1 June 2017 Sant’Antonio D’Ascula

Sorry for missing yesterday. It was an honest mistake. I became Pugliese, if only for one day, and got back to our home late in the night, so I was too tired to write. See, the way things work here (and now I get it) is that it’s June now, so it’s really effing hot here. And it’s Italy, so shops and businesses are open in the morning, then they close for several hours in the middle of the day, then they reopen later in the afternoon. In Puglia, stuff opens quite late in the afternoon – around 5pm. In other places we’ve been (read: in the north), stuff generally opens around 3:30-4pm, which is still weird for Americans, but c’est la vie or something. But it’s later in Puglia. And people here eat dinner a lot later too. 10pm is normal. 9pm is early. 8pm is senior citizen/foreigner. We had dinner over the holidays here in Puglia with part of my family. The reservation was for 9pm, as I recall. Of course, Husband and I were exactly on time and arrived first. And we were literally (in the literal sense of the word) the only people in the restaurant. Our family people arrived shortly thereafter and we were all still the only ones in the restaurant. 10pm rolled around. We were (not literally, but close) still the only one’s there. By 10:30pm, the place was packed. Packed. And not two big groups of 20 or something, but regular people out for dinner before the holiday. Packed. So this is really a thing. And in the winter, it just seems really messed up. It’s dark, it’s cold, it might even be raining… who knows. But it’s winter, so it seems really late to be eating dinner. Now that we are experiencing Puglia in the Almost Summer (AS), I get it. It’s hot here, you guys. This whole thing about closing up shop during the heat of the day, then opening up a bit later, when it starts cooling off, then having dinner at 9 or 10 pm? Totally makes sense. It’s not like I could live like this (I’d probably eat too many snacks, to be honest… also it’s really hot) forever, but it works. It makes sense. For us “walkers” or “step obsessed” folk, it’s kind of a nightmare, honestly. Between about noon (maybe earlier) and 4pm, it’s ridiculously warm outside, so walking around is awful. The shade is actually quite a bit better, but sometimes finding shade can be hard. So maybe you go for a short walk in the morning (which, by the way, already seems really hot because the sun is out and there are no clouds or anything… so yeah, it’s already hot in the morning. I’m sweating while I make breakfast and have since switched to “cold/no cook breakfast” because I can’t deal. Being sweaty before my shower is just gross.) and that walk gives you something, but it’s in the fucking full sun, so it’s stupid. And then you have lunch. And it’s nice. And sitting outside in the shady roof garden is really nice because there’s shade and a breeze. But now it’s like 2:30pm and you have about 5 steps. So we drive somewhere. And in today’s case, we drove almost 2 hours (construction, you guys… and traffic) and then tried getting steps. It wasn’t too bad. We found shade and it did cool off and it was nice. We also found bread (more on that in a minute). But, by the time we got enough steps (which really wasn’t enough, but had to do), it was already 6pm. And quite pleasant. So we didn’t get back to our apartment until 8pm ish. And then it was time to water the plants and take in the laundry (which, incidentally, dried in less time than a) it took to wash and b) than any dryer anywhere). And then there were cocktails and bread samples (I swear, I’ll get to the bread in a minute). And fast forward and we eat our dinner at 10pm. I get it now, Puglia! It’s genius really. I am no longer a morning person, so thanks for that… <sigh> It’s too hot during the day to do anything and so you do stuff like errands and what not during the afternoon. By the time all that is done, it’s 10pm and time for dinner. Got it. It was my theory, but it made no sense in the winter. None at all. Still doesn’t. Although I am missing espressino (it’s too hot, man!).

