What else to eat in Puglia | My Italy with Margarita

Italian cuisine is Italy's gift to the world. From top to toe, the map of Italy is a patchwork of gastronomic treasures that come not from a tradition of great chefs, but from beloved family recipes. Italy is the home of slow food and Italian cuisine is largely about regional cooking. From one region to the next, produce, recipes and traditions vary. Labels like DOP, DOCG and IGP guarantee that certain products are harvested from a specific area and made by local farmers and artisans. But labels aside, the essence of Italian cuisine is in its simplicity, in how a few modest ingredients can come together to create something magical. And this is what keeps us coming back for more. Do come and join me. Let's get to know the people behind the produce. Let's step inside Italian kitchens. Let's eat the best of Italy from top to toe. I'm Margherita Forres and this is my Italy. What comes to mind upon seeing these curious stone structures? A sci-fi movie? Another planet? A different dimension? Unique to Alberobello in the Apulia region of southern Italy are these conical trulli houses, completely made of stone that date back to the 15th century. Why were these houses built this way? One reason was to avoid taxes. So the story goes that when the taxman from Naples was about to visit, residents would go to the top of the house and pull the stone plug that held the stones together. With no cement to bind the stones, the roof would collapse. And because there was no structure standing, there was no tax to be paid. When the taxman left, the houses would go up again. Back then, there were almost 3,500 trulli houses. Today, there are only a handful left, but it's still a sight to see. Many trulli houses still belong to their original owners, but have now been transformed into shops and restaurants. Domenico and his two sons, Luca and Marco, transformed their family home into Ristorante La Rattro some 31 years ago. The restaurant is a series of rooms and passages, inhabited for centuries by their ancestors. Domenico is proud to serve traditional Apulian recipes at La Rattro. The restaurant is a member of the slow food movement, and Domenico is a firm believer in chilometro zero. There are probably more pasta shapes than there are dialects in Italy. Here in Puglia, the most common are fricelli, cavatelli, cavatellucci, and the most famous Caterina has been making pasta for 42 years. Today, I'm lucky to be her student. So you know the dough is warm like a baby because Caterina made the dough with 90 degree boiling water. I said it's better than a machine. You know what this is? This is the metal inside the umbrella, and this is what they use to shape the pasta. Okay, I'm going to try to make the fricelli now. Okay. Okay, cut. It looked so simple with Caterina doing it, but it's really tough to do. It's a lot about timing. If you don't do it fast enough, it sticks to this. So I'm going to try again. Okay. Domenico said that these two shapes are very, very special here for them, especially for family occasions, because when a couple gets married, okay, the fricelli is dedicated to the man, to the groom, the sposo, and the cavatelli is dedicated to the bride. Then after the two are dedicated, they make little cavatellucci. So now they're going to show me how to make orecchiette, which is going to be very challenging, but I'll try. Cut a piece of dough with a knife on your right hand, but you... Push and cut. I said it's not an ear. The pasta is brought to the kitchen where Marco is waiting to cook them using recipes he's known all his life. Cavatellucci con cozze e fagioli. So this is a wonderful soup made with red beans, mussels, and the cavatellucci that we made earlier by hand, and it's just so delicious, very simple. It's with a good oil and the onions. Like Domenico says, I mean, you don't have to do much, no? Because it's done by the family, and family means love. See, that's true. When there's family, there's love. Orecchiette con cime di rapa is the most classic pasta dish in the region of Apulia. Like the best Italian recipes, it's a simple dish with very few ingredients. Olive oil, garlic, anchovies, and the very seasonal cime di rapa, and a handful of breadcrumbs. But it's how the ingredients melt into each other, creating its own set of flavors. That's what makes this Apulian classic so wonderful. There's a reason why the orecchiette is shaped like little ears. This is so that it scoops up more of the sauce. Grazie di cuore. Domenico says he opened his home together with Marco and Luca, and his better half, his wife. It warms our hearts because we can feel l'amore. A few kilometers from Alberobello, also in Apulia, is the sleepy town of Altamura. But don't let looks deceive you. Here are three dynamic things about Altamura. 1. The town forced a giant global fast food chain out of business. After realizing that the locals still preferred their own bread, the fast food chain closed shop and quietly left town. 2. Altamura is the home of the first Italian bread to be given DOP status or protected designation of origin. 3. In a small town like Altamura, there are over 58 bakeries. Panetteria Petronella is one of the 58 bakeries in Altamura, and there is always a line. Customers come and go, and the gigantic oven churns out more bread than I thought possible. 16 square meters is bigger than most hotel rooms. In that cavernous oven, it is possible to bake 200 kilos of bread. Right now, 200 loaves of pane di Altamura are slowly baking to a crisp golden brown. Pane di Altamura, or the bread of Altamura, is not a dainty or pretty kind of bread. It's quite the opposite. It's huge, with the weirdest shape and the hardest crust. It is also quite famous thanks to its DOP status. But what makes this bread so special? It begins with the wheat. Puglia has vast wheat fields that produce amazing amounts of durum wheat. Pane di Altamura uses 100% durum wheat flour, which absorbs more water than ordinary flour. It also has more antioxidants than white flour, therefore higher nutritional value. And it is said to taste better. The original pane di Altamura was a giant of a bread weighing 3 kilos. Farmers would take this with them when they worked in the fields for a good number of days. The bread could keep for up to 15 days thanks to its thick crust and the properties of durum wheat. Today, bakeries like Petronella bake them in 1 kilo sizes. It's your bread! That's yours? This is mine? Does it look the same? It doesn't look the same! We're gonna see now if my bread