fish, almonds

13 February 2023
The flavours of the SMART ADRIA project, filming in Albania and Montenegro
Overview

The fish specialties of Albanian, Montenegrin, Molise and Apulian cuisine, told and prepared by important local chefs, are the protagonists of the video recipes that Puglia Region is realizing for the SMART ADRIA BLUE GROWTH project funded by the Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro 2014-2020 Programme.

The cross-border cooperation initiative, which aims at the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the blue economy, in this case, it focuses on mutual knowledge of the Adriatic gastronomy and traditions related to fishing for the promotion of local fisheries products and support for sustainable fishing techniques. And it does so through a show-cooking on the four regional kitchens, whose filming began in recent days in Albania and Montenegro. Eight recipes, two for each of the 4 project areas, for an immersion in the flavours and maritime tradition of the Adriatic. 

First stop in Albania, with the experiments of chef Alfred Marku, who in his restaurant Rapsodia in Lezha, not far from the sea of Shenjin, delights the palate with the revisiting of a typical dish, the "rice casserole that is not a rice casserole" and the bold aromatic combination of "baked shrimp with pine syrup".

The path of taste continues up the coast of Montenegrin up to Sveti Stefan, on the Budva riviera, where the dean of culinary art Vuko Mitrovic, founder and teacher of the Center of cooking, hospitality and education for young chefs, offers fillets of mullet, red mullet and prawns exalting them in the matching with legumes, aromatic herbs and local cheeses.

The preparation of the dishes, is accompanied by the story of the nutritional properties of the raw materials used, strictly zero km, for a kitchen marked by authenticity and sustainability.

Next stop of the trip is Molise, until the return to Puglia.