Two factors enter into setting the style of Apulian cooking: the availability of ingredients and the altitude of the land. Except for the Subapennine and Gargano elevations in the Province of Foggia, and the hilly Murge area, all the rest of the territory is flat or almost. The plain makes trade easy. Saying that they have one style, however, is really a relative matter because in this region there are three different ways of cooking. The ways were not established by the present administrative system but rather by the dictates that Frederick II gave to Apulia when, for the first time, in 1222, it was he who distinguished the Ban area from the Capitanata area and the Otranto area. The cooks in each area all prepare the same dishes but each tends to vary them according to the particular tastes in the area. Garlic is one of the ingredients, maybe the main one, that signals the variation; little by little as you descend from the Tavoliere Plain to the Salentina Peninsula, it becomes obvious that garlic plays a less and less powerful role and at a certain point it disappears entirely to give full sway to the onion as in the classical fish soup prepared by the Gallipoli cooks. The great plain produces grains, grapes and olives in abundance; consequently, bakery products, oil and wine - here called "miere" from the Latin "merum" which means "anadulterated" - constitute the three supporting pillars of the popular recipes.

Craftsmens', shepherds' and farmers' faith has not been shaked in their humble bread, that bread for which Apulia is rightly famous. Statistics indicate that the daily consumption, between "frisedde" and "panette", 800 grams per person. (In the Apulian dialect, the double consonant "dd", in words like "frisedde" "cialledda", and so on, is cacuminal, that is to say that they are pronounced by turning your tongue back against your palate in order to obtain what almost sounds like "eddr". This is not just something unusual done in Apulia but it is found in many southern Italian dialects). "Frisedda" is a work of art that was created by a people whose sobriety has taught them the habit of eating very well but also how to go on prolonged fasts. Ciambella, which has a narrow hole, is made of whole wheat flour or white, baked, then cut in two horizontally and put into the oven again to get crispy. Then to finish there is little to do: just dip it into cold water and when it is well soaked, dress it with oil, pepper and salt. Tomatoes and onion may be added, too, if you like. That's it! But the shepherd and the farm-laborer with a "frisedda". and a glass of wine call the two their midday meal. With the same ingredients but using boiling water instead, you have a "cialledda".

In meals based on flours, "pasta" is of key importance. In spite of the persistent advertising that sti,'muiates them to buy industrially produced "pasta", many house wises, especially in the smaller towns, continue to serve their homemade lasagna, "recchie", "strascenate", "chiancarelle", "troccoli", "mignuicchie", "pociacche", "fenescecchie". Le "recchie", which are famous beyond the confines of the region, too, are little pieces of "pasta" that have been shaped in a concave form resembling an ear. This is done by rolling the thumb against the board I where they are rolled out. They are made with hard grain whole wheat or with semola type flour; sometimes they are made from the dried up grains left after the gleaning. "Strascenate" are rectangles of "pasta" that have been dragged across a rough cutting board so as to give it a rough side and a smooth side. "Troccoli" which are made in Foggia resemble the guitar macaroni made in Abruzzo. They get their name from the special cutting tool used which is a rolling pin that has circular blades exactly like the 16th century macaroni tool. "Chiancarelle" are small "recchie" (ears), "pociacche" are larger than usual "recchie" or "orecchiette", "pestazzule". are little discs like the "pociacche" but not concave, "mignuicchie" are little gnocchi made of semolone (large hard grains of wheat), and "fenescecchie" are rolled up macaroni rolled by using a knitting needle. In Brindisi, the dialect has altered the names and so "strascenate" are called "stagghiotte" and "fenescecchie" are called "cagghiubbi".

There is a host of sauces to go along with the wide variety of home made and factory made "pastas". "Pasta asciutta?" writes Nicola Durano (which is not dry at all but simply refers to the fact that it is cooked and not served in a broth or soup) "is alternated with those served in a vegetable or legume broth according to what almost seems to be a ritualistic calendar". Wild herbs are blended with garden herbs to make sauces for spaghetti and orecchiette sometimes; for a richer sauce, a meat or fish sauce is used. The meat might simply be veal or a mixture of young bullock and pork, or young bullock, pork and mutton. A more complicated sauce is made for an important speciality, baked macaroni: slices of hard cooked eggs, artichoke hearts, chopped salami, scamorza and pecorino cheese are put in the sauce and mixed and made into little balls. Then they are enclosed in a covering of sweet "pasta" or just put into a terracotta baking dish and then into the oven. The most popular fish sauce for pasta comes from Bari; it is called "ciambotto. and is a mixture of different kinds of fish. "Ciambotto" means exactly that, mixture. It is usually served with spaghetti that has been cooked to the right degree of doneness, that is, not too soft, and topped, or not, with cheese.

Everything about the origins of pastas is still a mystery, but we are inclined to say that the Apulian people invented them because of the great enthusiasm they show for them. One popular, anonymous saying goes:

"Criste mi, fa' chiove le maccarrune e le chianghe de le logge fatt'a ragu" (My Jesus, make it rain macaroni, and the loggias of the balconies, change them into stewed meat).

The Apulian people were not the inventors of pastas but they started a revolution to defend them. It happened in Bari in 1647 when Spain dominated the region. Since they could not think of anything else to tax, one day the greedy Spanish levied a tax on flour. The defenseless Barese refused to accept this new abuse of power and when they saw that the soldiers molested the womenfolk with the excuse that they were checking on flour consumption, they gave vent to their anger. For eight days a savage fight raged as though it were the wrath of God. In the end, the Spanish revoked their hateful tax.

