 Peasant cooking - La Tavola Contadina
Like much Italian cooking, Puglian cuisine is a fine example of 'cucina povera', 'poor' or peasant cooking; paradoxically, however, it is a cuisine rich in vegetables, olive oil, wheat and pulses, and seafood and seems to us extremely fresh, extremely modern, and extremely well balanced.
Its varied local produce and rich style makes Puglian cuisine very similar to today's fashionable fare. Like the hippest of fusion restaurants' menus, dishes from Puglia bear happy traces of foreign influences. For centuries, as a place of passage between the West and the East, Puglia has enjoyed (and suffered) the presence of traders, settlers and invaders from many different cultures.
One particularly Puglian dish, 'pasta e ceci', based on the local ingredients of chick peas and durum wheat pasta, is of Arabic origin, while the addition of nuts, honey and citrus to certain savoury dishes serves as a delicious reminder of Grecian influences in the region.
Another traditional Pugliese dish, 'peperonata', is a quintessentially Mediterranean concoction of peppers, olives, tomatoes and other sunshine vegetables. All benefit from a divine Eastern twist by the addition of silky smooth pine nuts. Almost all Italian regions, even towns, have their own particular shape of pasta: 'tagliatelle' from Bologna, 'strozzapreti' (priest stranglers!) from Le Marche, and Puglia is no exception. Her contribution to the heavenly rote is 'orechiette', literally 'little ears', because of their supposed resemblance to animals' ears (think sheep rather than rabbit). These button-like treats are typically served with melting sprouts of broccoli, or, in coastal parts, with voluptuous, shiny pink shrimp, caught fresh from the sea. And all covered, of course, with lashings of golden green olive oil. Because, as local chef Carlo Sozzo simply puts it, the oil is, 'la nostra forza': our strength.
Links
Cucina Italiana
An Italian gourmet heaven - recipes, dietary tips and regional specials for the food lover. In English. Recipes from Puglia
A special site from the Puglian Tourist Office, with a special section on food from the Salento province. In Italian.
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