La Cuccagna – Giro di Vite

The people behind it

The story begins in 1969, when Martino Marsella and his wife Livia opened a butcher shop in Crispiano. As Scatti di Gusto tells it in an April 2026 article by Vincenzo Pagano, it was the next generation that turned it into a restaurant: Rosanna, Gianni and Paola Ortesta split the work, with Gianni in the cellar, Paola in the kitchen, Rosanna in the dining room and Martino, the founder, at the embers and at the butcher's counter.

Gianni died in 2018. The family carried on, and today the wines are looked after by Gianni's son, Martino Marsella, who bears his grandfather's name and, according to the article, is nineteen years old. La Cuccagna is therefore a family business now in its third generation, born at a butcher's counter and grown without losing its bond with the meat and the fornello it started from.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — La Cuccagna, ristorante speciale a Crispiano vicino Taranto (28 aprile 2026)

What they make

The heart of the kitchen is still the fornello, the custom of the butcher shops of the Murgia and the Itria Valley where meat chosen at the counter is cooked on the spot. At La Cuccagna, according to Scatti di Gusto, the mixed roast from the fornello brings together sausage and lamb, bombette and livers, with a selection of meat overseen by Michele Varvara. The dishes mentioned also include marretto, a roll of offal, and breaded pork capocollo.

Alongside the grill the kitchen serves local first courses and starters: the article names spaghetti alla chitarra with sponsali, orecchiette with mutton braciola and a filled tart with Crispiano's yellow-and-red cherry tomatoes. The cellar, once run by Gianni and now by his son, includes among other labels a Malvasia by GaraGino, the Negroamaro Don Franco and Fatalone's Primitivo Gioia del Colle.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — La Cuccagna, ristorante speciale a Crispiano vicino Taranto (28 aprile 2026)

Ingredients and territory

La Cuccagna was born as a butcher shop, and meat remains at the centre of what it offers. Cooking at the fornello takes place, as Scatti di Gusto describes, in an ember oven with vertical spits, the typical local system: sausages, bombette, lamb and livers are skewered and cooked upright in front of the embers.

According to the article, the meat selection is signed by Michele Varvara. From the Crispiano countryside comes one of the town's most characteristic products, the yellow-and-red cherry tomato, which the kitchen uses in its filled tart. The labels mentioned for pairings include Primitivo from Gioia del Colle and Negroamaro, alongside Malvasia. Crispiano lies between the Murgia and the Itria Valley, a short distance from Taranto, and its meat cooking belongs to the same culture as the fornelli of Martina Franca and Cisternino.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — La Cuccagna, ristorante speciale a Crispiano vicino Taranto (28 aprile 2026)

Recognition

In Slow Food's Osterie d'Italia 2026 guide, La Cuccagna in Crispiano is one of the twenty-five Apulian osterie awarded the Snail, the association's mark of excellence: according to Dissapore it rewards research into local ingredients, starting with Slow Food Presidia, knowledge of local traditions and commitment to environmental, social and human sustainability. In 2026 there are 337 Snails across Italy. The region-by-region list was published by Dissapore on 20 October 2025, in an article by Massimo De Marco.

Scatti di Gusto, in its April 2026 article, also notes that the restaurant holds the Michelin Guide's Bib Gourmand, the distinction for restaurants the guide judges to offer good quality at a moderate price; the article does not state the edition, so the information should be read as referring to 2026. The Slow Food guide page is not publicly available and the Michelin page could not be reached: both distinctions are reported here through the publications that printed them.

Sources: Dissapore — Le migliori Osterie d'Italia 2026 secondo Slow Food, regione per regione (20 ottobre 2025) · Scatti di Gusto — La Cuccagna, ristorante speciale a Crispiano vicino Taranto (28 aprile 2026)

Going there

La Cuccagna is at Corso Umberto I 168, in the centre of Crispiano, in the province of Taranto. The phone number given by Scatti di Gusto is 099 616087; the sources cite no official website and the restaurant communicates through its social channels. Booking is advisable, especially at weekends, and it is worth asking on the day which meats are going on the fornello.

Crispiano makes a good starting point for a route between the Murgia and the Itria Valley: close by are Martina Franca, Cisternino and Locorotondo, with their butcher shops and grills, and towards the coast the city of Taranto. Those who come for lunch can round off the day in the old town of Martina Franca, a few kilometres away, while the wine list, with Primitivo from Gioia del Colle and Negroamaro among the labels mentioned, is a chance to get to know two of the region's signature wines.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — La Cuccagna, ristorante speciale a Crispiano vicino Taranto (28 aprile 2026)

Products and flavours

Bombetta (Martina Franca pork roll)

PAT · Meats and cured meats

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Giallorosso tomato of Crispiano

Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses

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Puglian sausages and butcher grills

Sammichele zampina and butcher-grill traditions: recognising different products, ingredients and contexts.

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Photo: Dogiulio / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

Cisternino bombette

Capocollo and canestrato rolls, the butcher's grill and Cisternino's old town: history, technique and how to experience them.

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Photo: Matthias Holländer at German Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons — Public domain · Resized and converted to WebP.

The place

Crispiano

Crispiano: farm estates and the Ionian countryside. About a hundred masserie at the foot of the Murgia, fifteen kilometres from Taranto, amid oil and wine.

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Photo: Azelf Lele / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

The region

Puglia