A guide to Puglian food and wine
Traditional Puglian food
For millennia Puglia has been predominantly an agricultural region, producing around 40% of Italy's olive oil and a large proportion of its wine. Vast tracts of the region's territory are given over to farming, whether it be crops or livestock, and many inhabitants continue to grow their own produce.
This essentially agricultural nature means that Puglia's cuisine is home-country inspired, predominantly using the abundant local produce such as durum wheat, tomatoes, artichokes, fava beans, rocket, courgettes, beans, fennel, peppers, onions, beef and lamb.
In terms of pasta, Puglians pride themselves on their orecchiette, little ear-shaped shells that are still produced by hand on a daily basis by many signore. It is usually served with tasty sauces such as meat ragu, broccoli and lard, mushrooms or turnip tops. The pasta itself is made rigorously from durum wheat flour, water and salt. Eggs once considered a luxury, are not used in traditional Puglian pasta-making.
Another pasta speciality is maccheroni al forno. The maccheroni is mixed with meatballs, hard-boiled eggs and all manner of other ingredients. Finally, it is topped with a pie crust and cooked in the oven! A sensationally rich and tasty treat!
As with pasta, the local durum wheat is also used in Puglia's delicious bread, which comes in all shapes and sizes and is a constant companion to meals. In more remote villages, communal wood-burning ovens still exist where local housewives can bake their own bread. Altamura, a small town in the north-west of Puglia was the first town in Europe to receive a DOP classification (Denomination of Origin of Production) for its bread. When McDonald's came to town, the locals gave it short shrift, continuing to prefer only sandwiches made with their own bread. Less than two years after opening, the great Ms were taken down and the global hamburger circus left town! A victory for food lovers everywhere!
Puglia's rocky interior is ideal for sheep-farming and, in terms of meat, lamb reigns supreme, a trait that Puglia shares with its near neighbour, Greece. Feast days are characterised by the fragrances of roasting lamb wafting through the streets and most restaurant menus will feature at least a couple of lamb dishes. Horse meat and pork are also popular while beef, traditionally a minor player in the region's cuisine, is more and more popular. One thing to look out for in the Valle d'Itria area, and especially in Cisternino are the rosticceria butchers where you can choose your meat and have it cooked there and then on a hot charcoal grill or in a wood-burning oven. While waiting, just take a seat at one of the tables and get stuck into a glass of local wine!
The presence of so many sheep also means that cheese is generally of ovine extraction. Puglia's pecorinos and ricottas are excellent and ubiquitous. Visitors should also try to find some burrata di Andria, a fresh, soft cheese that has to be eaten within 24 hours of production - absolutely delicious!
Puglia's long coastline and fishing tradition bring large quantities of seafood to the table. Red mullet, anchovies, gilt-head bream, mussels, sea bass and cuttlefish are featured in many recipes and the many seafront restaurants in towns like Gallipoli, Otranto, Brindisi and Taranto serve up feasts of just-caught fish.
If you still have room after the main courses, Puglia's desserts will certainly tempt you. Many are almond-based (the region produces vast quantities of almonds), often combined with honey or vin cotto di fichi (a kind of fig concentrate), while sweetened ricotta cheese sweets are also a local favourite.
Puglia's comforting country cuisine may not be as famous as that of some other Italian regions, but it is full of goodness and genuineness and thoroughly local, a pure expression of popular traditions and the natural bounty of the land.
Cheese
If there weren't already enough reasons to choose a holiday in Puglia, here's another: the cheese! With dozens of varieties, ranging from the hard, mature and tangy to the soft, spreadable and buttery, Puglia is a little slice of paradise for cheese lovers.
- Caciocavallo Podolico: The Barbarian Invasions of the 5th century AD, brought devastation to many parts of Italy. It was not all bad, however, as the very same pillaging hordes also bought their favourite long-horned species of cattle from Ukraine. Hundreds of their descendants (the cattle!) still chew the cud in the Gargano area of Puglia. The aromatic, herby milk of these Podolic cows is used for making an excellent spicy, strong cheese, which is left to ripen for around 3 years...
