Italian Cooking & Living

Rosalba De Carlo fulfilleda life-long dream when she opened Ristorante Alle due corti in 1998. Located inLecce, in the Salento area of Apulia, the restaurant high-lights ancient Leccese cooking. Rosalba takes great pains to maintain the authenticity of the food — she cooks the bread in a stone oven, all of the wines are from the Salento area, and the menu is written in Leccese dialect. The dishes, such as this ciceri e tria (pasta and chickpeas) and baccalà allu furnu

cu le patate (oven-roasted salt cod with potatoes) are based on recipes that are hundreds of years old. Rosalba, who is from a noble family, learned to cook from her neighbors, poor farmers who used ancient cooking methods.
Walking into this cozy restaurant, you feel as if you are stepping into a large living room in an Italian house for Sunday lunch — which is just what Rosalba intended. And the feeling is compounded when you are greeted by Rosalba's husband, son and daughter, all of whom work at the restaurant. Proud of her heritage, Rosalba says that "L'identità salentina è una ricchezza da difendere" ( the Salentino identity has a richness that is worth defending). Try any of the dishes at her restaurant, and you'll be quick toagree.
For more information, log on to www.alleduecorti.com.