‘I don’t eat mozzarella exterior Puglia,” says our good friend Savio. “It’s not the identical.” Savio is a really opinionated foodie, so I take his phrases with a pinch of fine Puglian sea salt (see under). He was adamant concerning the superiority of the stretched-curd cheese from his dwelling turf.
Puglia can also be the birthplace of ingredient du jour burrata, which originated in Andria, just a few miles from Savio’s dwelling city of Barletta. Andria kinds one a part of the triangular Barletta-Andria-Trani (BAT) province, usually handed over for better-known elements of Puglia, regardless of the cheese connection and Barletta having miles of palm-backed, sandy seashores.
A few century in the past, within the hills exterior Andria, farmer Lorenzo Bianchino was snowed in and couldn’t get his milk to market. To save lots of what he may, he revived an outdated method for preserving butter (burro, therefore burrata), stuffing cream blended with mozzarella scraps (stracciatella) in a casing of the stretched-curd cheese.
There are actually a number of burrata makers in Andria, probably the most well-known being Caseificio Olanda, which gives demos, tastings and a museum. Late one morning, we watch Riccardo “Dino” Olanda, son of the founders, work his magic. He provides almost-boiling water to the curds, then mixes with arms crimson from doing this every single day. As he stretches and massages the curds, a clean velvety mass kinds. “See the way it’s shiny?” he says. “Means it’s prepared.” Working rapidly, he squeezes out spherical lumps between thumb and forefinger into the acquainted mozzarella balls. This motion is mozzare, therefore the title.
He additionally makes little knots and plaits earlier than shifting on to burrata. Taking a heat mozzarella ball, he works it right into a hole bag together with his fingers then fills it with cream and stracciatella earlier than tying the highest with string.
Afterwards, a dairy-heavy meal completely definitely worth the ldl cholesterol and energy: mozzarella and burrata to begin, then bread with chunks of caciocavallo (a stretched-curd cheese), and a dessert of heart-shaped contemporary ricotta with strawberry jam or cocoa.
And, I’ve to say, Savio is true. The mozzarella and burrata have a juicy, elastic texture and a stunning tacky, umami flavour; the salt and flavour leached out by the whey the cheeses later sit in. How will I ever accept Tesco Best after this?
Over the subsequent few days, consuming our method across the province’s eating places and meals producers, I ponder whether it’s as a result of the substances are so good that this space has so many meals obsessives, or the opposite method spherical.
Barletta sees few overseas vacationers, but it surely is filled with Italian life. There are many impartial outlets, a Norman fortress and cathedral to go to, and each night folks pour into the bars, golf equipment and gelaterie of the sette strade, seven parallel streets within the outdated city.
Down the coast, Trani, with its sea-facing romanesque cathedral and fairly harbour, attracts some vacationers, however they don’t seem to be in proof at 7am when the fishing boats return. The lads complain of tough seas and a poor catch, however from the again of the boats they’re quickly promoting mullet, octopus, skate, fats sea snails, monkfish and palombo (small shark) to restaurateurs and fishmongers. Thirtysomething Nicola says he went out at noon and bought again at 3am. When does he sleep? “By no means.” A fifth-generation fisher, he started serving to on the boats aged six.
We’ll eat fish later, however immediately is for pizza. Portento in Barletta is run by meals nut Luigi Lacerenza. He has us attempt so many native merchandise as antipasti – caprino goat’s cheese tasting of inexperienced mountains, grilled caciocavallo from an outdated couple who make simply six per week and small-batch salami – that we’re nearly too full for pizzas. However they’re great: one with sausage, olives, oyster mushrooms and yellow tomatoes; one other with aubergines and grated cacioricotta.
In Cerignola, west of Barletta, Rosario Didonna used the cash he received on a TV standup competitors to show his household’s deli into a comfy, wood- panelled restaurant, U’ Vulèsce (dialect for “peckish”). Rosario is aware of fishers by title, works with small farmers and wine producers, and invitations nonne from throughout southern Italy to exhibit recipes in his kitchens.
We begin with tasty goat prosciutto and plum-sized native olives known as bella di Cerignola. Then an unforgettable prawn tartare served in sea urchin shells, bushy crab spaghetti (“the juice is healthier than lobster”), octopus with bean puree, and sea bass with orange mayo. He waves away our thanks: “I’m doing the perfect job on the planet!”