Some signs of the Spanish domination are still evident in the Apulian cuisine; "tielle", for example, are soups with their various raw ingredients placed in layers. "Tiella" of mussels is made of a layer of rice, one of thin round slices of potatoes, a layer of chopped onion and parsley, and one of black mussels without their upper valve. Between each layer you put oil, salt, pepper, and cheese and on the last layer, bread crumbs are sprinkled. The baking dish - "tielle" means baking dish - is placed in the oven. The recipe includes whatever the imagination of the housewife leads her to put into it: there are no set rules. One can include or leave out what one wishes. But the potatoes are a must whatever else is put in. Besides, the meat sauce and the meat balls, there are no other special ties that use beef as a main ingredient. Yes, there are the roll-ups, but they are more flavorful when made with horsemeat.

The same broth that people still continue to prepare today with ram or he-goat is invariably advertised a mutton broth.

A popular proverb in the entire region warns: "Carne de vaccine sbrevogue a ci 'a cucine", the cook who uses cow meat casts aspersions on her self. The proverb is a reminder of the times when old animals or animals worn out from hard work were butchered. While it cooked the meat under went changes for the worse; it became leathery and shrank.

Birds, wild game and pork, however are widely used. Wild rabbit is the basic ingredients of two specialties: cooked in a thick tomato sauce, it is used on "re'cchie" and "mignuicchie" and in a sweet-sour dish it is delicious Another dish that is very appetizing is "turde 'n zulze". Pork is at its best in the Martina Franca hilltop villages, in savoury salami in Foggia's Subapennine area, and in sausages and blood sausages in Lecce. The latter are a mixture of pork blood and pork or veal brains. It is so delicious that they say that it was served to the people of Lecce a little more than three centuries ago as barter to pay the people from Brindisi for one of the Appian Way end of the road marker columns.

As in all folk stories this has been coloured with a lot of imagination. What really happened is this. Following the 1528 earthquake, one of the columns placed by the Romans in Brindisi that marked the end of the Appian Way collapsed, breaking into many pieces. The blocks of marble stayed where they had fallen until 1659; the year in which the people of Lecce asked for them so that they could use them to make a pedestal for a statue of their patron, Sant'Oronzo. The people of Brindisi accepted the request and gave the bulky pieces to them. It was probably all given as a courtesy and as a gift without asking anything in return because there is no record of any blood sausage being given in exchange for the ruined column.

The kind of meat that prevails in the Apulian cuisine is that from sheep. The region is in third place after Sardinia and Lazio in the production of these animals. The richest areas for herds are in Gargano, Murge and Tavoliere. The latter area, before the land was reclaimed, was able to hold and feed a much higher quantity of sheep. Tavoliere is the stretch of plain in the Province of Foggia that is a little less than one hundred meters above sea level. This includes the Subapennines, the Gargano area, the Fortore and Ofanto Rivers, altogether an area of more than four thousand square kilo-meters and therefore the greatest expanse of land on the Italian Peninsula. Among the four rivers that flow in it - Candelaro, Cervaro, Carapelle and the just mentioned Ofanto - only the last two manage to reach the sea. The herds from Gargano, Sannio and Abruzzo come to spend the winter on the great plain where they find a dwarf vegetation but it is just right from the animals. Here, because of the shepherds, the cuisines of Apulia, Campania and Abruzzo exchange some interesting experiences. The goodness of the ovine meat from Apulia has no need of formal statements from gourments or experts. The tourist can find out in the simplest way by entering any butcher shop in the area; he will see, beside the refrigerator, an unusual thing to be found in this kind of shop. It is a real oven made of rocks, small but an exact reproduction in every detail.

In this oven the butcher roasts the "tacche", the pieces of lamb ordered by the clients, and he cooks them completely on spits without any sauces or other ingredients except salt. Other than this method of cooking that is simple and quick, there are others, as we shall see, that are more elaborate. The Gargano shepherds prepare "quagghiaridde" a rustic and flavourful dish made of ram chitterlings. "Gnemeridde" is made of little balls of lamb or kid intestine stuffed with the entrails and baked or stewed in a crock. Where these recipes originated no one knows. They are found in various cuisines in southern Italy with different names. The only sure thing is than it has been prepared in Apulia for over five hundred years as the Statutes, which date back to 1400, of the University of Bisceglie testifies.

The numerous herds make the dairy business prosperous in sheep's milk products. Fresh ricotta cheese is very popular as well as its variations known as strong ricotta, hard ricotta or "cacioricotta" that is used for grating. The pecorino cheese is excellent, especially that from the Murge pastures where the lentisk tree thrives and gives a peppery flavour to the milk and cheese. In some areas it is possible to find a kind of sheep mozzarella called "mercia". Business from dairy products made from cows' milk is very prosperous. due to the numerous herds in the reclaimed land area. Caciocavallo, provolone, scamorze, provole, and manteche are wonderful and popular and they are just like the butirri or burrini from Calabria and the burrate from Naples. Before the land reclamation projects on the Tavoliere Plain there were many herds of buffalo in the Province of Foggia because they are animals that are not adversely affected by the districts where the air is sultry and malaria laden; at the present these herds have been reduced to a few thousand heads and the tasty mozzarella that 'is made from their milk is more and more difficult to find in spite of the increased demand.

