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Calzone Pugliese — Baked Pizza Dough Turnover with Onion and Olives
Puglia — calzone pugliese is found throughout the region but is most closely associated with Bari and the Bari province. The onion-olive-anchovy filling reflects the Pugliese Mediterranean pantry: the flavours of the Adriatic (anchovy, olive) combined with the agricultural interior (sweet onions). The baked calzone distinguishes Puglia from the fried Neapolitan tradition.
Calzone pugliese is not the fried calzone fritto of the Neapolitan street tradition but rather a baked, large turnover of leavened pizza dough filled with slow-cooked sweet onions, black Cerignola olives, salted anchovies, and capers — a preparation that is simultaneously a bread, an antipasto, and a meal. The filling is always vegetable-based in the traditional version; the onions are cooked until completely sweet and caramelised before they go inside; the olives and anchovies are the salt and umami notes. Baked in a very hot oven until the crust is golden and blistered, the calzone is then rested and eaten at room temperature — it is never a hot emergency food but a prepared, considered preparation.
Riso, Patate e Cozze alla Pugliese — Layered Rice, Potato and Mussel Bake
Bari and the Taranto coast, Puglia — tiella barese is the emblem of Bari's cucina. The preparation reflects the Adriatic mussel aquaculture tradition of the Taranto lagoon (the Mar Piccolo), which has produced mussels since ancient Greek times. The terracotta tiella is the essential vessel — it gives the dish its name.
Riso, patate e cozze (or tiella barese — named for the terracotta tiella dish) is the defining baked preparation of Bari and the northern Puglia coast: alternating layers of raw Arborio rice, thinly sliced raw potato, and fresh mussels (cozze Tarantine, the mussels of the Taranto lagoon) in their half-shell, seasoned with abundant Pecorino, tomato, onion, parsley, and olive oil, then baked covered until the rice has absorbed all the mussel liquor and the potato beneath has cooked and taken on the mussel's brininess. It is cooked and served in the same terracotta tiella. The preparation requires fresh live mussels — their liquor is what cooks the rice. No other liquid is added.