Italian food history IS the history of Italy.
It is oven baked , then cut in half horizontally and it Is then baked again in the oven. The looks of the frisella is with one smooth and one rough surface.
Friselle are a staple food that was produced and acclaimed for its long conservation period and was therefore a valid alternative to bread, especially in those periods when flour was scarce.
The name with which friselle are also know in Apulia is Pane dei Crociati (Crusaders' bread) as it was certainly used to equip the christian expeditions in their long travellings.
A tradition for its consumption, from times past, was to dip freselle directly with sea water and with pure fresh tomato, which was squeezed to let the juices out.
If you're wandering why the circular shape, it was not for the esthetics: the hole at their center, allowed the friselle to be practically transported with a cord that was passed through them to form a sort of collier : that way they could either be hung for conservation or for comfortable transportation.
But, why do Italians eat so well?
As it might have become a familiar image to you, also in the Salento tradition, bread baking was done according to a common schedule at shared ovens. Bread could be baked bi-weekly or with an up to more than quarterly frequency, so that the quantity of the dough that a single family (or more families together, even) could amount to up to 200 Kilograms.
Only a small portion of the total quantity was baked in softer bread to be consumed in the very first days, more often than not with the addition of ingredients like pumpkin seeds, olives, onion, is sliceable forms.
The rest of the dough, though, was reserved for the production of the friselle, which allowed for longer bread-making periods.
Along with their hanging from a wooden beam on the ceiling, friselle were preserved in clay jars, called quartieri or capasoni.
Freselle, then, were a typical staple food, not a specialty, and were popular where fresh bread could not be consumed.
But, is this the reality?
Friselle have a characteristic shape, derived from their production process: they are typically circular and with a hole at their center.
Oven baked twice and cut after the first baking, they always come in pairs as they are nothing else that the two halves of the same form.
Characteristic is also the surface, rough where it Is cut after the first baking, smooth where it is remaining form the original manual shaping of the dough.
Sizes are variable: friselles diameter and their holes diameter can vary from 5-10 centimeters to 20 or more.
The color depends on both the baking time and the flour composition (more or less wheat/barley flour): color can then range from light to (very) dark brown.
For these very reasons, it is really difficult to see how this farmers' reality might have contributed to the creation of many of the so called poor dishes in the italian food history, that really nothing poor have in them!
Let's have a quick look at the ingredients: durum wheat and/or barley flour, salt, water, yeastThe dough is manually processed and shaped like a small loaf, spiraled on itself.
Usually put in the oven in trays of no more than 6 to 8 pieces, after the first baking each single fresella is horizontally cut with a thread (a strozzo, choked), giving the surface the typical rough aspect.
The two so obtained pieces, the lower one, with flat bottom, and the top, with the curved surface, are oven-baked for a second time (bis-cotto, twice-cooked) to eliminate the residual humidity.
In the past, the size of friselle measured the quantity of bread necessary to the nourishment of a worker and usually provided the major part of the calories in the meal.
Typically porduced in Apulia, it is widely known in Campania (fresella). In the italian language, thanks to the re-discovery of the local traditions, the term frisa is becoming more common.
This is the food that we have enjoyed for ages and continue to savor as we carry on the traditions of our past.
The typical way to taste this bread (alla barese) is covered in a layer of olive oil, water, tomato sauce and a drop of wine, then accompanied with small artichokes and lampascioni (tassel hyacinth). This culinary specialty is called in dialect from Bari cialldda (cialda in italian).
It is oven baked , then cut in half horizontally and it Is then baked again in the oven. The looks of the frisella is with one smooth and one rough surface.
Friselle are a staple food that was produced and acclaimed for its long conservation period and was therefore a valid alternative to bread, especially in those periods when flour was scarce.
The name with which friselle are also know in Apulia is Pane dei Crociati (Crusaders' bread) as it was certainly used to equip the christian expeditions in their long travellings.
A tradition for its consumption, from times past, was to dip freselle directly with sea water and with pure fresh tomato, which was squeezed to let the juices out.
If you're wandering why the circular shape, it was not for the esthetics: the hole at their center, allowed the friselle to be practically transported with a cord that was passed through them to form a sort of collier : that way they could either be hung for conservation or for comfortable transportation.
But, why do Italians eat so well?
As it might have become a familiar image to you, also in the Salento tradition, bread baking was done according to a common schedule at shared ovens. Bread could be baked bi-weekly or with an up to more than quarterly frequency, so that the quantity of the dough that a single family (or more families together, even) could amount to up to 200 Kilograms.
Only a small portion of the total quantity was baked in softer bread to be consumed in the very first days, more often than not with the addition of ingredients like pumpkin seeds, olives, onion, is sliceable forms.
The rest of the dough, though, was reserved for the production of the friselle, which allowed for longer bread-making periods.
Along with their hanging from a wooden beam on the ceiling, friselle were preserved in clay jars, called quartieri or capasoni.
Freselle, then, were a typical staple food, not a specialty, and were popular where fresh bread could not be consumed.
But, is this the reality?
Friselle have a characteristic shape, derived from their production process: they are typically circular and with a hole at their center.
Oven baked twice and cut after the first baking, they always come in pairs as they are nothing else that the two halves of the same form.
Characteristic is also the surface, rough where it Is cut after the first baking, smooth where it is remaining form the original manual shaping of the dough.
Sizes are variable: friselles diameter and their holes diameter can vary from 5-10 centimeters to 20 or more.
The color depends on both the baking time and the flour composition (more or less wheat/barley flour): color can then range from light to (very) dark brown.
For these very reasons, it is really difficult to see how this farmers' reality might have contributed to the creation of many of the so called poor dishes in the italian food history, that really nothing poor have in them!
Let's have a quick look at the ingredients: durum wheat and/or barley flour, salt, water, yeastThe dough is manually processed and shaped like a small loaf, spiraled on itself.
Usually put in the oven in trays of no more than 6 to 8 pieces, after the first baking each single fresella is horizontally cut with a thread (a strozzo, choked), giving the surface the typical rough aspect.
The two so obtained pieces, the lower one, with flat bottom, and the top, with the curved surface, are oven-baked for a second time (bis-cotto, twice-cooked) to eliminate the residual humidity.
In the past, the size of friselle measured the quantity of bread necessary to the nourishment of a worker and usually provided the major part of the calories in the meal.
Typically porduced in Apulia, it is widely known in Campania (fresella). In the italian language, thanks to the re-discovery of the local traditions, the term frisa is becoming more common.
This is the food that we have enjoyed for ages and continue to savor as we carry on the traditions of our past.
The typical way to taste this bread (alla barese) is covered in a layer of olive oil, water, tomato sauce and a drop of wine, then accompanied with small artichokes and lampascioni (tassel hyacinth). This culinary specialty is called in dialect from Bari cialldda (cialda in italian).
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If you wanted to know about Italian food history, we will help you find some great information about this. We will provide you a detailed explanation on the history of how Italian cuisines started.
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