Pane di Altamura

I probably should write more on this, but it’s late and I am getting tired (nearly Pugliese now, except still tired and ready for bed at 9:30pm)… but… Ok, so you know I’ve been baking bread (both of us have). And, apart from Panettone, the other bread I have been trying is Pugliese bread, which is so delicious. It’s made from the hard durum wheat, which probably means something important, but I don’t really know. I know it’s not a tender “tipo 00” which is what they use to make pasta in Bologna and other regions of Italy. Here in the south, the durum is more common, so they make bread from it. And it’s one of those good crusty, chewy breads. It’s like the Italian bread you probably find in the shops at home. Because I know we don’t find Tuscan bread or bread from Bologna because both of those are not very good. Tuscan bread lacks salt… and by “lacks” I mean “has literally no salt”, so it’s weird. I kind of like it because it reminds me of when I was a child traveling in Italy with my family. But generally speaking, it’s bland. It’s got a good texture though. Bolognese bread is just awful. It’s got a horrible texture, which isn’t made up for in flavor or anything. So we did notice that they sell Pugliese bread in the bakeries because… yeah, it’s way better. And the Bolognese are particular about good food.

Anyway… so, in my research on Pugliese bread, I found that Altamura is famous for bread and that it’s supposed to be the “best bread in Italy… maybe the world.” And I really do like the Pugliese style bread. It’s soft and chewy and crunchy thick crust. So I figured I’d love this bread. It’s famous after all! And it’s the only DOP (look, sorry, it’s a bit much for me to look this up at the moment) bread in Italy. This generally means there are a lot of detailed rules and specifications for this bread. Stuff like… the wheat has to be grown in the area of Altamura. The crust has to be a certain number of millimeters thick. And probably a bunch of other stuff, but I don’t know the rules.

So.

We decided that we would definitely visit this place (note that you can get this bread all over Puglia — the grocery store we’ve been going to lately even has it) and try the bread. So the DOP. Yeah, we looked up where the DOP was sold and also we found the “oldest” forno (oven) in Altamura. And I said something like… I can’t really imagine going into the oldest forno shop (it’s really small) and saying “we’d like a pane di Altamura, but is it DOP?” and them saying “no” and us walking out. I just don’t see that happening, so we decided to try two. One from the allegedly oldest forno in Altamura (Santa Chiara) and the other from another forno, the name I’ve forgotten right now. The small old place was really warm, because the wood oven is literally right in the shop. The DOP place was more slick. It had brochures on DOP and stuff like that. So we now have two loaves of Pane Di Altamura. And we tried them both. And they are both quite yummy. They have crispy crusts, they were actually very easy to cut, and the insides are nice and soft. From my limited knowledge, the bread is very high hydration, which means it’s really wet and slack and probably very hard to handle and shape. But it makes for a very nice soft, chewy dough. My verdict is that the DOP was just slightly better because it had more salt, so the flavor came through better. It was more complex… more fermented. Actually, I’m not sure that this is the case, but it had more salt, so I could taste it better, so I liked it more. Except that I think I liked the crust of the non-DOP better because it was a wee bit crispier. Both were good though.

But.

Not necessarily better than the version of Pugliese I’ve been making. Mine is pretty damn good, I must say. The texture of mine is different… maybe because it’s not as high hydration (more research is required)… but it’s a little more chewy. But the flavor of mine is really nice. And this little adventure just makes me feel like I’m making some pretty damn good bread lately. And that’s nice to know.

So there you have it. Altamura bread is really good. Not necessarily the best bread ever, but really good. I like my bread a lot too. And Husband was saying there’s nothing we’ve had that can really beat a French traditional baguette. And he’s right. Those baguettes were awesome. Those were the best bread I’ve had in recent memory. Although, I like to think I could make those too. But I don’t exactly have the right equipment at the moment. But holy shit, you guys, the French know bread. Great stuff. I love trying new things!!

Also, I should mention that we had a fun day yesterday with our friend, Giuseppe, from Puglia. We met in Martina Franca, then went to Cisternino and explored and had coffee under the bell tower. Then delicious aperitivo and dinner back in Martina Franca. Very nice town. Very good friend. 

I had been obsessing about finding a few “summery” clothes too, so in the morning, we popped over to Locorotondo to swing by a mall to get a few things. We got some breezy tops and bottoms. Relief! Now we welljust need to find swimwear soon. Ugh…