The region has a 784 kilometres coastline and for this reason it is thriving with fish. The development of this branch of the cuisine has involved almost the entire province a great deal, with the exception of Foggia. Strangely enough, Foggia's is a land based cuisine that is suspicious of the sea and its products. In order to understand this attitude we must go back into pre-historical times. The first Daunians, distant ancestors of those living in the province now, during the first half of the Iron Age - about thirteen or fourteen centuries before Christ - were shepherds in Arcadia. Then came the Doric invasion and they had to abandon their land, by seeking safety on the Adriatic shore. Since they were anything but expert at navigation, many perished during the crossing and the survivors were left with a real terror of the water. For this reason, when they looked for a new dwelling place, they chose the Gargano promontory because it had a good defence position from the sea with its sheer cliffs of two to three hundred metres high. From the Adriatic or the Ionian Seas the fish are of the highest quality wherever they are brought up; however it is true that there are certain places where some species have a particularly fine flavour. The seas around Bari yield marvellous little octopus' that can be eaten raw, too. There are wonderful dories and sole, exquisitely good dentixes and scampi, a type of shrimp. The red mullet of Porto Cesareo, Gallipoli, Polignano a Mare, and Manfredonia are superlative. Around the Tremiti Islands there is an extraordinary population of many varieties, the highly prized ones and the common breed; even turtle soup is one of the recipes. The two bays at the Taranto Port, called Mar Piccolo and Mar Grande yield dories, eels, moray eels, dentixes, red mullets, calamaries, cuttle fish, lobsters, clams, razor clams, and shrimp but the fame of this city is due to the marvellous ways they prepare mussels (black ones) and oysters.

The cultivation of oysters has been going on off the shores of Taranto since time immemorial; and the methods are still the ancient ones. Man helps Nature by attaching the larvae of molluscs onto little bundles of lentisk wood that are submerged into the Mar Grande. After sixty days, the bundles are retrieved, the branches that are studded with life are transplanted onto arbours in the so-called gardens of the Mar Piccolo. The gardens prosper in particular spots where there are many "citri" or undersea fresh-water springs. These springs both permit and favour the cultivation of oysters because, even though they are sea animals, they love to live where the water is not very salty. After eighteen months they are ready for market.

The largest "citro" in the Mar Piccolo is found near the northeast point of the wharf; it spurts up from a depth of sixty metres and makes a whirlpool that is visible on the surface. Its name, "San Cataldo's ring" comes from a legend. The saint was a bishop in Taranto and one day, while a terrible storm was raging, he took his bishop's ring from his finger and threw it into the eddying waters. Suddenly he saw that the water was becalmed and at the point where he had thrown his ring an immense spring rose up before his eyes.

Cookbooks describe various ways of preparing mussels. The Tarantine cookbooks suggest three ways: "arraganati", that covers them with the soft interior of bread and parsley, garlic, oil, origanum, and tomatoes; boiled and dressed with oil and lemon; in soup "alla marinara" with onion, stewed tomatoes and oil. The oysters are sometimes eaten raw with lemon juice and a dusting of pepper. Some people insist on cooking them, perhaps to put over a "risotto" rice dish, but they are wasted this way; only when the oyster is alive it is delicious.

Now just a quick rundown about the desserts to say that some specialities -"pettue" or zeppole, "sesemidde", "carteddate", "castagnedde", and taralli are common to the gastronomy found in Campania, Calabria and Basilicata. Some desserts have completely disappeared but it is worth remembering the baked ice creams that were the famous speciality of the early 20th century as created by the pastry chef, Felice Lippolis, of Bari. It was made of two slices of pandispagna, a cake, with ice cream in between like in a sandwich. It was covered with mantecato, a semi-liquid ice cream and candied fruit. Before serving it, it was put into the oven for a short time. When Lippolis died, this ice cream dessert disappeared but its name has survived in a popular motto: "Wait, the baked ice cream is about to arrive", still repeated when one wants to answer someone who insists on asking for something that the other does not want to give.

Agnello (lamb) alla carbonara. - Carbonara is a hamlet of Bari. There everyone eats this Christmas Day dish. You line a baking dish with yellow heavy butcher's paper and after having washed the lamb in cold water and dried the pieces you arrange them in the pan. Use just salt, no spices, herbs, or dressings. Put it into the oven. The paper on the bottom of the pan will absorb the extra fat.

Agnello alla squero. - The Apulia Region is the third most important for sheep raising, after Sardinia and Latium; in fact lamb dominates the Apulian cuisine. In this typical dish the lamb is skinned, insides cleaned out, put on a spit, and turned over a fire of twigs kindled with thyme and fine herbs. This cooking method, called "cruel", is also used for big red mullet and dentixes. "Squero" means boathouse.

Agnellone (lamb) In Meat Sauce. - Agnellone is the male lamb between three and twelve months old; later it becomes a ram or mutton according to the undisputable opinion of shepherds.

The best month is July. Once this was the traditional dish served at dinners organised to celebrate the handing over of farms. Farm contracts used to expire on July 25th and the farmers had to invite people to a dinner that lasted, according to custom, all afternoon. Everyone ate greedily and emptied barrels of wine.

Anchovies Arraganate. - Boned anchovies are put into a crock in layers with grated bread-crumbs and a chopped mixture of garlic, mint, capers, and origanum. Oil is poured over and vinegar is sprinkled on top before putting all into the oven.

Anguille all'acqua marina (Seawater eel). -This is a typical dish of those who live on the shores of the lake, Lago di Lesina. Its method is primordial in that no fire is used. The "blind" eels are placed into bowls, covered with seawater and left under the sun. They are served with oil and vinegar.

