Eating ordinarily again

Gallipoli, Puglia, May 18, 2015—

IT CAN BE DIFFICULT, finding a good restaurant in Italy on Monday. Most are closed following the big weekend ruch. The one really promising possibility turned out to be closed for the week on family business.

So we drove out to the other coast, after spending the morning and noon hour in Lecce, and ate at an ordinary trattoria specializing in seafood. We begaan with the anchovies you see here — in fact this is about a third of them; it was an enormous serving, quite delicious, dressed with very good olive oil and a little white vinegar and accompanied by extaordinarily sweet chopped lettuce.

I went on to filets of cernia — a kind of grouper, as far as I've been able to determine — cooked à la Pugliese, in tomatoes and black olives and, I think, a little mint. The Greek presence is still influential in this part of Italy's heel. Afterward, a mixed salad, and no room for dessert…

Fiano, "il bianco dei Vespa" (Salento), 2014: Nice color, good flavor and body

•Trattoria Scoglio delle Sirene, Riv. N. Sauro, 83, Gallipoli; 0833.261091
☛Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants