Bread in Puglia is unique and treated with the utmost respect.  If a piece of bread is dropped on the floor, peasant people will pick it up immediately, kiss it, and return it to the table for eating.

The typical bread of the Murgia is made with mother yeast and reground durum wheat flour of the highest quality. Taditionally this bread is exclusively baked in wood-burning ovens, where each loaf remains for more than one hour for each kilogram of dough.

Fresh Altamura Bread is delicious with sliced tomatoes and olives of the Puglia region, two products that enhance the breads' flavor. Slices of stale Altamura Bread are used to prepare the "Cialda", a typical soup made with cherry tomatoes, celery, olives and thin slices of bread.

The most traditional form is the low focaccia or puddica.

The frisella or frisedda is a ring-shaped bread which keeps for a long time.

A tarallo or taralluccio is a small biscuit flavored with aniseed or wild fennel.

A variety of pastries and sweets are filled or flavored with rocotta, marzipan, honey or candied fruit.

Italian Gastronomic Heritage