Annulleddu a lu fumu. - A typical Salentina Peninsula dish. Baby lamb, cut up, placed in a crockery baking dish with some garlic cloves, a little water, salt, potato slices, a layer of hard bread slices, a dusting of soft, fresh bread crumbs, and oil poured over in the shape of a cross. Bake. It is even more delicious if instead of a normal baby lamb you use one that from its birth has been kept in a special hamper called a "forchia".

This cruel method of Imprisoning lambs that they cannot move was popular, as already mentioned, in Abruzzo.

Benedetto. - In Foggia this is the first course at Easter Dinner; it is made of hard cooked that were blessed by the priest during the Easter Mass, salami, fresh ricottina cheese, boiled asparagus In some areas, the ricotta and the asparagus are substituted for with sliced oranges.

Bracioline - Slices of lean veal or horse, hammered, garnished by thin slices of ham, chopped parsley, pepper, and pecorino cheese, rolled up and tied with thread, gently browned, but quickly, in the frying pan and drenched in a thick tomato sauce or stewed tomatoes.

In some areas of Foggia they add pine nuts and sultana raisins to the filling like the Neapolitan cooks do. They put the meat sauce "ragu' " on the "recchie". pasta.

Brodetto. - Another dish from Foggia eaten at Easter Dinner. Baby goat, cut up, cooked in a pan, then pre-boiled asparagus are added and all is bound together with grated cheese and beaten eggs.

Caldariello. - Takes its name from the cooking vessel used, a small but bulging saucepan. A tender baby lamb, cut up, mixed before heating with onion, oil, garlic, parsley, sheep's milk and wild fennel is then cooked slowly. This is served on thick slices of bread prepared as pane casereccio. "Caldariello" which has survived the passage of time in some inland communities such as Gravina, has been shepherd's speciality since old, old times; the Bible alludes to it with the words, "Do not cat lamb cooked in its mother's milk".

Calzengidde. - A small "calzone". The envelope is made of bread dough, the filling can be of meat, (cooked prosciutto ham, provola cheese and tomato slices), or meatless (strong ricotta, anchovies, tomatoes). It is fried in lots of olive Oil and lard, like crispelle, and the heat makes it puff up from which it takes its other name "panzarotto". Calzengijiddes, especially in the province of Bari, are the traditional food eaten to celebrate the saint's day in memory of Sant'Antonio Abate.

Calzone pugliese. - These are different from the Neapolitan calzones especially in the dough which is made of flour, yeast, olive oil, salt and water.

The meatless calzone is filled with an oil based sauce, onions, tomatoes, olives, capers, boned anchovies and parsley. In the meat ones, you can add mozzarella or scamorza cheese, baked ham, ricotta, and caciocavallo cheese.

Capocollo. - Among all the salami of this kind that deserve praise and have deserved praise since ancient times, are those from Martina Franca.

The meat is left in a pickling liquid for about ten days, then it is washed in cooked wine and spiced with pepper corns, wrapped in intestine casings, tied and left to dry in the air. Then it is hung to be smoked in a cold, or almost, smoke created by burning oak twigs. It is cured for five months. In summer some families keep the capocollo under olive oil.

Cappello da gendarme. - Speciality of Lecce. Takes its name because it is shaped like a cocked hat The outside pastry in made of flour, olive oil and water, but more oil than water, and salt; it contains zucchinis and fried eggplant, veal scaloppine cooked in a pan in oil or butter over a high flame, thickly sliced hard cooked eggs, scamorza or mozzarella cheese or slightly ripened caciocavallo.

The pastry is rolled rather thick in an elliptical shape, it is half covered with the filling; the uncovered pastry is drawn back over the filling. The cappello da gendarme is arranged on a greased baking sheet, punched by inserting a bread, tester into the surface and baked: it is delicious cold or hot and for this reason it is popular picnic food. When ham or salami are substituted for the vegetables and the scaloppine, this speciality is called "pasticcio d'inverno" or winter pastry.

Capuzzelle. - Lamb or baby goat's heads cut in two and arranged in a baking pan with potatoes, olive oil, salt, garlic and origanum, then baked.

Carducci con l'agnello. - A typical Easter dish. Pieces of lamb are cut up and browned in oil and garlic, some white wine is dashed on and then it is cooked with tomato slices and cardoncelli mushrooms which have already been boiled. Then eggs are beaten and added with grated pecorino cheese, salt, pepper and minced parsley.

Carduncieddi - Tender edible thistles from which the burrs have been removed ate boiled in salted water and drained. In Brindisi they are put in a pan with stoned black olives, anchovy fillets, and grated breadcrumbs; in Bari and Foggia, they are mixed with eggs beaten with cheese and pepper.

One way or the other they end up in the oven to finish cooking.

Casearia pugliese. - It consists of cheese from sheep, goat, cow and buffalo: mozzarella, scamorza, provola, provolone, caciocavallo, pecorino both fresh and aged, burrata, manteca and ricotta.

The burrate are buffalo provole enclosed in a caciocavallo casing, manteca cheese has the same casing but it is butter inside mainly. Provolone is made using the same process as with caciocavallo, but its shape is different (like a watermelon) and it is somewhat bigger in fat content, 45 percent of the dry substance; it is usually curdled with baby goat rennet which gives it a sharp flavour that stays with you.

There are three kinds of ricotta cheese: fresh, salted and strong, The salted ricotta is good as an accompaniment for bread or grated on pasta dishes - then it takes the name of cacioricotta. Strong ricotta, called "scant" in dialect, is obtained by stirring the fresh ricotta with a wooden spatula every day for a month, adding small quantities of salt and sometimes powdered hot peppers; the result is a yellow or pinky cream, hot to the taste and good for spreading on bread or putting on pizza or mixing into a first course dish.

