ONE MORNING IN BARI VECCHIA

When you pass the invisible border, when you pass the door a dreamy memory emerges in the mind of the traveler that take him in an Arab casbah (fortress), or in the magnificent Greece.

Buongiorno amici:

Getting lost in narrow and rugged streets is one of my favorite traveling ways. The immersion into someone else world intrigues me and makes me relive my origins in Abruzzo. Take a look at this unscripted video created during a recent visit to the “Orecchiette Alley” in Bari, and you will understand my meaning.

Last week my Puglia Sustainable Food and Life Tour 2022 ended with pleasant sadness and the promise to do it again.

The time we spent together provided strong interaction and an exquisite sense of sharing after being masked and frustrated for a couple of years. On April 29th, we visited the city of Bari. The day also included an afternoon stop to romantic Polignano, followed by a seafood dinner in Monopoli at-il Guazzetto with Chef Mario Dormio.

The old city of Bari, or rather Bari Vecchia, as the people of Bari say, is the oldest part of the city, within the ancient walls, so-called, starting from the nineteenth century, as opposed to the new city (whose construction began in 1813 under the reign of Joachim Murat). Bari Vecchia rests on the peninsula enclosed between the two ports of Bari (the old port and the new port) and bordered to the south by Corso Vittorio Emanuele. In contrast, the new city extends between the railway and the coast, with orthogonal grid roads. Together they form today’s urban center of the city of Bari and are gathered in the 9th district called the Murat district, which is the pulsating center of the Apulian capital city. Between the new and old ports, the ancient city (barivecchia) is closed to the east by the walls that separate it from the seafront and intertwined by a typically medieval urban layout.

The historic center is the first prehistoric settlement originally developed, representing most of the folkloric portions of Bari’s connection to ancient traditions, including the Basilica of San Nicola (12th century), a masterpiece of Apulian Romanesque architecture, built between 1089 and 1197 during the Norman domination.

Legend asserts that a group of sailors returning from the city of Myra in Turkey possessed the remains of St. Nicholas and decided to deposit the relics in a Benedictine abbey on the 9th of May of 1087. Supposedly, the basilica conceals the Holy Grail, the chalice from which Christ drank on the day of the Last Supper with the apostles. Based on this legend Bari was the port from which crusaders and people of fortune left for the holy land, and considered a sacred city resting on the edge of the empire.

Saint Nicholas of Myra is one of the saints to whom Orthodox Christians, especially Russians, reserve a particular devotion. Every Thursday, the Saint is worshiped in the basilica by members of the Western Church and the Eastern Church.

Still, it represents one of the essential points of tourism linked to religious pilgrimages. Being the privileged destination of the two Churches marks the encounter between the Greek Orthodox culture - which has strongly influenced the entire region throughout its history - and the Roman Catholic one. Orthodox celebrations are offered every day of the year in the basilica crypt, next to the saint’s simulacrum.

The centuries-old flow of pilgrims allowed the creation of a “treasure” made up of the gifts (often in precious materials) that they brought to the basilica as a sign of devotion to the saint solemnly venerated by worshipers.

{Image Attribution via La Cucina Italiana}

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Orecchiette pasta recipe

Ingredients for 4

300 g hard wheat semolina flour (10.5 oz) Semola di grano duro

160 g water (5.4 fl. oz) tepid

Two pinch salt plus salt for cooking pasta

Semolina flour for dusting

Procedure

Mound the flour on a pastry board or work surface, make a well in the middle and add the salt. Slowly add the water while incorporating the flour and water together. You can use a scraper to help keep the flour and water together. (I like to start in a bowl, and once I have a dough-like mixture, I turn it out onto a board and start kneading)

Work the dough until no dry flour remains. Then knead until smooth and elastic. About 5-10 minutes. Roll the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Let it rest for about 15-30 minutes. When ready to make the orecchiette, cut off about 1/3-1/4 of the dough and roll it out into a sausage about 10in/25cm in length. Cut the sausage into 1-2 cm (0.4-0.8in) pieces.

Take one piece of dough and a regular dinner knife, hold the knife at a 45-degree angle to your work surface, and then press and roll the dough toward you. Next, unfurl the dough over your thumb opposite and create a concave shape.

Put the ready orecchiette on a baking sheet or tea towel, lightly sprinkled with semolina flour. Repeat with the remaining dough. Your homemade orecchiette can be stored at room temperature overnight. So you can make the pasta the day before cooking and serving.

Notes

When you cook homemade orecchiette, add them to boiling salted water. Once the pasta rises to the surface, let it cook for 2 minutes more. Then remove the orecchiette from the water with a slotted spoon and add to your sauce. It’s best to try the pasta before removing it to make sure it’s cooked.

Book your Sicily Sustainable Food + Life Tour in October 2022

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Thanks for reading. Eat safe and wear a mask! Ciao Chef W

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