Lecce: Hands-On Orecchiette Cooking Class & Wine Tasting

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.74 (152 reviews) 91% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellation

1/19

Duration3h

GroupUp to 7

LanguagesEN · IT

Mobile ticketAccepted

Make orecchiette from scratch in lecce with local wine & laughter

You’ll step into a Lecce kitchen where you’ll knead fresh orecchiette dough by hand, laugh with a local chef over coffee and limoncello, craft two classic sauces together, then linger over a homemade dinner with Salento wines. Expect floury hands, new friends, and recipes (plus your own pasta tool) to bring a bit of Puglia home with you.

Step-by-step itinerary

Hands-on pasta cooking and dinner

Arrive and enjoy welcome aperitif
Drink traditional Leccese Coffee
Learn to make Orecchiette pasta
Prepare Maccheroni al Ferretto pasta
Cook fresh tomato and chickpea sauces
Dine on homemade pasta and bread
Enjoy typical dessert and limoncello
Toast with local wines
Receive recipes and pasta tool

The Experience

We ducked out of the afternoon sun and into Anna’s kitchen, where the air was cooler and smelled faintly of flour and something sweet — maybe almond milk? She handed us tiny glasses of limoncello, then set out a plate of olives and cheese that looked too pretty to touch. I’m not sure if it was nerves or excitement, but my hands felt clumsy as she showed us how to swirl the Leccese coffee over ice. Anna laughed when I tried to say “pasticciotto” (I definitely butchered it), but she just grinned and poured another round.

Making orecchiette isn’t as easy as it looks on YouTube. The dough is soft but stubborn, and the little pasta ears kept sticking to my fingers. Anna had this way of rolling them with her thumb that made it look like magic — she said her nonna taught her when she was five. We took turns using the ferretto for maccheroni, which is basically a skinny metal stick that makes perfect tubes if you don’t press too hard (I pressed too hard). By now we were all dusted in flour and giggling every time one of us dropped a piece on the floor.

The sauces simmered while we sat around the table with glasses of local red — honestly, I can still taste that tomato sauce, bright and simple and nothing like jarred stuff at home. Dinner stretched out for hours; bread passed around, stories traded in half-English, half-Italian. Anna’s husband popped in to pour more wine and tell us about his favorite beach near Otranto. For dessert there was something lemony, then another tiny glass — this time homemade limoncello, sharp but sweet at the same time. Walking back through Lecce’s quiet streets after all that food felt like floating. I keep thinking about how ordinary it seemed for them, but how special it felt to me.

What’s included

Your evening includes a welcome aperitif with Salento specialties, Leccese coffee on ice, hands-on instruction making orecchiette and maccheroni al ferretto alongside a local chef, two classic sauces prepared together, plus dinner with homemade bread, dessert, local wines (red/rosé/white), homemade limoncello—and you’ll leave with recipes and your own pasta tool as souvenirs.

Good to know

Stroller friendlyPublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

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