Mercia is mozzarella made of sheep's milk mentioned in the introduction. It is hardly ever tasted by the tourist; however, if you want some, look for it in Salento.

Casseruola di polipetti. - The reason that the baby "Octopuses" that are caught in the waters off Bari are so good is because, say the experts, the Adriatic sea is so deep there. The deeper the sea, the more saturated with salt are the baby octopuses and the which live in such a salty situation take on a better flavour. Before they are eaten they must be pounded against the ground or rocks; and to that job which is done everywhere, Bari fishermen add a second: they make them curl up by shaking them vigorously in wicker baskets and dipping them in seawater. Pounded and curled, they can be eaten raw, fried, baked or boiled without water and used in salad. Casseruola di polipetti has a special ragu' sauce made of oil, onion, dry white wine, pepper, tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes, and parsley. It is used as a dip for bread or as a topping for pastasciutta.

Cazzmarre. - Sometimes called "marro". It is like the same dish from the Abruzzi Region that bears the same name. Lamb intestines and other chitterlings are wrapped in gauze and baked.

Cervellata. - A slender sausage, not connected in links, moderately greasy, a kind typical to Martina Franca and the hilly Tarantine area. It is different from the Neapolitan sausage of the same name in some details; It can be made of veal and pork mixed or just pork. It is seasoned with salt, ground pepper, and red wine.

Chiancarelle con le cime di rapa. - A dish from Foggia. Chiancarelle are small orecchiette pasta that are boiled together with turnip tops and, drained, they are seasoned with browned garlic, anchovies and hot peppers. The latter can be substituted for with pepper.

Ciambotto. - Also known as ciabotta. The first name is from Bari, the second from Foggia. It is a sauce made of minute fish of different types that have been cooked with olive oil, onions, some fresh tomatoes or tomato sauce, and hot peppers; it is a topping for pastasciutta (spaghetti or perciatelli).

Ciceri e tria. - A dish from the Province of Lecce. Tagliatelle pasta made of hard wheat and water are cooked in chick pea broth. This is seasoned with browned onion in oil.

The name "tria" for this soup brings to mind the thin spaghetti called "vermicelli" (means little worms) invented in Sicily.

Cozze arraganate. - Mussels without their upper valve are arranged in a ceramic dish with the soft interior of bread, origanum, garlic, and parsley, then olive oil and tomato juice are poured on and it is baked; half way through, sprinkle some dry white wine on. Outside of Apulia, mussels prepared this way are called £alla tarantina.

Cruschill. - This is the Foggia name for "bruschetta". Whole wheat bread slices are toasted on live embers, brushed with garlic, sprinkled with salt and olive oil

Cutturidde. - Lamb is placed into a baking dish with onion, parsley, tomatoes, bits of pecorino cheese, salt, pepper and olive oil and covered with water. During the cooking time in a very slow oven, the pan must not ever be uncovered or the sauce will evaporate too much.

Dentice alle olive. - This is a Ban specialty. Large dentixes, cleaned, washed and cut through on both sides with a vertical cut are baked in a mixture of oil and vinegar enriched with a big handful of black olives when they are almost done.

Fenecchiedde. - A Bari speciality for Christmas Eve Supper.

Boiled little fennels, drained, and cooked over a high flame in the frying pan with oil, garlic and anchovy fillets.

Focaccia barese. - Pizza made with yeast bread dough doubled over and filled with fried onion pitted black olives, anchovy fillets and strong ricotta.

Gnemeridde. - Chitterlings of baby lamb, kid or lamb cut into strips and stuffed into the entrails (gomitoletti), from whence comes its name, of the same animal. They can be prepared with or without sprigs of parsley; they are cooked on the spit or stewed in a baking pan with oil, onion, tomatoes, and pecorino cheese cut up fine.

In the reacher recipe, the "gnemeridde" has, added to the chitterlings, ham strips unripened pecorino cheese, aromatic herbs and a baked side dish of potato crescents covered with grated breadcrumbs.

Lampasciuni - Wild onions (cipollacci) from the botanical family, muscari. They are boiled and used in salad or charcoal broiled or in a sweet and sour dish made with cooked wine. They are liked for their bitterish flavour. In Foggia they are added to mushrooms and potatoes to make a delicious "tiella". Besides "lampasciuni", other different non-cultivated vegetables are used in Apulia for cooking:

"caccialepre", rockets, "borragine", "crispigni", curly chicory, wild fennel, thin and delightfully bitter country asparagus, "marasciuli" which are small bitter herbs which are found on grapevines. Mushrooms are found in abundance and some are quite rare species like, for example, "paparuli" from the Foggia underbrush and the Tarantine Murge. They are roasted on charcoal and have a peppery flavour. Cardoncelli mushrooms are yellow-pink with a firm pulp which can be served after slicing them thin and cooking them in oil, garlic and parsley or in a soup.

Lampasciuni alla vetrettese. - A specialty of Bitetto. "Lampasciuni" are stewed for a long time until, with cooked wine (vincotto) added, they turn into a marmelade. It is spread on sliced bread.

