The Cooking and Cuisine of Puglia

[Kevin72]

In August, we will cover the cooking and cuisine of Puglia (aka Apulia), the heel of the boot.

I became fascinated early on with this region; something about its bare bones style appealed to me: dishes are what they are, with sparse use of herbs or spices to gussy them up. This culminated in a wonderful trip there in March 2005 that didn’t disappoint, most especially the whitewashed city of Ostuni, atop a hill overlooking the ocean. It's still unkown and off the beaten path, but seems to be on the cusp of being "discovered"; I'm curious what the next 10 years or so will bring.

Pugliese cuisine relies heavily on its local vegetables and wild greens. It is a heavyweight in olive oil, wine, and wheat production: #1 in oil for all of Italy, routinely in the top three wine producers, and it provides much of the durum wheat for the dried pasta in the South. Pane Pugliese and Pane di Altamura are both breads famed in Italy and beyond. As they were extensively occupied by both the Spanish and the Greeks, Pugliese cuisine draws from both of these cultures as well: lots of rice dishes and casseroles are to be found.

Like Piemonte on the diametrically opposed corner of the peninsula, Puglia has a noted antipasto culture. Osteria del Tempo Perso in Ostuni usually parades out six or more at the start of a meal. Other places we saw walking around the town only served antipasti. Lots of fried dishes of course, but also many interesting pickled items, and a number of antipasti that just emphasize the local vegetables. Seafood, of course, is a specialty of a region bounded on three sides by water, but curiously, when we were traveling there, once inland we found seafood hard to come by. We asked the proprietor of Il Frantoio, a wonderful B&B just 2-3 miles outside of Ostuni if they served any seafood and he looked perplexed: since they weren’t on the sea (but you could see and hear it from where we were talking), why would they have seafood? But at any rate, they have a wealth of delicious seafood soups and stews which change in each town you visit, and make ample use of the bivalves which naturally grow in beds in the gulf of Taranto.

Two most famous dishes of the region: orecchiette pasta topped with bitter greens and ‘ncappriatta, a confoundingly simple, homey dish of dried favas cooked in water until they fall apart (nothing else!), served with bitter greens, fried peppers, and lampascioni, a bitter bulb that is typically pickled. Everyone should try to make this this month, but definitely try to track down the peeled dried favas (yellowish or green in color) and not the brown kind with the peel on, or they will require more time to cook and may not even fall apart entirely.

Cookbook references for this region are, regrettably, limited outside of regional surveys. Amazon turns up only the following cookbooks:

Italian Country Cooking: Recipes from Umbria & Apulia by Susanna Gelmetti and Robert Budwig

Flavors of Puglia by Nancy Harmon Jenkins

There was also a book called Honey From A Weed that I recall from my earlier searches, but now it doesn’t turn up on Amazon.

Jenkins’ book is very good, though, and can be faulted only for being too short. Also, Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s book The Italian Country Table has a number of Pugliese recipes, and this cookbook did spark my early-on interest in the region.

That’s it. I’m a little worried about this month, coming on the heels of elaborate and exotic Sicily, and that its more austere, Spartan cooking may suffer in comparison for some. But hey, it’s August, it’s unbelievably hot almost everywhere, and what better kind of cooking to try out than one so simple and straightforward to showcase summer's bounty?

[Kevin72]

Also, let’s go ahead and open the polls for Q4 of cooking: October through December.

For those new to this process, pick three Italian regions you’d like us to cover, one for each of these months. Regions left to pick from:

Trentino Alto-Adige

The Veneto

Emilia-Romagna

Tuscany

Umbria

Le Marche

Abruzzo

Molize

Basilicata

Calabria

Then send me a PM with your votes. At the start of September (when we will cover Campania), I’ll announce the regions with the most votes for being the next three we cover.

