“Conserva mara” traditional spreadable cream

This recipe is a poetry. Coming from an ancient tradition,
this conserve has become year by year a luxury and a dainty
mouthful. Its preparation requires long time and great care,
so we can say that love and patience are its main ingredients.
This hot conserve is one of the most important recipes of
our territory; we are working hard to safeguard it not only
because it speaks about our grandmothers’ rural life but
also because it’s important to hand these specialties down
to the new generation, for the future. 1/3 of peppers, 2/3 of
tomatoes, onion, fresh basil are boiled together and cooked
till to obtain a thick sauce. Then it is put in small containers
(in order to facilitate its cooling) and laid in the sun to drain
all the water in excess and to permit the condensation. During
the day it lays in the strong sun, in the night it stays in places
with no humidity. This operation needs to be done more times
and for a lot of days. When it is ready, it is kneaded by hand
adding some extra-fine-olive-oil and put into sterilized jars.
To produce 500 Gr. of this conserve, we need 100 Kg of fresh
product. If you really want to taste our Salento savors, start
from here!
The point of a knife is enough to flavor and enrich every kind of
dish: it can be spread on durum wheat bread or on meat; also
excellent on pasta and with legumes. It is hot but also very
tasty. This recipe was handed us down by our grandmothers:
in it there’s not only the taste of our sun but also all their
love, all their patience and all their care in preparing delicious
things!