Lasagne di San Giuseppe. - A speciality in Ban and particularly at Mola; this lasagna recipe bears St. Joseph's name because it is the custom to eat it on the saint's feast day. For four people a half kilo of lasagne pasta is used (about one pound) and ten almonds, four anchovies, a hectogram of grated breadcrumbs, a glass of olive oil, a half kilo of tomatoes or a big spoonful of tomato sauce, a few basil leaves, a garlic clove, and as much salt as you like. Blanch the almonds and chop them. Bone the anchovies and cut them up. Toast the bread dry in a little frying pan to take the bread crumbs; then put it on a plate and pour into a clean small frying pan a half glassful of oil and the anchovies. Allow them to soften up well and blend into the oil over a low flame and add the toasted bread stirring them.

Put the mixture aside: prepare a sauce with the remaining oil, the garlic clove. basil, tomatoes or tomato sauce. At the end take out the garlic clove, if it has been cooked whole, and the basil leaves. Season the lasagna with two sauces, the red one and the anchovy based one, almonds and toasted bread. No cheese.

Melanzanata di Sant'Oronzo. - The feast day of Sant'Oronzo who is Lecce's patron saint is celebrated on August 24th, 25th and 26th. It is a tradition to eat young cocks, when they have first begun to crow, with eggplant.

The eggplant is cut into slices, floured, dipped into egg and fried, arranged in layers in a crock with tomato sauce and onion. In between each layer put basil and grated pecorino cheese. Bake.

Melanzane alla campagnola. - A speciality of the Taranto. The eggplant is cut as thick as half a finger, left for awhile in a water and salt mixture, dried, roasted on a grate over beech and oak coals, arranged on a serving platter, drenched in uncooked oil, peppered, sprinkled with minced garlic, basil and parsley. Before eating this dish let it sit for at least five hours.

Melanzane ripiene. - Cut the eggplants in two, remove the inside pulp, fill it with a filling made by chopping the pulp taken out, tomatoes, cappers, olives, anchovy fillets and cover it with the soft interior of bread. Put it into a crock, pour oil over it and bake.

Minestra maritata alla foggiana. - Escarole, chicory, wild fennel, celery, each cooked in water separately, drained, placed in layers in a pan with pecorino cheese and meat broth that has been made richer with chopped up bacon in little squares, and baked.

Minestra verde (Green soup). - Traditionally eaten on Shrove Thursday. It is a soup made of hooves or pigs ears, rinds, pigs heads, cauliflower, fennel and celery. In some areas, feet or hooves are substituted for by "induglia" a mixed sausage made of tongue, tripe and other pork chitterlings.

Minestrone di castrato. - This is a speciality of Alessano where sheep are especially flavourful due to the salty pasturage found on the "Capo di Leuca". The mutton is cut into pieces and cooked in sauce with zucchini, potatoes, tomat6es, celery and onions.

'Ncapriata. - A soup of broad beans that have been shelled, and cooked in salted water. When almost cooked they are "razzolate". or stirred and beaten with a wooden spoon to make a puree'; they are dressed with uncooked oil and are served with a side dish of bitter chicory, turnip tops, cooked peppers with tomatoes or boiled "lampasciuni" "'Ncapriata" has different names in different areas but the name it usually has is "favi e fogghi". The Apulians are great broad bean eaters and they have a saying that goes like this: "Of all the vegetables there are, broad beans are the queen, sovereign of all, cooked in the evening, reheated in the morning."

'Ncapriata alla martinese. - Broad bean puree served with boiled "lampasciuni", dressed with oil and sprinkled with browned breadcrumbs.

Orata alla pugliese. - A dory that weighs a kilo and two hectograms' is enough for six people. Other ingredients, fifty grams of grated pecorino cheese, six medium potatoes, three garlic cloves, a big handful of parsley, a big glass of olive oil. Mince the garlic and parsley and dilute it with oil: peel and cut the potatoes into thick slices: clean the dory, and take off the fins, scales, and gills making sure that all the entrails are removed. Pour almost a half of the minced mixture into a big baking pan and then put the potatoes and grated pecorino over that, place the dory on these ingredients, cover it with the remainder of the cheese and the potatoes. Between each layer sprinkle salt and pepper. Then spread the remaining minced mixture over the entire top. Bake in a hot oven for forty minutes.

Orate alla San Nicola. - This means that the dory is prepared the way the inhabitants of the San Nicola district of the old part of Bari like it. Cleaned, washed in seawater, kept awhile in a marinade of oil and lemon, broiled and basted with the marinade. The baby dories that do not weigh more than three hectograms are wrapped in butcher's paper with oil, salt, pepper, whole garlic, and lemon.

Pancotto foggiano. - Country herb soup, herbs cooked with zucchini, green beans, potatoes, some tomatoes, garlic, an onion, and a hot pepper. Before removing it from the fire a stale slice of bread is added. It is seasoned with uncooked oil and fried lard.

The country herbs for this dish are caccialepre, crispigni, borragine, rockets, wild fennel and curly chicory.

Pane purecasciu. - This is a bread that is typical of Lecce where the dough is kneaded with a sauce made of oil, an onion and tomatoes. When cooked it is soft and very tasty. The soft inside that is yellowish has pinkish streaks. Another Lecce bread is called "puccia" and has pitted black olives in it: it is eaten almost like a ritual on the Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Pasta con i peperoni - Pastasciutta (use small macaroni or spaghetti) in a sauce oft tomatoes is served with fleshy peppers that have first been scalded over a flame, then peeled and cut into strips, then quickly browned in a frying pan The pasta can have either pecorino or cacioricotta cheese sprinkled on top.

Patate arraganate. - Sliced potatoes, arranged in layers in a pan with garlic, onion, origanun and olive oil, some water is poured over and it is baked. It is the simplest of the "tielle" (see survey for explanation).