Nicola Barbera at Masseria Barbera, a farm restaurant within the Alta Murgia nationwide park, is equally impressed, however relatively by what grows on the property based by his great-great-great-great-grandfather Riccardo, who fought with Garibaldi. Exuberantly bouncing us across the farm – it produces 90% of what the 100-cover restaurant wants – he reveals us olives and vines, but in addition the “weeds” rising round them. “They’re eatable,” he says, grabbing handfuls of peppery rocket, and bitter however delicate wild chicory. From the ample kitchen backyard, he makes eight kinds of tomato sauce.
We tuck into lots of this for lunch: a pie with white onions, anchovy and sultanas; courgettes with mint and garlic; spaghetti with yellow tomatoes. (“I name it bastard sauce,” says Nicola. “These tomatoes take thrice as lengthy to select.”) Then, one thing I by no means thought I’d eat: grilled donkey fillet. I really feel unhealthy concerning the affected person, mild-tempered beasts, however that is wholesome, low-fat meals, by no means intensively farmed. It’s additionally the perfect meat I’ve ever tasted.
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Good meals is made higher by good olive oil, and producers right here embrace Muraglia, identified for natural oil in hand-painted, rainbow-stripe ceramic bottles, and Sabino Leone, providing excursions of its historic groves and oil mill for €15, plus tastings.
This space additionally gives loads to do between meals. Barletta was the house of Italian painter Giuseppe De Nittis, who frolicked with Degas and Manet, and took half within the first impressionist exhibition in Paris, in 1874. Over 200 of his works are actually displayed within the Sixteenth-century Palazzo della Marra (€6).
At Europe’s largest salt pan, Salina Margherita di Savoia, there’s an expanse of peaceable ponds with a snow-white salt mountain to climb. One other day, an exhilarating ebike trip within the Alta Murgia with Filippo Tito of Cycling ’n’ Trek, by way of dense forest to look with awe into an outdated bauxite mine that resembles a mini grand canyon. We get again ravenous, however on this nook of northern Puglia, that’s a blessing.
The place to remain
Till this century, Barletta had little vacationer lodging. Decide of the few B&Bs is Antica Dimora (doubles from €97), a restored Seventeenth-century palazzo run by Lilly and Riccardo Manna. There are three good bedrooms with a number of vegetation and breakfast options completely different native specialities every day.
Lama di Luna (doubles from €230) is an natural farm in deep countryside, with six rooms set round an 18th-century stone courtyard. A effectively and photo voltaic panels make it power and water self-sufficient; half of its 200 hectares are left wild, the remainder are planted with olives, vines, almonds and cherries. There’s a cinema, a library and a big pool shaded by 600-year-old olive bushes.
The place (else) to eat
Barletta’s 60-year-old Mosé bakery is revered for its krapfen crammed doughnuts and sourdough croissants. There are additionally sweets, ice-cream and muffins, all housemade, and nice espresso.
Puglia has a whole lot of gelaterie however consultants charge Scoop in Canosa (which known as Puglia’s “Little Rome” for its catacombs, temple ruins and Roman bridge). Francesco Di Nunno makes ice-cream with native seasonal substances: raspberry and strawberry sorbets can be found solely in early summer season; percoca yellow peach till mid-August.
There’s reasonably priced tremendous eating at chef Luciano Matera’s Il Turracciolo in central Andria. Highlights for me are broad bean and chicory “meatballs”, vivid inexperienced inside; a “hidden mushroom” underneath baked eggy topping; and pasta discs with complete and pureed inexperienced beans and peas.
At A Sud dell’Anima, chef Nadia Tamburrano makes use of fashionable methods and hyper-local substances to make meals of astonishing high quality for a small hilltop city (Minervino, inhabitants underneath 8,000). Her antipasti explode with flavour because of house-cured capers and selfmade mustard, syrups and purees. A fundamental of sweetbreads wrapped in intestines feels a bit out-there, however is scrumptious, the intestines crispy as crackling.
The journey was organised by Unexpected Italy, which gives personalised itineraries for Barletta and the encompassing space