I’d also like to bring the following issue up for discussion: I say that some of these remaining regions could be combined. Not to slight their own cuisines or anything, but there just isn’t much literature out there on, say, Basilicata or Molise or Le Marche, and I think it would be difficult to sustain a month’s worth of cooking for all of us for these regions. So maybe combine, as I did last year, Basilicata and Calabria, Umbria and Le Marche, and Molise and Abruzzo? E-R, Tuscany, and the Veneto are heavyweights in their own right and will need the full month of cooking to explore. Again, this is not meant as a slight on those regions or as a dismissal of their cuisine, just a recognition of limited availability of resources we can use.

Also, obviously, we’ll run the year out with regions leftover, regardless of if we combine or not. So at the start of October, let’s also get a discussion going on wanting to see this region-by-region treatment through beyond the new year.

[hathor]

Great intro Kevin! I bought some Primitivo wine at the market today, so I'm ready! I'm ploughing thru my books to see if I can add any insight. Ci vediamo!

[Pontormo]

• Trentino-Alto Adige Northern-most region with strong ties to Austria. Rye flour. Buckwheat polenta. Mushroom polenta. Apples. Pig. Strudel. Perfect for winter.

• Veneto Squid ink strands and bigoli, thick noodles made with a special form or press; otherwise, polenta and rice are favored over pasta, as in risi e bisi, rice with peas. Radicchio. Fish. Poultry, including duck with pomegranates. Padua, Vicenza and Verona as well as Venice. Region's Pinot Grigios are popular.

• Emilia-Romagna Sigh. Lasagna, tortellini and in general fresh pasta made with eggs, stuffed or not, in timbales, light broths, cream sauce. Controversy surrounds its Ragu Bolognese—here on EGullet and elsewhere. In addition to the importance of Bologna, there's also Modena with its balsamic vinegar, Ferrara with its bread, and Parma with its cheese and ham. Fruits are excellent, especially cherries, peaches and now kiwi. Region is well represented in cookbooks written in English, most notably The Splendid Table. Warming, filling beloved dishes suggest the heart of winter and feasts.

• Toscana Celebrated for the wines of Chianti, especially, and unpretentious foods simply prepared such as grilled porcini glistening with olive oil and steaks high in the hills, squirted with lemon. Florentines are known as contrarian bean-eaters who gorge on tripe in the streets. Tourists usually buy paneforte, a dense fruit cake, when visiting Siena; they should then take the train to Lucca for some olive oil, a major component of Tuscan cuisine and go on to Prato for biscotti to dip into Vin Santo. Soups are great, especially ribollita made with beans, bread and cavolo nero. Arista, a luscious, herby pork roast; salami with figs; boar. Chestnut flour and walnuts. Trillin likes his farro. Along the coast: eels. Again, the region is a popular subject for Anglo-cookbook authors, perfect for October when the weather begins to turn or winter when all you want is a warm bowl of thick soup or a big hunk of meat.

• Le Marche Seafood! Its brodetto, a great fish soup may be best known, but mussels are also important here. Braised beef. Porchetta. Pecorino. Cauliflower. Apples, peaches and cherries. A great antidote to some of the regions with heavy, filling food.

• Umbria Hathor's glorious region, a place to gawk, and in Assisi, a goal of pilgrims, tourists, scholars and high school students from France. Grilled meats in the open air. Salami flavored with wild fennel. Head cheese from piggies. Norcia's pig butchers and products are of renown. Boar. Black truffles and squab. Wonderful lentils. Polenta, pasta (including thick, hand-rolled strands) AND pizza. Soup called blò blò represents the rustic cooking of this region well…but there is also chocolate in Perugia should you care to indulge. Hathor has requested that we turn to this month in November during the mushroom festival and while she is still there.

• Abruzzi Del Conte unites this region with Molise, claiming that while political administration separates the two, their cuisines are indistinguishable. Coastal areas, of course, known for fish. In mountains and inland, pork, some sheep and poultry. Chili peppers tell us we are moving south on the Italian peninsula, most notably in dishes diavoliacchio. Ventricia, as the beginning of the name implies, is made with pig's stomach, using chili peppers, wild fennel and oranges! Brodetto also prepared here, without saffron. Another soup called Le Virtu is traditionally prepared at the beginning of May, using up the vegetables left over from the previous season as one looks ahead to the riches of the next harvest.

