Ricette A DEVOZIONE Storie e tradizioni delle feste salentine di Massimo Vaglio, Giovedì 15 gennaio a Novoli

On Thursday, January 15, 2026, at 6:30 PM, the Ostello Novello in Novoli (Piazza Regina Margherita) will host the presentation of the book “**Recipes A DEVOZIONE. Stories and traditions of Salento festivals**” by Massimo Vaglio, published by Espera (a publishing cooperative that publishes the magazine qui Salento). The author will be in conversation with journalist **Jessica Niglio, a journalist for qui Salento**.

This is the fifth event included in the programming of "**Roots of Fire – Memories of Fire and the Future**," organized by our association in collaboration with the Municipality of Novoli.

Free entry.
Info and contacts: 3773799333.

The book is a kind of “**at the table with the saints**,” a journey through community celebrations, both large and small, and the **many flavors** (some now forgotten) that often characterized—and still do—representing a cultural, identity, and flavorful humus. A cookbook **rich in ingredients, advice, and dishes**, but above all a delicious compendium of **stories, legends, traditions, and folklore of Salento and Apulian gastronomy**.
Dishes from land and sea, first courses, second courses, many fried dishes, and once humble meals that today may become “gastronomic gems” to be preserved, the result of the craft of “homemade,” which was once a natural domestic practice but has now become a modern virtue. A heritage that is lost over time, and of which Massimo Vaglio has kept track with the diligence and passion of a field researcher, capturing every nuance from town to town, from celebration to celebration. An immensely important work of memory preservation that protects from oblivion a gastronomic heritage passed down, often orally, from mother to daughter, from generation to generation. Because even flavors risk extinction. They risk being lost in the streams of forgetfulness, in the fast lanes of modern times, and in the more conforming algorithms of markets. The book has a bit of the ambition to prevent this, to ensure that the flavors that accompanied the childhood of grandmothers and grandfathers, of mothers and fathers, are not just stories for new generations.

**Massimo Vaglio**, from Nardò in Salento, is an expert in gastronomy and southern agro-food productions; a freelance journalist; a trainer in professional training organizations and hospitality schools; a technician specialized in agroecology; a chef; a restaurateur; but above all, he is a naturalist and a passionate environmentalist. Editor of the magazine Puglia & Mare, he collaborates with the magazine qui Salento, for which he has curated the gastronomic column: “Taste of Salento” since 2004. Publications: “The Cuisine of Salento” (A.N.D.O.1996 - Besa 1999); “Cicorielle and Lampascioni” (Besa 2000); “Little Code of the Mussel” (Besa 2001); “The Cuisine of the Sea of Puglia” (Besa 2004); “Salento Flavors and Scents” (Ed. Salentina 2004); “Salento of Flavors” (Ed. Salentina 2007); “Recipes and Secrets of Salentine Cuisine” (Guitar 2005); “Recipes and Secrets of Salento Desserts” (Guitar 2006); “Dishes of the Festivities” (Guitar 2007); “The ABC of Salentine Cuisine” (Besa 2009); “Grandma Uccia's Recipe Book” (Besa 2013); “Little Code of Lampascione” (Cibu-Salento 2015); “The Cuisine of Capo di Leuca” (Cibu-Salento 2016); “Fish of Salento” (Grifo Ed. 2016); “Salento, harvested, fished, and eaten” (Grifo Ed. 2018); “Santu Sitru and other stories” (Parasaula Ed. 2020); “Rich fish, poor fish” (Ed. Coop. Espera 2021); “Gastronomic Ethno-anthropology of Salento. The quintessence of the Mediterranean diet” (Ed. Coop. Espera 2022). He has also published numerous stories, some of which have won literary competitions, and he has contributed to various books and magazines.

The meeting is organized by the Saletta della Cultura Gregorio Vetrugno Aps of Novoli, which, with the project OSTELLO Smart & Art Artists in Residence, has been named “Winner of Common Places – an initiative promoted by the Youth Policies of the Region of Puglia and ARTI, funded with resources from the Development and Cohesion Fund 2014-2020 and the National Fund for Youth Policies.”