Sporcamuss Pugliesi con Crema Pasticcera e Miele
Bari, Puglia
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The working recipe — the Market List, the Method, and where it lives or dies
I
Origin
Bari and Altamura, Puglia
II
Description
Literally 'dirty mouth' — sfoglia di pasta sfoglia (pre-baked puff pastry sheets) layered with crema pasticcera (vanilla pastry cream) and fried in olive oil until the pastry blisters and the cream begins to caramelise at the edges. Eaten standing, from paper, at the bakery — the cream inevitably escapes and 'dirties' the mouth. A Pugliese street pastry specific to the Altamura and Bari areas, made with the local olive oil rather than butter for frying, giving a distinctively different crispness.
III
The Thread
—Puff pastry layered with pastry cream — the French version is baked (not fried) and has more precise assembly French
—A thin pastry shell containing a custard cream — the structural parallel in individual-portion Portuguese tradition Portuguese
—Pastry enclosing a cooked cream, eaten hot — the Campanian cousin of the Pugliese sporcamuss Neapolitan
IV
Flavour Context
Shatteringly crisp olive oil-fried puff pastry with molten vanilla cream escaping at the edges — the most honestly named pastry in Italy, designed to be eaten standing and enjoyed messily
Pillars V — VII
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