Food

Easter recipes in Puglia

TIELLA-PUGLIESE
Written by EFW Staff

The best Easter recipes in Puglia

Easter in Puglia is a triumph of traditional recipes due to give value to the natural flavours coming from the land, besides a rich variety of typical products connected to this celebration. Here you can find a bite of some Easter recipes in Puglia that are tasted around a lavish table during this celebration.

“Scarcelle”

scarcelle-890x570

Scarcelle belongs to the big family of the Easter desserts and Puglia has a wide dessert tradition tied to these feast days with a long historic tradition. Scarcelle or scarielle, are called like this because of their original donut shape, called “scarsella” in the local dialect. Actually, now these desserts have a great variety of shapes, from simple round biscuits to the beautiful twists or small doves. They are decorated with a white icing and sprinkles but their peculiarity, that reminds other Easter desserts from South Italy, is the eggs nestled in the dough. The raw eggs will cook in the oven together with the dough as a symbol of fertility.

“Propati della Zita”

SDC161691

Another dessert of Easter in Puglia is Propato della Zita, typical of Gargano, with a strong perfume of honey, cinnamon and orange zest. The story says that the name derives from the Albanian, as a trace of the Albanians that arrived in Gargano from the sea mixing their linguistics and culinary traditions with the people of Puglia. Propati are a kind of donuts made of a hard and leavened dough with mother yeast. Once cooked they are fragrant and tasty and they can be served at the end of the meal, perfect if dunked in a red wine.
Porpato, in the past centuries was prepared and gave to friends and relatives in the wedding day of a relative, but also in occasion of baptisms or confirmations. It is a dessert that represents a gift and a wish of good luck.

“Tiella” with rice, potatoes and mussels

KEUVMNTFCO40651

If you haven’t already tried this dish, don’t lose time! It is one of the most delicious recipes of Italy. A pan filled with layers of rice, sliced potatoes and opened mussels, covered with water and cooked in the oven.
This speciality of Bari was a simple dish prepared to feed the peasants after their work on the fields thanks to the energy of carbohydrates, potatoes and rice, but also vegetables. Then, it reached the coasts where the use of mussels was introduced.
Tiella was the terracotta pan in which the ingredients where cooked, laying on the steaming embers that covered it even on the top. The cooking, similar to an oven, was perfect to intensify aromas and tastes.

“Brodetto”: lamb with egg and beans

xO8P1psHMrseIkTw3BOZP2I5FFaRdqwpNNkSVFVqlykLa0r7liQ

The dish par excellence on the tables of Puglia, more precisely on the tables of Foggia, mix eggs and lamb, the two main Easter symbols of the Christian religion. “Brodetto di Pasqua” foresees the lamb cut in pieces, stewed with beans and white wine. At the end of the cooking the meat is seasoned with scrambled eggs and pecorino cheese to create a thick and tasty cream. This dish has a long tradition, it is cooked in different areas of Puglia, beloved in the area of Foggia and Murge, in particular in Trani, where it is called Benedetto.

About the author

EFW Staff