P'deja - The people in Foggia make this Ingredients: ewe or mutton bacon stuffed with pecorino cheese, parsley, hard cooked egg, rolled up, tied with a string, browned in oil and garlic and given a tomato sauce or a covering of fresh tomatoes.

Peperoni alla pizzaiola. - Popular dish on the Salentina Peninsula. Big and fleshy peppers' cut in wide strips, browned in a frying pan and quickly stewed in a chopped mixture of tomatoes, capers, garlic, parsley and origanum.

Peperoni arrotolati. - For a half kilo of yellow big and fleshy peppers, make a filling with a big spoonful of capers, one of pine nuts, one of Sultana raisins, two boned and chopped an anchovies, four big spoonfuls of the soft inside part of bread that has been grated, salt, pepper parsley and olive oil. Scald the peppers over a flame, peel and cut the pulp into rectangles. On each rectangle place a generous amount of filling and make little rollups to then place on an oiled baking sheet. Spread a little oil over them and put them into the oven for a quarter of an hour.

Pe'ttue. - Or "popizze". Yeast dough fritters served as is, or filled with ricotta cheese or anchovies and lightly browned in a lot of oil. They are like Sicilian Crispelle.

Pinne. - These big molluscs belong to the Lamellibranchiata family, have long been, and still are, an appetising first course in the Salentine towns that are on the lonian Sea Riviera. They are eaten raw in a salad with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper and parsley. At one time the molluscs were fished for much more avidly in order to use the filament that they produce to make the well-known bisso.

Pomodori sott'olio. - This tomato dish is a good accompaniment for bread snacks, for first courses, for a side dish for meat or boiled fish. Use ribbed tomatoes and cut them lengthwise, sprinkle them with salt and place them over a reed grating to dry in the sun. It takes at least four days, and every evening you must bring the gratings indoors.

Dip the dried tomatoes in lukewarm vinegar and leave them there for twenty minutes, drain them and keep them in a glass jar in layers with mint leaves and whole garlic cloves in between. layers must be pressed down well so as to eliminate all air pockets. Cover with olive oil and seal the jars hermetically. These tomatoes keep along time.

Puddica - It is the so-called Focaccia (bun) made of yeast dough rolled out to a thickness of one centimetre then dented on the surface with the end of your finger so as to create little indentations that can be filled with slices of tomatoes and thin slices of garlic. Before baking add olive oil, coarse salt, crumbled origanum. Best hot.

Quagghiaridde - It is a speciality typical of Andria. Its ingredients are: mutton belly filled with its chitterlings chopped and mixed with scamorza cheese, eggs and salami. Baked, it is eaten with a side dish of rockets boiled and dressed with the juice that remains after cooking "quagghiaridde"

Ragu' del macellaio - It seems that this stew was first prepared by a thrifty butcher who was concerned about how to best use up the leftovers in his shop; in fact, there are four different kinds of meat in this recipe For four people, four hundred grams of peeled tomatoes, thirty of tomato sauce, eight spoonfuls of olive oil, half an onion, one hundred grams of Iamb, one hundred of veal, one hundred of pork and one hundred of beef, red wine, hot peppers or pepper, two whole cloves, salt to taste. Brown the sliced onion lightly in oil, brown the meat that has been cut into cubes in the same pan and then sprinkle some wine over it repeatedly. Add the tomato pulp and the tomato sauce that has been diluted with hot water, cover the saucepan and lower the flame. Watch the stew carefully and add salt, the hot pepper and the whole cloves. Add a little boiling water every so often. The sauce must remain quite liquid because it will be poured over four hectograms of orecchiette. If home made orecchiette cannot be found, use the conchiglie (shell) pasta manufactured industrially.

Recchie ai tre colori - These are the so-called "orecchiette" cooked with rockets, drained and dressed with a tomato sauce and grated pecorino cheese. The dish takes its name from the white cheese, the green rockets and the red tomatoes.

Recchie a ruchetta e patate. - Rockets, an herb that has aphrodisiac powers is eaten frequently by the Apulians. It is cooked with sliced potatoes and orecchiette and is a very nice soup that is garnished with lightly browned hot peppers and garlic with oil.

Rechie con cime e acciuga. - In this case the orecchiette are boiled with turnip tops and dress them with anchovies that have been mashed in oil Some add a lot of pepper to the anchovies, others, the soft inside of bread crumbs. This is a dish from Bari.

Salsa alla Sangiovanniello. - A dish from Brindisi. Made of olive oil, tomatoes, capers, anchovies, parsley and hot peppers; for spaghetti or penne sauce.

Salsiccia salentina. - For two hundred grains of lean veal meat, five hundred of lean pork, three hundred of pure pork bacon. Grind it, soak it in a glass of dry white wine with salt and pepper and then put it into thin intestines. At Gallipoli they season it with grated lemon rind, pepper mixed with cloves, cinnamon and parsley.

Sangulnaceto all Leccese. - Here is the sanguinaccio recipe discussed in the the introduction. A litre of defibred blood, a hectogram of water, a pork brain, or half a veal brain, salt and pepper to taste.

Wash the brain, blanch it in boiling water, cut it into bits, mix it with the other ingredients. Make it into sausages by using pork intestines twenty centimetres long. Tie each intestine length into two sausages. Place the sanguinaccio in cold water and cook over a moderate flame; it must not boil, but simmer, or the intestines will break. When cooked, they can be eaten hot, cold or, also - after cutting them lengthwise in two - roasted over coals.

