Italian restaurant in Edinburgh explores flavour from the heel of Italy's boot

Divino Enoteca’s third ‘Taste the Regions’ menu in celebration of Italian cuisine takes them to Puglia, the southern region of the country which forms the ‘heel’ of Italy’s boot.

Divino Enoteca’s third ‘Taste the Regions’ menu in celebration of Italian cuisine takes them to Puglia, the southern region of the country which forms the ‘heel’ of Italy’s boot.

The region supplies almost half of all the olive oil in Italy and is famous for its humble but flavourful dishes such as orecchiette pasta, called ‘little ears’ in Italian after their unusual shape.

Diners of the non-vegetarian menu will be firstly treated to a sauté of mussels, tomatoes, white wine and bread, finished with fresh herbs before moving on to the pasta dish of traditional orecchiette pasta made with a sauté of ‘cime di rapa’, sausage, sprouting broccoli, garlic and chilli, finished with salted ricotta.

The main is a salted cod fillet in a bread crust of olives, sundried tomatoes, garlic and pecorino served with herb potatoes and sauté of cherry tomatoes and capers.

Vegetarians will start with burrata served with tomatoes, black olives, bread croutons and drizzled with olive oil before the same pasta made without the sausage.

The vegetarian main is abread dumpling from Puglia made with pecorino, parsley and garlic in a rich tomato sauce served with sweet and sour vegetable ratatouille, pine nuts and raisins.

For dessert there will be a choice of cheese or a sweet dessert made with ricotta, pastry and chocolate.

Diners can book a table now for Puglia at Divino Enoteca. The menu, launched on Monday, will run until April 5. The next region to be explored will be revealed the following day.It is priced at £39 per person with wine pairings for an additional £26.