Scapece di Lesina

History and origin

Scapece di Lesina has been tied for centuries to the lagoon that bears the town's name, on the north-western side of the Gargano. Tradition says that Emperor Frederick II of Swabia was particularly fond of it, and links it to the Liber de coquina, a medieval recipe book dated between 1230 and 1250. The church historian Michelangelo Manicone also mentions it in 1807, in his Fisica Appula.

Manicone also describes Lesina's old craft of drying and salting large eels, eels and mullet roe to make bottarga, and recalls a register of 1289, under Charles II of Anjou, according to which salted fish left from here in large quantities for the king's household. Eel fishing in this lake, he wrote, was very considerable.

Preserving in vinegar is part of the same story: a way to make the lagoon's catch last. Today scapece is listed among Puglia's traditional food products and is promoted by local producers and associations, including at food festivals.

Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Scapece di Lesina · Parco Nazionale del Gargano — Laguna di Lesina · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

The raw material is the eels of the Lesina lagoon, a brackish body of water of about 5,500 hectares, separated from the sea by a long strip of dunes and connected to it by two channels. Eels are born in the Sargasso Sea and reach the Mediterranean as tiny glass eels after a journey of thousands of kilometres; the lagoon is one of the places where they grow, and they are caught once they reach a commercial size of 20 to 25 centimetres.

Traditionally fishing was done from the paranze, the pagghiari huts built on the shore, from which fishermen waited between October and December for the traps known as bertovelli to fill. According to the Park, the gear in use has stayed almost unchanged for centuries.

For scapece the eels, selected by hand, are cleaned, gutted and rinsed. Then there are two ways: cutting them into pieces 6 to 8 centimetres long, flouring and frying them in olive oil, or roasting them whole and cutting them afterwards. Either way they are seasoned with mint and garlic and preserved in glass jars with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar.

Sources: Parco Nazionale del Gargano — Laguna di Lesina · Parco Nazionale del Gargano — Lesina, anguille · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Scapece di Lesina

How to recognise it

Scapece di Lesina is recognised by its 6-to-8-centimetre pieces of eel, packed in glass jars under extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. The colour is a light yellowish brown and the texture firm.

The taste is sweet and sour and very distinctive: the vinegar works into the eel's rich flesh, while mint and garlic add freshness and scent. The pieces may have been floured and fried or roasted whole and cut afterwards: the regional profile allows both methods.

It is a preserve, created to make the season's catch last: the production period given in the regional profile runs from September to December, the months when the lagoon offers its eels.

Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Scapece di Lesina

In the kitchen

Scapece is already a finished dish: the dressing of vinegar, oil, mint and garlic is part of the recipe, and the eel, fried or roasted, comes to the table straight from the jar it was preserved in.

But in Lesina eel takes many other forms. The Gargano National Park recalls the town's traditional recipes: eel with linguine, with lampascioni wild bulbs, roasted, and the typical eel soup with local wild greens. The Park's advice is to taste it on the spot, where it grew and was caught.

The lagoon also yields grey mullet, sea bass, gilthead bream and sand smelt, which complete the table of a town that has lived off its brackish lagoon for centuries.

Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Scapece di Lesina · Parco Nazionale del Gargano — Lesina, anguille · Parco Nazionale del Gargano — Laguna di Lesina

Where to taste it

The home of scapece is Lesina, overlooking the lagoon between the mouth of the Fortore and Monte d'Elio, inside the Gargano National Park. Every December the old town hosts a food event devoted to eel, with a menu of traditional dishes: the best time to taste it in its various preparations.

The lagoon is worth a visit in every season. Its eastern end, the Sacca Orientale, is a wetland included in the Natura 2000 network, and in winter the water is visited by many waterbirds, coots above all. Bosco Isola, the long strip of dunes and Mediterranean scrub that separates the lagoon from the sea, has low sandy beaches.

The Park suggests exploring the lagoon by kayak, canoe or the traditional flat-bottomed boats: a slow, environmentally friendly way to get to know the landscape scapece comes from.

Sources: Parco Nazionale del Gargano — Lesina, anguille · Parco Nazionale del Gargano — Laguna di Lesina

Protection

• Traditional agri-food product (PAT) — Puglia, n. 409, 26th revision (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026) · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Scapece di Lesina)

When

• Production: September–December (Atlante dei PAT di Puglia — Scapece di Lesina)
• Winter
• Autumn

Where

Puglia

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