Scanata. - The name in Foggia dialect for the large loaf of Apulian bread: it is made of hard grain flour that has been sifted by hand, yeast, water, salt and boiled potatoes; it weighs six kilograms.

Scapece gallipolino. - Tiny fish of the volpini family locally called "pupiddi", fried, mixed with grated bread crumbs and marinated in vinegar in which saffron has been dissolved. This Galflpoli speciality is sold at all the food festivals in salento by street vendors called "scapecieri". Homemade scapece often substitutes garlic and crushed mentuccia (similar to mint leaves) for the saffron.

Scattiata. - This is Tarantine peperonata that goes well with pastasciutta. It is made of minced garlic, parsley, onion, oil, salt, pepper, tomatoes and green peppers that have been cut in half.

Semola battuta. - A dish from Foggia, gnocchetti made with semola type flour, eggs, grated pecorino cheese and chopped parsley, cooked in meat broth or boiled in plain water and served well drained with a thick tomato meat sauce (ragu').

Sgombri alI'aceto. - The cooks in Bari have a special recipe that makes mackerel digestible and appetising. It is cut into fillets and wrapped in canvas. They are placed cold into a casserole with salted water. It is allowed to boil just a little. As they say in Apulia, just long enough to recite the Lord's Prayer. Remove it from the liquid and drain. Place in an earthenware bowl and cover with vinegar. After an hour remove it from the canvas and place it on a platter where it is dressed with oil, crushed mentuccia (mint leaves) and minced garlic. These mackerel can be preserved covered with oil in a glass jar.

Sinepi - In the south of Italy mustard plants are widely used as a green. It has a hot flavour and when boiled it is served drained with raw oil or with fried sardines.

Sogliole gratinate. - Arranged on an oiled baking pan, the sole is salted and sprinkled with minced garlic and parsley, some crumbled origanum, if desired, and covered with grated breadcrumbs and cheese, a cross of oil poured over and baked.

Soppressata martinese. - Cooked wine is a special ingredient in all salted meats from Martina Franca and therefore must also be included in the classical pressed meat dish made of lean meat from a pork leg or steak cut with the point of the knife, mixed with lard cubes, salted and seasoned with hot peppers. This must be cured for some months.

Spaghetti alla zappatora. - Country dish from Foggia that can be made in a jiffy. Boiled, drained spaghetti is seasoned with a lot of chopped garlic and hot peppers. It is like eating fire but it is delicious.

Spiedo martinese. - At Martina Franca they put pieces of lamb and baby goat on the same spit with chunks of veal shank, and sausage meat. The spit should be placed in an oven where the meat can be roasted by an oak or holm oak fire. Do not put anything more than salt on it.

Tarantello. - Salt-meat made with fresh tunny (tuna) cut from the belly. It is prepared in all the southern Italian tunny-fishing areas and takes its name from Taranto, the most ancient tunny market The first mention of tarantello is found on the menu of the dinner given in Rome in 1536 by Cardinal Campeggio in honour of King CarloV.

Tiella di funghi. - A typical dish of the Gargano area. Sliced potatoes, onions, cardoncelli or porcini mushrooms in distinct layers in a pan divided by oil, salt, pepper, and chopped garlic and parsley. The last layer is covered with grated breadcrumbs. Bake.

Torta rustica. - It is made by an envelope of flour dough made with olive oil and dry white wine with a filling of fresh ricotta cheese, mozzarella or scamorza cheese, cooked ham or salami, caciocavallo cheese, and bound with a beaten egg. Baked after being brushed on the surface with egg white and sprinkled with a little fine sugar.

Turde 'n zulze. - "Zulze" is like the ancient Italian "solcio", a gelatin. Whole boiled thrushes placed on a platter to cool are sprinkled with a lot of salt. The upper part of the head is removed and the birds are placed in a little barrel with laurel leaves in between the birds. Then cover with dry white wine that has a high alcoholic content. After a week they' are ready to be eaten.

'U rot - A special dish from Sanicandro Garganico and the towns nearby. The head and chitterlings taken from a lamb, the former is cut two and the latter are reduced to "gnemeridde" and then with sliced potatoes and lampasciuni onions, they are baked in the oven in a copper baking pan called ~

Vermicelli ai granchi. - Specialty frcm Gallipoli. Big rock crabs are stewed in a tomato sauce and then used as a topping for the type of pasta called "vermicelli asciutti".

Zampitti .- Little long sausages as wide around as a finger are made of leftover veal, lamb, and pork pieces and sprinkled with a lot of hot peppers. This can be purchased already roasted in the butcher shops in Laterza, Ginosa, Gioia del Colle and other places, but they are typical of Matera, too.

Zuppa di pesce alla brindisina. - The basic ingredients used are garlic, tomatoes, oil, and parsley with chunks of eel, cernia, dory, dentix, calamaries (squid), cuttlefish, crawfish and black mussels.

At Brindisi, they also prepare "zuppa alla greca" Greek soup with celery, potatoes, onion and sea scorpions which can be accompanied with bread or pasta as you like.

Zuppa di pesce alla gallipolina. - This celebrated soup is considered as the direct descendent of an ancient Spartan broth that a lot of people talk about but no one now alive has ever tasted. It is livened up by a slice or two of tomato, seasoned with onion, and freshened by vinegar. The result is a taste that is sweetish to the palate. In this Gallipoli version, sea scorpions, cernia, sarago, calamaries (squid), imperial crawfish and black mussels, all fish, are used.