglia, Università di Bari e CNR) — Il pisello riccio di Sannicola

Area and method of production

These peas are grown by traditional methods and, at Zollino and Vitigliano, without irrigation. In Zollino farmers choose fields with good water reserves, far from other peas to avoid crossing, and remove plants that differ from the type; the crop is cut as whole plants and threshed by hand so as not to damage the seed.

In Vitigliano, on the medium-textured «terre duci» or sweet soils, sowing traditionally fell on the feast of Saint Eligius, 1 December. In June the plants are scythed by hand at dawn so that the pods stay shut, gathered into sheaves and dried in the sun on the threshing floor; then they are beaten with mallets and winnowed through a wood and metal sieve. The peas, dried again and briefly passed through the oven, are stored in terracotta jars.

The Sannicola riccio did best on poor, stony soils facing south, with work done entirely by hand: a local proverb says that God makes the broad beans, but the hoe makes the peas.

Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello nano di Zollino · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello secco di Vitigliano · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello riccio di Sannicola

How to recognise it

The Sannicola riccio is a small, bushy plant with cylindrical pods full of pale green peas, smooth when fresh and wrinkled when dry; fresh, they are very sweet and tender. The name comes, some say, from the long curled tendrils of the leaves, others from the seed that wrinkles as it dries.

The Zollino dwarf pea grows no taller than 25 to 30 centimetres and is eaten only dried. The Vitigliano dried pea has roundish mustard-coloured seeds with green tints and a sweet taste; it is called «quarantinu», a name the regional Atlas of traditional products links to the plant's short growing cycle and the Presidium to its height, no more than forty centimetres. It is also «cucìulu», easy to cook: it cooks evenly without soaking and stays whole, without losing its skin.

Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello riccio di Sannicola · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello nano di Zollino · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello secco di Vitigliano · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Piselli tradizionali salentini · BiodiverSO (PSR Puglia, Università di Bari e CNR) — Il pisello riccio di Sannicola

In the kitchen

Traditional cooking is slow, in the pignata, the terracotta pot set beside the hearth fire. The emblematic dish is piselli a cecamariti, listed among Puglia's traditional products: the dried peas, soaked, simmer in the pignata with a little spring onion, celery, parsley and a few storage tomatoes until they become almost a purée; they are then poured over cubes of durum-wheat bread fried in extra virgin olive oil, often with boiled greens, and finished with a drizzle of oil. It was the farmworkers' breakfast before heading to the fields.

The Sannicola riccio, fresh, is essential in local dishes such as «lu scarfatu» and «muersi a cecamariti».

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Piselli tradizionali salentini · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Piselli a cecamariti · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello riccio di Sannicola

Where to taste it

The three peas are found in their own towns, where they are still sold in small quantities to a circle of enthusiasts. Sannicola, between the Salento Serre and the Gallipoli coast, once had a seasonal evening market where batches of peas arrived from the fields and left as early produce; the riccio is harvested in May.

In Zollino, at the heart of the Grecìa Salentina near Martano, Calimera and Sternatia, the Fair of San Giovanni on 24 June sells the area's typical products, just as the harvest comes in. In Vitigliano, in the municipality of Santa Cesarea Terme on the Adriatic coast south of Otranto, the dried pea has its own festival in August.

A route through these towns crosses the inner Salento, from the Serre to the Grecìa and down to the sea at Otranto.

Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello riccio di Sannicola · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello nano di Zollino · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Pisello secco di Vitigliano

Protection

When

Where

Puglia