Puglia: the harvest from the sea and the countryside

This region’s wealth lies in agriculture, with the farming of durum wheat, tomatoes, table grapes, olive oil and artichokes, just to mention its main products. Obviously this influences local cuisine, rich in dishes based on vegetables, oil and pasta. Describing Puglia’s specialities is not simple, given its wealth of ingredients, recipes and traditions, which vary from one place to the other. One way of attempting a classification is to take a leaf from Frederick II’s book when he divided the region into the Bari, Foggia and Otranto areas in 1222.
And that is still viable today in culinary terms, all three similar, but each with its own peculiarities. One element which differentiates the three for example is the use of garlic, which gradually decreases the further south you go towards the Salento Peninsular, even being replaced completely by onion in some parts of the region. And one ingredient that unites the whole region is the use of chilli pepper, a constant in most dishes in Puglia.
Pasta is also popular throughout the region. Its main ingredient, durum wheat, is grown locally on the flat Puglia tablelands and used to make lasagne, orecchiette (‘rècchie’), strascinati (‘strascenate’), maccheroni (‘troccoli’) and many other pasta shapes. This rich array of pasta is matched by an equally generous number of different sauces and ways of serving it, in many cases based on vegetables. Lamb is a favourite main course and is served grilled, roast, spit roast, fried, braised and stewed.
Local cheeses range from plaited mozzarella to Burrata di Andria (mozzarella with a cream filling) and butter-cheese Burrini, to Caciocavallo, Provolone and Scamorza. Then there are the various sheep’s milk cheeses such as Ricotta spread and seasoned Cacioricotta.