• Molise See above. Inexpensive wines from these two regions increasingly available in North America.

• Basilicata Arguably the poorest region in Italy. Pig—especially in sausage. Ragù. Chestnuts. Chickpeas (ceci). Bread. Peperonata. Chilies. Hard, salty ricotta.

• Calabria Natural surroundings stunning if also an area of poverty. Vegetables dominate cuisine. Chestnuts. Grapefruit and oranges. Eggplant. Mushrooms. Chilies. Pasta is extremely important. Cheese is made from sheep's milk.

Just in case there are new people joining these cooking threads, here are the old, brief descriptions for remaining months. Colors coded more or less: red for regions that seem autumnal to me, blue for cuisines that respond to winter, green for spring, though this is not a science. Hathor's Umbria is marked with purple for November.

Edited August 1, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Franci]

Kevin did present Puglia very well.

I was born in Puglia and grown up there, exactly around Taranto still in an area which might be considered part of Murgia tarantina (Murgia or Murge being a plateau divided between Bari, Brindisi and Taranto provinces).

It's not a well known region and you might find difficult to find recipes from there. As Kevin described, our food is very simple, it is purely based on the local ingredients: a lot of vegetables (many wild ones), meat (in particular lamb, mutton-castrated, kid, horse, wildboard) and fish (a big culture of raw shellfish) and durum pasta and breads.

Unfortunately, many cookbooks are mere collection of recipes, there is no story, no background.

I'd like to start talking about what you would find in a bakery. In the North they would call it panetteria, we call the store "il forno".

The most famous bread from Puglia, outside Puglia, is Pane d'Altamura

http://www.panedialtamura.net/fasi_di_produzione.htm

it is made with durum flour and wild yeast starter.

Beside pane di Altamura, bread from Laterza is also very famous, it is also made with durum flour, wild yeast and salt. It is baked in a brick oven with a floor made of "chianche" - which is the white stone that is used to pave our streets- fed using local or olive wood

(with some pictures http://www.panificiodifonzo.it/)

In my area the bread is still durum but with a very dense crumb. Other common baked goods are taralli, a kind of pretzel, a savory crunchy ring made with evo, white wine and often flavored with fennel seeds. There are basically two major categories of taralli: scaldati which are boiled before being baked (like bagels) and the caserecci which are baked directly. You will recognize the scaldati because of the shiny surface. I do like better the caserecci. Taralli traditionally are made with no yeast although the most of the recipe around call for it. But a real pugliese will disapprove. What I know is that my taralli never turn as good as the one I can buy at the bakery.

There is also a popular kind of tarallo that is sweet and very common around Easter, it is an egg tarallo covered with scilepp' that is an white frosting.

Frisella (plural friselle) is another staple. It is a doughnut shape bread, hard, which is normally soaked in water barely enough to bite into it. There are different kinds of friselle (durum, whole wheat, barley especially in Lecce), some friselle need a longer soaking, others because they are small and have some oil or lard don't need to be pass in water at all. Friselle can keep a long time and many times, in the summer, people will have a frisella for dinner.

Let's talk about our fast food: focacce and panzerotti (in puglia don't call them calzoni! You will find only calzoni in pizzeria and are big)

Focaccia is everywhere, good and cheap, you can buy in any bakery or there are stores that will sell only focacce and panzerotti.

Focaccia ripiena, stuffed focaccia is a classic. Especially the one stuffed with onions, capers, black olives, some cherry tomatoes and sometimes anchovies. Other stuffing would be ham (prosciutto cotto), mozzarella, tomatoes and underoils (like mushrooms), or hot salame, mushrooms underoil, provolone piccante. We do no mix different kind of salumi in the same dish.

The other very well famous focaccia is the plain one with cherry tomatoes and dry oregano.