- Canestrato Pugliese: The only DOP cheese made exclusively in Puglia (Caciocavallo Silano, also a DOP, is made in Basilicata, Calabria and Campania too), Canestrato Pugliese is a hard cheese made from sheep’s milk. Its name derives from the little baskets (canestri) in which it is left to age. It is produced between December and May when the flocks have come down from the mountains of Abruzzo to graze on the green, green grass of the Tavoliere Pugliese, in the provinces of Foggia and Bari. The locals love to grate it on their pasta.
- Fallone di Gravina: Fallone is another of those “eat today” cheeses that Puglia loves to produce. Made with a mix of sheep’s and goat’s milk, it has a good flavour and is possibly at its best when spread on a chunk of bread from Altamura, where, along with Gravina, it is also made.
- Manteca: Manteca is another Puglian cheese invention, which is to say, not a just cheese! Pear-shaped, made with cow’s milk and not matured, it boasts two layers, the inner one being a soft deliciously creamy butter.
- Marzotica: Made with a mix of cow’s and sheep’s milk in the Lecce area, Marzotica, as the name might imply, is traditionally produced in March (marzo in Italian) after the sheep have been grazing on the succulent green Spring grass. It is left to mature and dry for around two weeks before being wrapped in grass. This relatively short aging process gives it a delicately tangy flavour and, as a consequence, Marzotica is often grated on pasta dishes to add an extra layer of taste.
- Pampanella: Pampanella, another cheese meant to be eaten the same day it is made, has a long history going back at least a couple of centuries. It is produced in Grottaglie using a mix of milks and takes some of its distinct flavour from the fig leaf in which it is wrapped.
- Ricotta forte: Ricotta forte or ricotta scanta is made all over Puglia (and neighbouring Basilicata) and is often used in cooking, thanks to its pungent, gum-tingling qualities! This flavour comes from a 3-month resting process in terracotta containers. Every three or so days it is stirred and then left once more to intensify its flavours. You will surely come across it on many restaurant menus, possibly in the form of orecchiette con la ricotta forte, and in shops, where it is sold in distinctive glass jars.
Traditional Corsican wine
If Italy is the largest producer of wine in the world, it is largely thanks to Puglia, which produces more than any other Italian region, about 17% of the total!
Viticulture is deeply rooted in local traditions but until 20 or so years a large proportion of Puglia’s grapes were used to add “substance” to wines produced in the rest of Italy and France. Thankfully this is no longer the case and Puglia now boasts 25 different DOC areas and some excellent vintages of its own.
The most widely grown grape variety is Negroamaro (literally ‘black bitter’). Almost exclusively cultivated in Puglia, Negroamaro is used to produce some of the region’s best wines, including Salice Salentino. The epithet of most famous grape, however, goes to Primitivo, whose wines, including the Primitivo di Manduria, are generally high in alcohol content and full in body. Curiously, the Primitivo grape shares its genetic make-up with California’s Zinfandel varietal.
White wines in Puglia count for less than 20% of the overall production but are gradually growing in importance. Local grapes such as Bombino Bianco, Bianco d’Alessano and Verdeca rub shoulders with international varieties including Chardonnay and Sauvignon to produce some excellent results.
One of the best ways to discover Puglia’s wines for yourself is to sample them in the comfort of one of our villas. And thanks to our unique in-villa wine delivery service, this is effortlessly possible.
DOC and DOCG
There are 28 DOC (Denominazioni di Origine Controllata) zones in Puglia:
Aleatico di Puglia – Alezio – Barletta – Brindisi - Cacc’e mmitte di Lucera - Castel del Monte - Colline Joniche Tarantine - Copertino - Galatina - Gioia del Colle - Gravina - Leverano - Lizzano - Locorotondo - Martina Franca - Matino - Moscato di Trani - Nardò - Negroamaro di Terra d’Otranto - Orta Nova - Ostuni - Primitivo di Manduria - Rosso di Cerignola - Salice Salentino - San Severo - Squinzano - Tavoliere delle Puglie o Tavoliere - Terra d’Otranto
… and 4 DOCG:
Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale - Castel del Monte Bombino Nero - Castel del Monte Nero di Troia Riserva - Castel del Monte Rosso Riserva
