Puglia – Apulia

• Among the most popular dishes you could taste in one of the many restaurants or masserie (farms) around Ostuni (Puglia- Southern Italy), there are  Orecchiette with broccoli rabe (con la rape – our here the recipe) and orecchiette al pomodoro e formaggio ricotta (with tomato sauce and dried salted ricotta cheese).  Our recipe from Puglia is here: Orecchiette with peas, pecorino, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella.

• “An example of Italy at its purest – rural and unhurried, a place of small towns and a life quite ordinary, where citrus trees sway in the breeze and days drift by in silent sunshine. Ostuni decorates its hilltop like birthday-cake icing, its buildings starkly whitewashed.” (cit. Puglia: not down at heel, just rugged good looks, Indipendent.co.uk).  Do you want to find out more about Ostuni? Take a look at this video by Claudio Palma

• In Bari, a nice city by the sea in Puglia – Apulia, southern Italy,  you can buy focaccia in one of the many bakeries in the city and eat a slice in the street, like a street food. The best bakeris (called Panificio) for us are: Panificio Violante area Madonnella by the sea, Panificio Fiore in old town and Panificio Magda. The baresi, people from Bari, love to eat this “like bread” at any time of the day and on any occasion; in the summer time they bring the focaccia on the beach, the kids bring it at school for snacks, they watch the football match eating a slice of focaccia and sipping a cold beer like Peroni. Small advice: cut in half a slice of focaccia, put some mortadella in and enjoy it.

If you want to eat the focaccia barese freshly baked, follow our recipe here. 

• Dolcetti di mandorla: learn how to make these delicious little cakes, slightly crisp and cracked on the outside with a soft heart inside.
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  dolcetti di mandorle – almond biscuits

  

  dolcetti di mandorle – almond biscuits

  

  dolcetti di mandorle – almond biscuits

  If you find yourself in Ostuni – Puglia, go to Dulcis in fundo to have a taste of the original dolcetti di mandorla.

• Ceglie biscuits are a traditional goodness from Ceglie Messapica, a small town in Itria Valley (Upper Salento) – Puglia – Southern Italy. In recent years, its elegant downtown, its amazing countryside (filled with farmlands, olive groves, medieval castles, vineyards, almond trees and trulli) and its food, made with simple and tasty ingredients, have attracted people not only from all over Italy but also from all over the world.

  Ceglie biscuits, Slow food Presidium, are made only with products from the territory: almonds, jam, liqueur, lemon. If you wish to have a taste of the original ones and you find yourself in Ceglie Massapica, go and visit one of these bakeries: “Forno Allegrini“, “da Gigliola” or “Caffé Pasticceria centrale“. If you live, just like us, far from Apulia, bake them by yourself following our recipe and you will get an initial idea on how delicious they are!