Panzerotti instead are generally fried but you can find also baked in the oven. It's a normal bread dough with a filling of mozzarella and tomatoes.

Follows some pictures and recipes

Edited August 1, 2006 by Franci (log)

[Franci]

Focaccia ripiena

Its made with durum flour and flour 00, floury potatoes, oil (by the way, when we talk about oil it's ONLY EXTRA VERGIN, also for frying), some water, salt and yeast

The filling traditional for focaccia con le cipolle would be "spunzali" (local green onions) or red onion from Acquaviva, the onions are sweat in oil, 3-4 cherry tomatoes are added, capers (under salt!) and black olives to be depitted. The black olives are a problem, the olives we use are cured under wine, so they stain your mouth and tongue when eaten. The inside of the focaccia will turn black because of it. It's not just a mere color thing, it has also a different taste.

These capers come from my grandfather garden, now that he is no longer in life the task has been handed to my cousin, it's rather a salty brine but maybe is just my family tradition.

We do not like a particular tall focaccia, as you can see is pretty flat

With the same dough you could make also a panzerotto al forno. It is filled with tomatoes and mozzarella and wet with more tomato on top

Edited August 1, 2006 by Franci (log)

[Kevin72]

Thanks for the info on Puglia's great bread products, Franci! Pugliese cooking is a sentimental favorite of mine and I hope we do your cuisine right this month . . .

[Franci]

I have seen friselle in stores, even here in UK or in the States. Usually the are of very poor quality.

You could do friselle yourself. It is not difficult and you can work to get the one you like better. I do particurarly like the one make in Salento with wild yeast and barley flour.

If you like wild yeast baking and you have a brick oven you are all set .

These were made with a biga of 10 hours and a some lard (or oil) in the dough, these friselle in particular don't need soaking. You do a normal bread dogh, shape into doughnuts , flatten a litte bit and bake almost cooked and still in pale color. Take out of the oven cool and cut into two, put back in the oven, at the beginning a little higher temperature, then lower it and completely dry the frisa.

How do we eat it. Do you have in mind how in Spain they dress pan con tomate?

There is all the ritual of dressing the frise-also getting all dirty by squeezing the juice on your shirt

We have some cherry tomatoes that have a very hard skin, very little pulp but tons of juice. Bite into into the tomato with you canine, spread all the juice on the frisella. Add a little salt, crumbled dry oregano (or capers, we use a lot of it! one of the two) and drizzle with oil (extra virgin only). The tomato can be thrown away.

Dipending on the kind of frisella you might need to soak it, should be still cruncky.

[Franci]

Last pictures for the day.

Panzerotti. It's a simple dough, 50% hydratation more or less.

Filling is tomatoes and mozzarella, I beg forgivness to napoletani, we do call fiordilatte "mozzarella".

The only difficulty with panzerotti is that if the hedge get wet you will never be able to close it properly. Once the panzerotto hits the oil it will burts open and leak, the oil will start spilling and will get dirty. So you need to be very fast at closing. Do work on one panzerotto at the time. If a couple are wet, fry the others first.

For deep frying peanut oil is acceptable (why is so expensive elsewhere outside Italy?)

[Franci]

Thanks for the info on Puglia's great bread products, Franci!  Pugliese cooking is a sentimental favorite of mine and I hope we do your cuisine right this month . . .

←

Kevin, I only hope to give egulleters enough input to get to know this cuisine better

[Pontormo]

Franci, thank you so much for all you have contributed just on the first day of this new regional thread!

P.S. I got to know several people from Lecce while living in Florence. Bruno felt his region's wines were grossly under-valued, holding up a box of it in a kitchen we shared, lamenting that it got sold in Tuscany in such an ignoble fashion. It will indeed be fun to learn more about their home-cooking from such a talented native...and from Kevin's enthusiasm and nostalgia.

Edited August 1, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

I'll join the others in thanking you, Franci, for your great information and photos of Pugliese breads... I'm sitting here munching on a bag of anise taralli that I brought back from Italy. They're delicious; fortunately I can get more here in the States!

