Arte Bianca – Antonio Campeggio

The people behind it

Behind Arte Bianca is Antonio Campeggio, a master pastry chef from Parabita, in western Salento a few kilometres from Gallipoli. The workshop bears his name on its official website too, which dates its opening to 1992 and presents it as an artisan pastry maker using ingredients from local and sustainable suppliers, without artificial preservatives or colourings.

Gambero Rosso, in its selection of the best pasticciotti in Salento, describes him as a pastry chef rooted in the traditions of his land, starting with the pasticciotto itself, which he reinterpreted in a contemporary key by offering sweet and savoury pasticciottini with many filling variations, all made with carefully selected ingredients. Paolo Marchi, writing on Identità Golose in 2023, told of a second stage of this work: after the pasticciotto, Campeggio also rethought the rustico leccese. The picture that emerges from the sources is of a craftsman who starts from two signature products of Salento and reworks them while keeping their essential elements.

Sources: Arte Bianca – Antonio Campeggio — sito ufficiale · Gambero Rosso International — Where to find the best pasticciotti in Salento (2023) · Identità Golose — Paolo Marchi, Rustico, la seconda rivoluzione di Antonio Campeggio (23 agosto 2023)

What they make

The product that made the workshop known is the pasticciottino, introduced in 2013: a smaller version of the Salento pasticciotto, shortcrust pastry filled with custard. According to Identità Golose, Campeggio broadened the fillings and added savoury versions to the sweet ones; Gambero Rosso mentions, besides the classic with pastry cream, coconut versions and one with local capocollo.

The second reworking concerns the rustico leccese, the puff pastry filled with béchamel, mozzarella and tomato that people in Lecce eat at any hour. Campeggio changed its shape from round to square and made six versions: the classic, the Salentino with sun-dried tomatoes and olives, one with capocollo, one with tuna and capers, the Ortolano with diced vegetables and the Contadino with sun-dried tomatoes, olives and capers. The website's catalogue also includes biscuits, cakes and leavened goods.

Sources: Identità Golose — Paolo Marchi, Rustico, la seconda rivoluzione di Antonio Campeggio (23 agosto 2023) · Gambero Rosso International — Where to find the best pasticciotti in Salento (2023) · Arte Bianca – Antonio Campeggio — sito ufficiale

Ingredients and territory

The clearest technical change concerns the fat. The traditional pasticciotto is made with lard; Campeggio, as Paolo Marchi recounts, switched to butter, a choice the pastry chef says gives the shortcrust a better result. The rustichino also uses butter puff pastry, with béchamel, diced mozzarella and tomato as the common base of every version.

The workshop's website sets out a clear line on ingredients: quality raw materials, sourced as far as possible locally and sustainably, and no artificial preservatives or colourings. The savoury versions draw on the local larder: capocollo, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers and garden vegetables go into the fillings of the pasticciottini and rustichini. The link with Salento therefore runs both through the form of the products, which remain those of the Lecce tradition, and through the fillings, which bring the flavours of the Salento countryside into both sweet and savoury.

Sources: Identità Golose — Paolo Marchi, Rustico, la seconda rivoluzione di Antonio Campeggio (23 agosto 2023) · Arte Bianca – Antonio Campeggio — sito ufficiale · Gambero Rosso International — Where to find the best pasticciotti in Salento (2023)

Recognition

In Gambero Rosso's Pasticceri & Pasticcerie d'Italia 2025 guide, L'Arte Bianca in Parabita scored 90 out of 100 and earned Three Cakes, the guide's highest award. According to the ranking published by Scatti di Gusto on 14 November 2024, when the guide was presented, 33 pastry shops across Italy received Three Cakes, and L'Arte Bianca was the only one from Apulia on the list.

Gambero Rosso, in its 2023 selection of the best pasticciotti in Salento, included Arte Bianca among its recommended addresses, citing its sweet and savoury pasticciottini. The shop's page on the Gambero Rosso website could not be reached during verification: score and award are reported here through the Scatti di Gusto article that published the full ranking.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — Classifica: 33 le migliori pasticcerie in Guida Gambero Rosso 2025 (14 novembre 2024) · Gambero Rosso International — Where to find the best pasticciotti in Salento (2023)

Going there

Arte Bianca is at via Don Luigi Sturzo 18 in Parabita, in the province of Lecce. According to the official website the workshop is open Monday to Saturday from 7 am to 1 pm and from 4.30 to 8.30 pm, and on Sunday from 7 am to 1 pm and from 4 to 8 pm; the number given by Identità Golose is 0833 595833.

Opening at seven in the morning makes it a natural stop for a Salento breakfast, the one built around a warm pasticciotto, while the rustichini and savoury pasticciottini suit a snack or an aperitivo. Parabita lies in western Salento, a few kilometres from Gallipoli and the Ionian coast, and not far from Galatina, where, according to the tradition recalled by Gambero Rosso, the pasticciotto was born: anyone following the pasticciotto between Galatina, Lecce and the villages of Salento will find here a contemporary reading of the same pastry.

Sources: Arte Bianca – Antonio Campeggio — sito ufficiale · Identità Golose — Paolo Marchi, Rustico, la seconda rivoluzione di Antonio Campeggio (23 agosto 2023) · Gambero Rosso International — Where to find the best pasticciotti in Salento (2023)

Products and flavours

Pasticciotto

PAT · Fresh pasta, bread and pastry

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Rustico leccese (Lecce puff pastry)

PAT · Fresh pasta, bread and pastry

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Pasticciotto from Lecce

The Salento breakfast pastry: how it is made, what the records say about its history, its twin the fruttone and a day between Lecce and Galatina.

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Photo: Floriano Calcagnile / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

Ciceri e tria and rustico leccese

The chickpea pasta, part of it fried, of 19 March and the filled puff pastry born in 18th-century salons: history, technique, festivals and where to taste them in the Salento.

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The region

Puglia