Tasting Itinerary

The journey through the delectable “temptations” of our territory is definitely an alternative holiday but also a valuable opportunity to learn about the best companies, meet the producers, understand an ancient culture and shop for quality products to be enjoyed in the months following the trip.

The extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is one of the musts of the Apulian cuisine and particularly in the territory of Andria is produced one of the most famous oils of Italy, intensely flavored and scented.
Ancient mills, as well as that of the latest generation, dot the land and the vast expanses of centuries-old olive trees. Often these mills promote their oil by organizing events with tasting of local products and participate in an especially scrumptious experience. Among the typical Andria products which go well with the extra virgin olive oil is the burrata, a pouch of smooth white spun dough enclosing strips of mozzarella and cream. To scoop up the creamy core of the burrata, we could use a slice of good semolina bread or a soft, rustic focaccia.

On holidays, the queen of the dinner tables in our area is the fresh homemade pasta, prepared by skilled hands that can derive from a mixture of water and semolina flour the most imaginative forms, all rigorously cataloged and with precise rules to be respected; the strascinate, the cicatedde, the cavatelli, the orecchiette, are the traditional formats – depending on the cavity, roughness and thickness, designed to accommodate all the sauces and seasonings … and woe to breaking the rules! The turnip tops can be enjoyed only with orecchiette! The cavatelli go with legumes and seafood!

For an important anniversary, a meat sauce in which are cooked, very slowly, braciolette, that is, horse meat rolls stuffed with bacon, garlic, parsley and pecorino cheese; the sauce will also be served with the orecchiette pasta.
Great is the variety of vegetables and frugal dishes, evidence of a deep-rooted rural culture.
Our Murgia region is famous for the cardoncello mushroom and to taste it, prepared to perfection, you have to go to Minervino Murge, perhaps on the occasion of the Cardoncello Festival, when the taverns and the local farms compete in the number of courses to be offered to lucky diners.
The lampascioni are small onions with a slightly bitter taste and are great when fried and seasoned with cooked wine, or with eggs and pecorino cheese.

Fave e Cicoria (fava beans and chicory) is a very old dish.  It consists of puréed fava beans accompanied by wild chicory and seems to have been one of Pythagoras’ favorite dishes.

The traditional main courses are, in the whole territory of Alta Murgia, mostly based on sheep and horse meat. In Corato, the braciole are of donkey meat.  There, they also cook an excellent tripe in tomato sauce. As a vegetarian alternative, there is the calzone with onions – a pastry dough stuffed with steamed onion, salted anchovies, black olives and raisins.

There are many traditional desserts to round off our culinary tour: cartellate with cooked wine, the panzerottini (folded pastries) filled with jam, pastries made with almonds to taste with the excellent Moscato di Trani, a sweet wine and DOC liqueur with a golden color obtained after a long maceration of the grapes.

But if you have to celebrate a very special occasion, go to Andria to choose the most delicious confetti sweets! They are produced strictly following artisan techniques, using fine chocolate, and the highest quality hazelnuts and almonds.

And only then can we consider our journey concluded through the tasty temptations of our land!

Tips

Where to buy

• Taralli Calt
  online selling
• La Puglia in Tavola
  distance 14,6 Km, about 14 minutes by car