I had no idea of the Pugliese origins of panzerotti. They're available (if not all that widely available) at pizzerias in the Philadelphia and south Jersey are, and I presume in parts farther north as well. I confess to never having tried them, though. Do you know the etymology of the word panzerotto? I'd thought that maybe it was from pane, but googling isn't turning up much. This website speculates that it's from panza, a dialect word meaning "belly". Do you know?

Edited August 1, 2006 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[FoodMan]

Thanks Franci. Bread is one of my all time favorite passions, so you know I will at least be making some stuffed Focaccia this month.

[Pontormo]

Thanks to DaleJ in another new thread, I am adding a link to a seed company here in the US that updated its catalog for the year in light of new offerings of Puglia's famed vegetables: Seeds from Italy.

The Rossa Italiana is the Italian dandelion green that I bought to make a simple, but wonderful pasta dish. Presumably this is what mrbigjas has at home now. A different farmer at the market grows white, egg-shaped eggplant. Didn't someone mention the lampascioni?

Incidentally, Franci, that last image you posted of panzerotti is what is known as a bite for Daniel here at eGullet

Edited August 1, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[mrbigjas]

franci, fantastic pics, thanks!

oh man, panzerotti. how i've waited for an excuse to make them. and now i have it.

but that reminds me: when are we going to cover the italian-american regional cuisine? spaghetti and meatballs!

Edited August 1, 2006 by mrbigjas (log)

[MarkDM]

Franci, we spent a day in Otranto last May (2005) and loved the town and the food.

I'll have to dig up my food notes from our two weeks in Puglia and chime in. We had great meals in Ostuni, Lecce (especially), and Trani- a very nice small town with a surprising number of impressive restaurants.

Kevin, unlike your experience, I remember being able to find seafood readily available pretty much everywhere, although we didn't venture further inland than Alberobello.

Mark

Edited August 1, 2006 by MarkDM (log)

[Pontormo]

but that reminds me: when are we going to cover the italian-american regional cuisine?  spaghetti and meatballs!

←

Well, since Philly may do things differently than Brooklynites do, maybe call it "Italian-American Cooking and Cuisine" and start your own thread.

I've already mentioned that I saw Italian-American developments in Sicilian and Puglese dishes. In September, especially, I am sure we'll see more.

ETA: Expat Cucina?

Edited August 1, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Kevin72]

ETA: Expat Cucina?

←

How funny; I had just come up with the idea the other day to suggest that once we've covered all the regions we do a bonus "Italian Immigrant" month.

[Franci]

Thanks to DaleJ in another new thread, I am adding a link to a seed company here in the US that updated its catalog for the year in light of new offerings of Puglia's famed vegetables: Seeds from Italy.

The Rossa Italiana is the Italian dandelion green that I bought to make a simple, but wonderful pasta dish.  Presumably this is what mrbigjas has at home now.  A different farmer at the market grows white, egg-shaped eggplant.  Didn't someone mention the lampascioni?

Incidentally, Franci, that last image you posted of panzerotti is what is known as a bite for Daniel here at eGullet

←

As I mention in the other thread, funny, I was searching the same site that DaleJ posted!

http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?C...PROD=1150311185

These are cime di rapa from Puglia

They are quite different than what is called rapini in the States. Cime di rapa have many more "cime"=heads, rapini have more leaves and are very sweet! Cime di rapa are quite bitter. Also in Italy if you buy from other regions will taste different because of the soil.

http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?C...PROD=1150311746

This beeing cardoncello selvatico not to be mistaken with cardoncello the mushrooms (which grows nearby)

In the States I only saw cardo gobbo

And this

http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?C...18&BACK=A0004A1

Here is called carosello, but it is known also as pagnottella. There is also a "pagnottella martinese" from Martina Franca that is round and looks like a small melon. Is much sweater and milder than cucumber.

tarassaco

http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?C...45&BACK=A0004A1

cicoriella

http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?CMD=011&PROD=000153

and many others you can find under chicory

Nice selections of seeds, I need to say.

