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ITALY'S
SECRET
by Carole Kotkin
In a little known part of Italy, rich in history and blessed with a tradition of fine cuisine and world-class wine, you will find Apulia (Puglia in Italian).With the Adriatic Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west, this fascinating region occupies the long heel of Italy's boot, including the rocky spur of the Gargano peninsula jutting into the sea.
The nature of
Apulian cheese is remarkable. These are cheeses made by people, not by
machines. Cows, sheep and goats raised by cheese makers themselves produce the
most flavorful milk.A maker has more control over the product and the final
result often has more character than a commercially produced cheese.Even if you
have tasted the most deeply flavored buffalo milk mozzarella, you'll be
overwhelmed by burrata.It is a small wet ball of cow's milk fresh mozzarella
filled with diced mozzarella soaked in cream (the name means buttered.)Many
cheeses in Apulia, like burrata, are
fresh cheeses, ideally meant to be eaten the day they're made.Unfortunately,
this very quality prevents them from
being exported.An essential at Apulian tables is homemade mozzarella or
straw-colored provolone or scamorze, the mild creamy cheeses that hang in ball
and pear shapes in cheese shops.Sheep's milk ricotta forte (so called because
it's been aged for a month); sheep's milk pecorino; provole di bufala; small balls of mozzarella called bocconcini
(little mouthfuls); fresh ricotta; caciocavallo (an aged grating cheese); and
mozzarella are used to flavor many of Apulia's superb dishes, as well as being
delicious to eat on their own.Cheeses like this are memorable.They are not one
dimensional; there are ranges of flavor and texture.Although the ingredients
for making mozzarella are simple: 30-pound blocks of pressed milk curd, water heated to 180 degrees and
salt, the process is exacting and demanding.The curd is cut into strips about a
half-inch wide, then mixed in a bath of very hot water(which releases whey and
some but not all of the butterfat content).Next the curd is salted to promote
elasticity, and pulled and kneaded to
the desired consistency. Then the
pieces of cooked cheese are torn away from the main mass (the name mozzarella
comes from the verb "mozzare," to cut off), and molded into the
familiar egg-shaped pieces, which are dropped into a cold water bath to set.If
you ask the cheesemaker about the amount of water to curd, or the length of
time the cheese is mixed, or the amount of salt, the answer is, "it
depends, it's all by feel and sight." We do have access to genuine
mozzarella imported from Italy within a day or two of its manufacture and
available in good cheese shops.Fresh mozzarella is a splendid eating cheese
with just a drizzle of olive oil or combined with slices of ripe tomato and
fresh basil leaves to make the delicious salad called insalata caprese.
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It is a region where local history, culture and food come together
with charming simplicity. Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, a
non-profit educational food association dedicated to the promotion of the
traditional "old ways" of healthful eating, organized an international
symposium in Apulia to explore
the foods of this undiscovered region. More than 80 food writers, cookbook
authors, chefs, teachers and retailers traveled with Oldways to study the
region's cuisine and wine. The humble food of Apulia often referred to as
cucina povera, the cuisine of poverty, is celebrated as one of the best
examples of the healthy Mediterranean Diet. Patience Gray, author of Honey from
a Weed, says, "In Puglia, there is a feeling of being marooned in an older
kind of time."This is a place where country women still bake bread once a
week in masonry ovens built into the walls of their old stone farmhouses, where
the olive oil on the table, the wine in the glass, the slice of velvety cheese,
are all produced by the family. Paola Pettini, an Apulian cooking teacher and writer, says, "We don't make a dish
from a recipe; rather we create it from what we have on hand, what is growing
on the land at the moment. We eat what is ripe." 
Their olive
groves, their vineyards, their pigs, and their gardens all contribute to the
goodness of their table.As a result of these riches, locals and visitors alike
feast on a seemingly endless range of rustic, regional dishes.Symposium advisor
Nancy Harmon Jenkins who has written Flavors of Puglia, says, "For all the
richness of its history, however, Puglia is, and has always been, a land of poverty,
a land of emigration.Thousands of Pugliese left their villages for America in
the early years of this century, many of them never to return.Almost everyone
you meet in Puglia has cousins in America, and if you say you're from there,
most people have a tale to tell." 
