Osteria del Tempo Perso

Osteria del Tempo Perso opened in 1983 at the top of Ostuni's old town, a few metres from the cathedral. It is a house of Ostuni and Apulian cooking, with fresh pasta, vegetables from the fields and homemade bread, served in two rooms dug into the rock of the old town. It is the table for understanding what is eaten in the White City, in a place that already deserves a visit.

The two rooms

The two rooms are a few metres from one another. The first is a 16th-century former oven, a cave in the rock that has been left almost untouched; the second, quieter and more private, was the granary that supplied that oven. In both, the bare stone walls contrast with careful, unluxurious decoration.

The menu

Starters range from the seasonal vegetable pie to aubergine parmigiana, bread meatballs with mint, fresh cheeses, Martina Franca cured meats, octopus with onion and stuffed cuttlefish. Among the first courses, made with fresh pasta, is the tegamino of cardoncelli mushrooms in a bread crust: the mushrooms are sautéed with garlic, parsley and small tomatoes, covered with bread dough and baked until the crust puffs up. Also orecchiette with clams and courgette flowers, orecchiette with turnip tops and toasted crumbs, laganari with cardoncelli and puntarelle, and the broad bean purée with chicory, lampascioni and fried peppers.

For main courses, sea bass en papillote with clams and baby cuttlefish, donkey brasciola with meatballs, or fillet with podolico cheese and turnip tops. For dessert, the sporcamuso, of puff pastry and cream. The bread, of durum wheat and of wholemeal semolina with olives, is made in-house. There are vegetarian and coeliac menus, and the cellar has more than 200 labels, regional and national. The website does not publish prices.

Booking and rules

Closed on Mondays. Book online on its website, by phone, +39 0831 304819, or by WhatsApp. The house warns of some rules: for lack of space, it does not admit dogs; children are welcome from age 6; and the table is cancelled if you arrive more than 20 minutes late.

Getting there

It is on Via Tanzarella Vitale, in the highest part of the old town. The car parks are outside the wall, below, and you have to walk up the slopes: the house asks you to allow plenty of time. The house also runs Apulian cooking courses; ask about them when you book.