No purslane. It's very common in the fields and people use it for salads.

[Franci]

Do you know the etymology of the word panzerotto?  I'd thought that maybe it was from pane, but googling isn't turning up much.  This website speculates that it's from panza, a dialect word meaning "belly".  Do you know?

←

I am not sure about it but I will second the "belly" meaning. Also the ligurian pansotti I guess carry a similar name.

Edited August 2, 2006 by Franci (log)

[divina]

am down and out now with a bad back..

BUT

did sneak in a few days in Puglia...

on a previous trip hit the classics, Ostuni, Alberobello, Lecce, Grottaglie and loved it!

this trip wanted to try Taranto, Gallipoli and Martina Franca.

Found the coast to cater more to Italians, with aparment rentals and few larger hotels.

My back gave out.. and was bedridden but did get a nice meal in at Gallipoli.

Will find the info and post it soon.

One of my most favorite recipes, perfect for this heat wave is

Acqua/Sal

cold water, seasoned with salt, olive oil, oregano, tiny cubed red onions, cucumbers, sometimes watermelon and tomato bits and small croutons.

A WHITE gaspacho.

Franci.. do you make this too?

INCREDIBLE

[Franci]

Acqua/Sal

cold water, seasoned with salt, olive oil, oregano, tiny cubed red onions, cucumbers, sometimes watermelon and tomato bits and small croutons.

A WHITE gaspacho.

Franci.. do you make this too?

INCREDIBLE

←

Acquasale? Heard about it (for sure with no watermelon) but I have never seen anybody making in my area.

[Franci]

Here is the other very famous focaccia besides the one stuffed with cipolla. I do see this in the US but for some reason very tall, look more a bread to me then a focaccia.

It is a plain focaccia with cherry tomatoes and oregano. Often at home could be served with bread at the table. Bread is present during the whole meal, pugliesi with even eat pasta with bread

You will find the recipe here

Although some people mix wheat flour with some durum flour, or add potatoes, I prefer to use just bread flour.

It is a very slack dough, yes you could use the mixer, but this is almost as good at going to the gym. It requires a good 15-20 minutes of work.

You need a pretty big bowl, flour, salt, yeast and water (around 80% hydratation), with one arm you hold the bowl, with the other hand you start whisking, like for eggs and keep going to a good 15 minutes. The gluten will activate and you'll start seeing big bobble of air forming.

Needs to triple in bulk, drop in a pan oiled with extra virgin (my ratio is 250 g flour to 26-28 cm pan in diameter). Spread the juice from the cherry tomatoes on top, sink in the half tomatoes

Sprinkle some dry oregano, more oil

I usually let if sit just the time for the oven to get to themperature (pretty hot)

With the same technic, we also make "pettole" that are deep fried balls of dough (only flour 00) usually dipped in vincotto or honey or sugar which are my favourite (not powdered sugar). There are also savory versions with tomatoes and anchovies, or with cime di rape. Pettole are prepared for Immacolata and Vigilia di Natale. Sometimes pettole are made also with sweet potatoes or with pumpkin. In some recipe they suggest to collect the dough with the help of two spoons dipped in water. I do prefer to sink my hand in the dough and squeeze it: between the forefinger and the thumb a perfect shape will form, take with the other hand (wet) and drop in oil. It's useful if an other person can fry.

[Kevin72]

I made pettole once with leftover pepperonata and it was great; couldn't have been easier. The pepperonata stained the dough an orangish color. Hope to make some again this month!

[Abra]

By a strange twist of fate, I've been missing this thread since the beginning. Thanks to Ling and Chufi, I've finally found you, and just in time.

Does Puglia have a pizza tradition, as well as a focaccia one? I'm having a little party next week where I've been planning for the group to create pizzas done on the grill, and if there are Pugliese-typical toppings, I'll have a natural way to join this lovely thread, albeit way late.