Apulia was
heavily influenced by the Greeks who occupied Apulia more than three thousand
years ago and, to a lesser extent, the Arabs; and it is the richest of the
southern regions.It is also the land of trulli, the unique whitewashed round
houses with conical roofs that are built of limestone blocks without mortar.
Apulia also produces the most olive oil and wine in Italy. My eye rested on little else other than rows of
grape vines or silver-leafed olive trees while driving through the countryside.A hundred years ago, shepherds
ruled the countryside. Then wheat was sown, and the region now resembles a huge
patchwork quilt of green and gold.Golden wheat, green vegetable and fruit
fields, and the shining white stone of ancient buildings dot a landscape that
resembles Greece.Within this greenery lies an outstanding array of vegetables
and fruits that are eaten only in season like fava beans, artichokes, broccoli,
eggplants, sweet peppers, tomatoes, citrus, figs, along with wild pungent
greens such as chicory or cicorielle, wild hyacinth bulbs or lampascione,
arugula, and dandelion.Vegetables have the leading role in the Apulian diet,
with other foods making up the supporting cast.Most cooks shop daily and demand
top-quality seasonal produce at its peak.The connection between vegetables and
other foods is dense, fruity, peppery extra-virgin olive oil. Apulia produces
20% of the world's olive oil and 43% of Italy's olive oil. 
So what does one
eat with the vegetables? Pasta, of course; in particular orecchiette or
"little ears," the typical pasta of this region.It's made with hard
flour and water rolled into sausage shapes and then cut into little disks with
a knife.They are then pressed with a thumb to resemble little ears that catch
and hold the pasta sauce.While a percentage of this pasta is made by machine,
much of it is still made by hand-especially by the hands of older women.In
Bari, in the summer, the women like to sit outside rolling and shaping the
noodles on wooden boards following a ritual that goes back many hundreds of
years. Apulians eat some form of pasta almost every day.In addition to the
orecchiette, they eat the usual noodles and lasagna, minuicchi, small gnocchi
made with flour dough; and laganelle, small stuffed lasagna.The pasta dough is
also used to make several kinds of pizze and small pies.One of these is
panzarotti, a wrapper of dough filled with Ricotta, Mozzarella or
onions.According to legend, the citizens of Bari felt so ardently about their
pasta that they once revolted to defend it. The uprising started in 1547 when the ruling Spaniards, having taxed
everything else they could think of, struck upon the immediately unpopular idea
of taxing flour. After a week of fighting, the Spaniards abolished the
tax. Making the pasta may be time
consuming, but Apulian sauces are simple, barely cooked and usually made from
vegetables-barely cooked tomatoes; creamy ricotta; toasted breadcrumbs and
garlic; broccoli and cauliflower, beans and chickpeas, fennel and arugula.
Benedetto Cavalieri, a local pasta maker, is reviving the art of pressing the
hard durum flour through bronze-rather than teflon-molds, which creates a rough
surface that holds sauces better.His factory still makes dried pasta the way it
did 80 years ago.While some large factories blast the pasta with high heat to
dry it, they use "solar" temperature, which imitates the gentle
drying that would occur if the pasta were set out in the sun. And now,
Cavalieri pasta, with its interesting shapes and charming old labels, is just
coming into the United States. 
