This past summer we decided to take A Tavola on tour, and host a dinner near Palma’s hometown in Puglia. Literally a homecoming in a way, but also an opportunity for us to return to our first theme, reimagine it, and bring it to life in a new way.

Puglia is known for its beaches with perfectly flat sea to swim in, ancient towns and villages, hot summer sun, rich Primitivo wine, and of course, seafood. One of the beautiful things about hosting a supper club there was that we had the chance to visit each independent seller for every type of ingredient we needed, stop by the market for local vegetables (including grape and cucumber varieties you surely won’t find anywhere else), and drop in to family to harvest basil straight from their gardens. 

SOURCING

The menu this time featured lots of unique ingredients that are known and loved in Puglia, and gave us a chance to celebrate the things that can easily be taken for granted. 

One in particular was grano arso flour, which Palma used to make a spaghetti. Grano arso is flour made from toasted durum wheat, which gives it a distinct smokey, toasty flavour and adds depth to dishes like pasta.It turns out it’s popular as a tourist souvenir, though, and we had to search high and low for the supply we needed. We ended going straight to the source - to a mill near Lecce - to pick up the flour directly. 

We also made our pilgrimages to a fish shop on the coast to pick up cuttlefish and red shrimp, to a small cheese shop to buy salted hard ricotta and fresh guincata, and to the weekly vegetable market to pick up all the produce (and salted capers) our hearts desired. Countless peaches were also consumed in the process. It was probably the most abundant-feeling shopping haul we’ve ever had, with produce piled up on the kitchen table, basil spilling out of boxes, and fresh bread appearing from the oven at regular intervals.

THE DISHES

Using the best of local ingredients, we wanted to design a menu that drew on classic recipes you might eat at home, but with Palma’s own twists based on the international influences she’s picked up from living in multiple other countries and learning about other cuisines. A watermelon, cucumber, and fresh cheese salad, for example, drizzled with sichuan chili oil. Or green gazpacho enhanced with fish stock and topped with cuttlefish ribbons. Or subtle additions like breaded aubergine on fresh tomato sauce, with pickled green chilis scattered on top. Although when it came to dessert, sometimes it pays to be a bit of a purist: a semifreddo al fichi con croccante alle mandorle (semifreddo made with double cream, figs, and ginger jam. Topped with an almond "croccante," a classic local way of making candied almonds with a sugar-honey syrup).

(The full menu is listed down below.)

THE WINE

When it came to the wine, the idea was generally to avoid the stereotypes, and find winemakers who were doing something a little different, and grapes that speak to the identity of the landscape but don’t always get the credit for it. In the UK if someone says Puglian wine you’ll probably immediately think Primitivo, but there’s so much more to it. For example Minutolo, a floral grape wine with citrus notes that’s indigenous to the region. We served one called L’Insolito from Michele Biancardi, grown near the sea, which was described as “minutolo in purezza” and delivered on the elegance of a gentle sea breeze. Or a skin contact blend from Cantina Giara made in Amphora, increasingly popular but not necessarily a traditional method, that yielded beautiful results with a delicate tannin presence and plenty of ripe fruit. The best part though: going around the table to fill up glasses, and watch them be raised over and over as the courses kept coming.

SETTING

While the food and wine are always the number one thing we celebrate, setting the scene is always part of hosting. We love the chance to set the stage for an all-encompassing experience.  In this case, the Romantic potential of an end-of-summer dinner in Puglia needed a setting and a table to match, too. Luckily, some of the romance is real. We didn’t have to do much to bring it to life, having found an outdoor space between olive groves and ancient cave dwellings (yes, it’s true) to set up our table. One long trestle table, a few vintage tablecloths, and a lot of candles did the trick to create the little bit of magic that is the dinner table.

There’s often an idea that everything needs to be perfectly curated to create the perfect dinner experience. We’re here to tell you, that’s absolutely not the case. Sometimes it’s the slightly mismatched serendipity that tells a real story. Like bringing ingredients together into a dish that’s more than the sum of its parts, we operate by the philosophy that a table sometimes comes into its own through a series of discoveries. In this case, mostly discoveries in Palma’s family cupboards, that we were able put our own spin on through how we decided to use them. A way to weave through the deeper theme: a supper club that was in many ways ‘at home’ without being entirely tradition-based.

SERVING

Menu designed, ingredients procured, table set: then time for guests to arrive. We kicked things off by serving cocktails (Isobel’s invented Italian version of a French 75: prosecco and a sweet citrus liqueur made locally) and snacks (___) as the sun was just starting to set and the sky was turning a softer blue. We mingled and chatted until dusk really started to settle, then lit the candles and ushered everyone to their seats (including an “a tavola” shouted by Palma to get everyone moving, of course.) 

If ever there has been a supper club that felt like a big family gathering, this was it. Even from the kitchen we could hear non-stop talking, cheers being called for up and down the table, and requests for second helpings of pasta (and top ups of wine). In the end it was one of those beautiful evenings that seems to turn into a montage, punctuated by each dish being paraded out across the patio. And finished off with limoncello passed around the table until later than we’d care to admit.