passes the test. The crunch! The sound of the crunch is amazing. That's the crust of the pane from Altamura. I'm surprised by the denseness of the dough and the yellow color because of the durum wheat. But what is really impressive is the smoky, sweet taste without the acidity. Amazing, the crust from a wood-burning oven and the beautiful farina from here. And the wood, also the wood, no? Michele says that you can smell the aroma of the wood that they use in the crust and it's unique to them because that's the only kind that they use in their oven. And that's what makes the bread in this city so unique and in their bakery so unique. Michele and I chat about what else they bake. He tells me about their pastitio and focaccia and make it sound so delicious that I ask if he would be willing to show me how they're done. Without hesitating, he leads the way back to the work table. Together we make pastitio, a savory pie of bacala, onions, anchovies and olives. That's nice. He says that every bite of the pastitio is different because it has different amounts of cod, different amounts of onion and different amounts of olive with every bite. So each bite is a different flavor. Isn't that amazing? Just from this little one focaccia. And then Giovanni shows me how they make their focaccia at Petronella. Stop. Okay. Stop. Okay. I said not bad. The same dough is used for the pane di altamura, the pastitio and the focaccia. It's just the amount of olive oil, the handling of the dough and the amount of time for each to rise that differs. Michele and Giovanni are third generation bakers. Their father Pasquale works with them and their grandfather Michele began the craft. So the two of them actually needed just one more exam to finish their business course in college but they decided not to finish it and they decided to come back and work with bread because like he said he has flour inside his veins, not blood but flour. It's not hard to believe. Our pastitio and our focaccia are ready and Giovanni though is going to let me in on a secret. When you take these breads out of the oven. Hope you're paying attention because it's a eureka moment. You must flip your focaccia so that it not only cooks and browns evenly but develops a crust outside while staying moist inside. This is my focaccia. Look at how it's risen so much and then look crunchy on the outside That's it there you go. Look at me showing off the focaccia that I made. Not bad ah? Typical of a wood burning oven. Crunchy on the bottom a little bit crunchy on the top. But super moist and delicious in the middle. Vito Di Cecca and I first met through Instagram. I was impressed with his work and sent him a message if I could drop in on him and his brothers if ever I found myself in Altamura. And one day I found myself in Altamura. So nice to see you. Vito is one of three Di Cecca brothers whose mission is to bring burrata to the world. So today we're gonna make the famous burrata cheese. Vito, Paolo and Angelo now known as the burrata brothers have traveled far and wide both to unleash their wanderlust and to spread the gospel of cheese. But no matter how far they go or how long they stay away they have always returned to Altamura and their beloved Caseficio. Burrata originated from the Apulian city of Andria not too far from Altamura in the early 1900s. It slowly gained popularity within the region and recently it has become a hot item in many restaurants around the world. Forget about store-bought burrata with a shelf life of more than two days. When you've tasted the real thing there's no turning back. Our burrata is made from fresh cream. So you cannot lease for two weeks, one week. This is a product that you eat like in one today. I think you can make good burrata everywhere in the world. You just need the right milk, the happy cow because we keep working on this. Only a happy cow can produce good milk which is essential in making a good burrata. Caseficio de Checa has been getting milk from the same families for 55 years. If you take it apart you'll see that there's three parts to a burrata. There's the smooth outer layer which is spun and molded into a sack. Then there's stracciatella or shredded mozzarella that is taken apart by hand. This is like the mozzarella. This is the same cut. We just stretch it like that and we add that to our cream. So right here. Stracciatella swimming in cream. The sack with the stracciatella and the fresh cream is sealed and put in a water bath. And while the brothers make cheese in the back room, the sisters Vittoria and Maristella man the front of the house. Vito says customers come for traditional cheeses like burrata and caciocavallo. But lately they've been curious about their other creations. Cheese is not a museum. It needs to evolve. Take this blue cheese, vino rosso and cranberry creation for example. A special cheese for a special occasion. I didn't know how to ask how to manage her. I didn't know how to propose. So I was thinking to do a cheese that I dedicated for her. And it's a blue cheese because she has blue eyes. Aged in her favorite wine that is a primitivo wine from Puglia. Oh that's so sweet. For 100 days and then I top it with cranberry. I can feel the wine. No it's very nice because the sweetness of the cranberry just complements the The cheese is still around but the marriage has expired. But that's another story for another time. I notice there is a focaccia on the table. And when I look closely I recognize it from Panetteria Petronella. How cool is that? Before I could ask Vito why there's focaccia, he tells me a story. When I was going to school, when everyone was eating like a brioche, my father was preparing me this with burrata on top. You know the little kids they were starting laughing at me. But then I make them try it and I was bringing this for all the school. After a while you were giving it to all of them? Oh my gosh. And then I understand why we have a focaccia. Vito has thought of something wild to reinvent the focaccia. I go? Yeah go. Sure. Oh my god. Now that's a Vito classic. Yeah this is like a classic. And it was also quite good. So wait Vito, this is your wedding cake? Well this is mine and yours as well. I'm gonna make you a wedding cake like that. If I get married. Okay okay make me one like this. And I really want the heart on top. Vito and I have a good laugh clowning around with a wedding cake made of cheese. Before I leave we lock a date for when the Burrata brothers will come to Manila to spread the gospel of cheese. Now all I have to do is look for some happy cows.