Your essential food guide to Puglia

• The must-make recipe from Puglia
• What are the traditional ingredients in Puglia?
• What are the famous dishes from Puglia?
• The best cheeses to try from Puglia
• The best wines to try from Puglia
• The delicious. team’s top food experiences in Puglia

Get to know the food of Puglia

The heel of southern Italy’s ‘boot’, Puglia is a powerhouse of food production. It’s responsible for nearly half of Italy’s total olive oil production, bottles more wine than any other region and its generally flat farmland is where the majority of the country’s durum wheat (which is used in a lot of pasta and bread recipes) is grown. No wonder it’s known as the bread basket of Italy.

Despite this output, Puglia is traditionally a poor region – something that’s reflected in the food. Simple dishes make the most of what’s at its best, with meat (the most common being lamb) traditionally more of a special occasion treat. Along the beautiful coast, fish and seafood become more prominent, but it’s really the seasonal vegetables, egg-free pastas and golden breads that stand out in this part of Italy.

While the majority of Puglia is covered in farmland, the cities of Lecce, Bari and Taranto are stunning hubs of Byzantine- and Greek-influenced architecture, and tourism is quickly becoming an important part of the local economy. That, combined with the smattering of hill towns throughout the landscape and some of the best beaches in Italy, make it one of the most underrated spots in the south of the country.

Our hero recipe from Puglia

Spaghetti all’assassina (killer tomato pasta) by Roberta d’Elia, head chef at Pasta Evangelists

“Puglia holds a special place in my heart, especially when it comes to food. The food in Puglia is a celebration of simplicity and freshness, with every dish telling a story of local ingredients from the land or the sea. From the sun-kissed tomatoes bursting with flavour to the fresh handmade orecchiette pasta, every bite is a reminder of the region’s rich agricultural heritage,” says chef and pasta aficionado Roberta.

“My fondest memories of growing up are around family meals, where we would gather to enjoy homemade focaccia drizzled with the finest extra virgin olive oil, fresh seafood caught just that morning, and the sweet, juicy figs picked straight from the tree in our garden. It’s these moments and flavours that make Puglia’s food truly special to me!”

Cook Roberta’s Pugliese spaghetti all’assassina (killer tomato pasta)

 

 

What are the traditional ingredients in Puglia?

• Tomatoes Puglia’s cherry and datterino tomatoes are regarded as the best, and they take pride of place over bigger plum varieties (although they’re very highly regarded too). Some coastal farmers even water their plants using seawater, giving them a subtle minerality.
• Vegetables Aubergines, peppers, fennel and artichokes are popular in Puglia, but it’s broccoli and turnip greens (cime di rapa) that really stand out. These greens are often heavily cooked until soft, then strewn through the local pasta.
• Wheat Durum wheat is grown in huge quantities here, which is why so many of the region’s dishes are bread– and pasta-based.
• Seafood Puglia’s beautiful coastline provides all sorts of fish and shellfish, but mussels are the most common and popular.
• Almonds Puglia’s flat farmland is perfectly suited for almond production, and those grown in and around the town of Toritto are known for being particularly good. They find their way into many of the region’s pastries and cakes.

What are the famous dishes from Puglia?

• Taralli These little round savoury biscuits are the ultimate aperitivo snack, often dipped in wine before being eaten. Traditionally flavoured with fennel seeds, they’re incredibly moreish and one of Puglia’s many uses of the local wheat.
• Bread Pane di Altimura is the only bread in the world with the EU’s PDO protected status. Friselle are crunchy bagel-shaped crackers that get twice-baked to extend their shelf life and are often dipped in water to soften them before being eaten with tomatoes. Focaccia Barese is another popular loaf, studded with olives and tomatoes, while the simply named pane Pugliese is famed for its toasting qualities and rich golden hue.
• Orecchiette By far the most famous Pugliese pasta, these little wrinkled discs translate to ‘little ears’ and are made by rolling little nuggets of pasta dough flat with your thumb. They’re made without eggs (almost all Pugliese pasta is egg-free, as eggs were considered a luxury), instead making use of the local durum wheat. Discover how to make orecchiette from scratch.
• Tiella A hearty baked rice dish that puts the local mussels centre stage, tiella is more like a paella than a risotto. It also includes potatoes and often courgettes and tomatoes are thrown in too.
• Panzerotti Essentially a small, deep-fried calzone filled with mozzarella and tomato sauce (what’s not to love?!), this Pugliese street food is now popular across Italy.
• Pasticciotti Small shortcrust pastry tarts filled with thick vanilla cream and usually a cherry centre, you’ll find these in bakeries in Salento in the south of Puglia.

 

The best cheeses to try from Puglia

Burrata comes from Puglia, invented in the 1950s by a genius cheesemaker who decided to fill a pouch of mozzarella cheese with cream and created a worldwide smash hit. If you’re in the area, keep an eye out for Canestrato Pugliese – a sharp firm sheep’s cheese perfect for grating over orecchiette, or give the Caciocavallo Silano a try – a teardrop-shaped cow’s milk cheese with a spicy flavour.

The best wines to try from Puglia

Until relatively recently, Puglian wine was all about quantity over quality – its grapes often blended with others from other regions to add body and depth. Today, however, there are some superb Puglian wineries making a name for themselves. Red wine is much more common than white here, particularly the primitive grape which produces bold, strong reds with plenty of body. But negroamaro is another grape variety that is very distinctive and native to the region.

Browse wine editor Susy Atkins’ pick of the nine best Italian wines to buy right now.

 

The delicious. team’s top food experiences in Puglia

Tom Shingler, Head of food
“I was wandering the streets of the incredibly beautiful old town of Lecce, only to actually see some nonnas chatting and making orecchiette pasta by hand down a tucked-away alley. Until I saw that I thought it was the sort of scene that only existed in films! I also had an excellent hazelnut gelato from Baldo Gelato, a tiny little place in the old town.”

Thea Everett, Deputy digital editor
“My top Puglia moment was eating in the back of a butchers in Ostuni called La Locanda del Mecellaio, where the name of the game is picking out your choice cuts and bombette from the meat fridges to be grilled on skewers by the chef. The highlight here was actually the chips, which tasted so exquisitely of potato, as not enough chips do. Moral of the story? Don’t be ashamed to order chips in Italy.”

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