After Milan and Lake Como, I’ve
just spent another week in Italy. This
time further down south to Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot.
All of Italy is big on food, but
Puglia seems even more serious about it.
The landscape is covered in olive trees, and it’s where a big proportion
of Italy’s olive oil comes from, along with much of their pasta. We stayed in a Trullo near the town of Fasano (between the
cities of Bari and Brindisi), with the week spent eating very delicious
things.
The best seafood was in the
harbour town of Monopoli – we went to Il Guazzetto in
the old town, where we had melting little gnocchi with prawns, tomato and
basil, and delicious twisted pasta with cubes of swordfish, rocket and scamorza
(smoked mozzarella). Osteria Perricci in
the town is also supposed to be very good if you are visiting, but was shut on
the day we were there.
Another evening,
and an excellent homely meal at Osteria Piazzetta Garibaldi in Martina Franca,
with antipasto, followed by tagliata di manzo (steak with rocket and
parmesan). If you do, seek out the
cardoncelli mushrooms, a speciality of the area – they were absolutely
deliciously meaty here, especially in all the olive oil. Come to think of it, I think a lot of Italian
food tastes great as it has plenty of olive oil and salt in it – even the passata
comes ready salted.
The most special
meal was at Masseria Il Frantoio – there are a number of these farms dotted
about the region, where you can stay and eat.
The evening started with a tour, including the gardens where they grow
all the produce, followed by the 9 course meal.
More Puglian specialities including mashed fava (broad) beans alongside
mussels with herbed breadcrumbs, and the best melanzana parmigiana I’ve tried,
made with white aubergines (with none of the bitterness or seeds of the usual
purple kind).
There are
fabulous pasticcerias to be found in every town, with a beautiful range of little
biscuits, many full of almonds, squidgy and marzipan like. You just have to try and not eat the whole
golden cardboard tray carefully wrapped and beribboned, in one go. Pasticceria Natale in Lecce (just off Piazza Sant'Oronzo) was one of the best, with
excellent ice-cream too (try the walnut or pine nut).
The pasta of
Puglia is definitely the little ears of orecchiette – it has a lovely bite to
it, and I cooked it in a simple tomato and pecorino sauce. You will find bags of this in every deli or
tourist shop of the region, in various shades of colour.
Search out some Puglian burrata too – the pearly white balls of cream
and mozzarella. Apparently Puglians eat
one each, and scoff at the northern Italians who share one between five.
Last, but not
least, a mention for the taralli found in most bakeries and bread baskets in
Puglia. They are little bread dough rings,
made with olive oil and white wine, and plunged in boiling water before
baking. They range from crunchy to very
short, and are often flavoured with fennel seeds (my favourite), or other herbs
and chilli. I’m searching out a recipe
for these to re-create, so keep an eye out – they make the perfect aperitivo
snack (especially with an Aperol spritz).