The average per
capita consumption of bread in Italy is at least double that in America (if you
include pasta as a bread product).Bread in Apulia is given almost reverential
treatment. If a piece of bread
is dropped on the floor, peasant people will pick it up immediately, kiss it,
and return it to the table for eating.Apulian bread is not made with commercial
yeast, but from yeast produced in households that has been in use for generations.Dough
made with this yeast is slower to rise than that made with commercial yeast and
has a chance to develop a better flavor.Carol Field, author of The Italian
Baker, and a member of our delegation, remarks, "The tastes and shapes of
Italian breads are fragrant reminders of a tradition of baking that is older
than the Roman monuments and Romanesque cathedrals that we rush to Europe to
see." In Apulia, as in much of the rest of the world, the homemade loaf is
beginning to lose out to the commercial product.But in Altamura I found what is
possibly Italy's best bread: large
heavy wheels with burnished brown crusts baked in a 300 year-old oak wood-fired
oven from centuries-old sourdough starter."Using a wood-fired brick oven
with a stone surface is about the most difficult way to bake
bread,"Giuseppe Barile, President of the Bread Consortium of Altamura,
tells me, "But it's also the best way."He and other bakers of Apulia
would like to have a D.O.P. (Denomination of Origin of Production) classification
for their breads just as winemakers have their D.O.C. (Denomination of
Controlled Origin) on their wine labels guaranteeing the wine was made under
carefully controlled conditions in accordance with traditional
procedures.Altamura bread is made with ingredients and techniques almost unchanged since the baker's guild was
formed in the middle ages.I watched as bakers shaped huge rounds of fragrant
country bread made with high-quality hard wheat flour grown in the region and a
good amount of water.It is given three risings, then baked slowly at gradually
decreasing temperatures to allow the moisture to evaporate and the bread to
cook through without burning the crust.The loaf will last for several days and
even improves with time. Altamura is known as "the city of bread",
and other breads are produced here as well: Ciambella, a large bread ring with
a small hole that is cut open after it is baked and dried out in the oven; a
variety of focaccia (the name comes from "focus", Latin for hearth).
And, aptly, the best focaccia is hearth-baked, imparting a hint of smoked
flavor.There are infinite toppings-everything from simple olive oil and salt,
herbs, and garlic to onions, tomatoes,
peppers and cheese.Like wine, bread reflects the personality of its maker as
well as the history, climate and lifestyle of its region.
With their long
coastline it's not surprising that Apulians prepare a multitude of fish
specialties.Of its five regional capitals, three-Bari, Brindisi and Taranto-are
on the sea. Italy's major oyster beds are located here. Some are caught by fleets of trawlers or by
offshore fishermen, others are cultivated close to shore.In Taranto, for
example, oysters and other mollusks spawn in the very heart of the city in the
Mar Piccolo and Mar Grande, where they remain for eighteen months until they
have fully matured. Another favorite
dish, a specialty of Bari, is polpi arriciati (curled octopus).Triglie coi
baffi (red mullet) is enjoyed in Poligano, and fish soups, stuffed mussels and
squid stew are other delicacies of this culinary-conscious region. 
A
gratifying meal could begin with eggplant stuffed with Pecorino.First course
choices might include the most famous dish from Apulia, fava bean puree with
sauteed chicory and olive oil, and
hand-formed pastas such as orecchiette and frusciuddati (short, hand rolled
cylinders) sauced with a variety of vegetables such as tomatoes, broccoli,
zucchini, and even potatoes.A main-course might be lamb or kid roasted in a
woodburning oven or braised salt cod with tangy black olives from local
trees.Cheese and uncomplicated desserts such as almond tart, fruit or biscotti would finish off the meal. 
With its
tradition of first-rate (if unpretentious) food, it is hardly surprising that
Apulia is full of good restaurants of every type. The best eating in the region,
may be found in the superb trattorias and casual restaurants with which
virtually every town is populated. Skip the tourist places with menus in four
languages. Instead, explore back streets, the beautiful medieval and
Renaissance towns as well as vineyards and olive groves to relish an endless
variety of grilled and fried Adriatic seafood, fried squash blossoms, roasted
potatoes, pastas and pizzas. Some of the finest restaurants in Apulia are in
the cities, but as many or more are elsewhere, often in places where you least
expect to find that ideal mix of unbelievably good simple food, enchanting
surroundings, and good wine. Making
this kind of magic happens to be one of Apulia's special talents.