Italian friselle (or freselle, frisedde, fresedde, frise) is a typical tarallo made essentially of durum wheat, combined in varying quantities with barley.
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.
That is, I, being Italian, can tell that it is not just food that we are talking about here: it is rather about a food culture that goes proudly along with an intimate connection italians have with the territory, the peoples and their roots.
If you think about it, after all, it was a natural consequence.Cities were, in fact, the only places where everything that was needed to develop a great gastronomy concentrated: ingredients and culinary skills, naturally, but also power, richness, markets and social competition. Italian gastronomy gives its best in the urban markets, less so in the countryside farms.
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.
This is a demonstration that italian gastronomy has nothing to envy to the one of other Countries.
Friselle were a typical travel-bread: that's why sea water was often used, or it was used as bottom for the fish soups, which were usually consumed during the days-long fishing expeditions in the open sea.
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.
There are even studies that want to prove that the italian way of cooking and eating brings benefits to people's health and that it is, therefore, to learn and adopt in some of its gastronomic lessons.
Malnourishment and hunger are fundamental elements of the italian food history and all our accounts proceed through the food habits of the dominators and of the dominated, through the daily alimentation and the meals of the higher classes.
Along with their hanging from a wooden beam on the ceiling, friselle were preserved in clay jars, called quartieri or capasoni.
This image has deeply contributed to the prominence that Italy has gained in the panorama of the worldwide gastronomy.
HOW THEY LOOK LIKE
Friselle have a characteristic shape, derived from their production process: they are typically circular and with a hole at their center.
Indeed these products are traditional and follow long prescribed preparation methods and processes, but observing more closely we will together discover that italian food history and, for that matter, of Italy in general, is less of a simple farmers' tradition as we think.
This sort of literature flourished between the XIII and the XIV centuries, all over Europe, and especially there were not only the arts of fine cooking were more sought-after, but where the economic (and, hence, the political and cultural) power pulsated.
Sizes are variable: friselles diameter and their holes diameter can vary from 5-10 centimeters to 20 or more.
Italian history and italian food history has long been marked by the lifestyle of the rural masses: especially in the northern and central regions, the mezzadra (sharecropping) partially preserved farmers from hunger and the hard and grueling fatigues that represented the standard way of living of the rural masses throughout Italy, up to the 1960's.
HOW THEY ARE DONE
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.
Up to the first half of the 17 century, and by looking at the first documentations produced in 1861 (just after Italy's Unification) to give an account of the status of the italian population, endless accounts can be read of how precarious and poor the dietary conditions of the common people in the countryside were.
Spices were not only a precious trading good (since ancient times), they were a real status symbol, back then. Many traders made fortunes by discovering or inventing new trading routes, to supply the ever increasing demand for spices among the higher classes and, as a result of this trend-setting, more and more among lower classes too.
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.
This sauce has been one of the main ingredients of the farmers' diet throughout the past millennium and its recipe, thankfully, is only traceable in the memory: that sauce means hunger.
Try and dip it in cold water for a time depending on your taste and on the consistency of the dough. Serve then with fresh tomato, oregano, salt and some olive oil. As a variation, rub a slice of garlic on the frisella before moistening it.
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.
That is, I, being Italian, can tell that it is not just food that we are talking about here: it is rather about a food culture that goes proudly along with an intimate connection italians have with the territory, the peoples and their roots.
If you think about it, after all, it was a natural consequence.Cities were, in fact, the only places where everything that was needed to develop a great gastronomy concentrated: ingredients and culinary skills, naturally, but also power, richness, markets and social competition. Italian gastronomy gives its best in the urban markets, less so in the countryside farms.
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.
This is a demonstration that italian gastronomy has nothing to envy to the one of other Countries.
Friselle were a typical travel-bread: that's why sea water was often used, or it was used as bottom for the fish soups, which were usually consumed during the days-long fishing expeditions in the open sea.
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.
There are even studies that want to prove that the italian way of cooking and eating brings benefits to people's health and that it is, therefore, to learn and adopt in some of its gastronomic lessons.
Malnourishment and hunger are fundamental elements of the italian food history and all our accounts proceed through the food habits of the dominators and of the dominated, through the daily alimentation and the meals of the higher classes.
Along with their hanging from a wooden beam on the ceiling, friselle were preserved in clay jars, called quartieri or capasoni.
This image has deeply contributed to the prominence that Italy has gained in the panorama of the worldwide gastronomy.
HOW THEY LOOK LIKE
Friselle have a characteristic shape, derived from their production process: they are typically circular and with a hole at their center.
Indeed these products are traditional and follow long prescribed preparation methods and processes, but observing more closely we will together discover that italian food history and, for that matter, of Italy in general, is less of a simple farmers' tradition as we think.
This sort of literature flourished between the XIII and the XIV centuries, all over Europe, and especially there were not only the arts of fine cooking were more sought-after, but where the economic (and, hence, the political and cultural) power pulsated.
Sizes are variable: friselles diameter and their holes diameter can vary from 5-10 centimeters to 20 or more.
Italian history and italian food history has long been marked by the lifestyle of the rural masses: especially in the northern and central regions, the mezzadra (sharecropping) partially preserved farmers from hunger and the hard and grueling fatigues that represented the standard way of living of the rural masses throughout Italy, up to the 1960's.
HOW THEY ARE DONE
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.
Up to the first half of the 17 century, and by looking at the first documentations produced in 1861 (just after Italy's Unification) to give an account of the status of the italian population, endless accounts can be read of how precarious and poor the dietary conditions of the common people in the countryside were.
Spices were not only a precious trading good (since ancient times), they were a real status symbol, back then. Many traders made fortunes by discovering or inventing new trading routes, to supply the ever increasing demand for spices among the higher classes and, as a result of this trend-setting, more and more among lower classes too.
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.
This sauce has been one of the main ingredients of the farmers' diet throughout the past millennium and its recipe, thankfully, is only traceable in the memory: that sauce means hunger.
Try and dip it in cold water for a time depending on your taste and on the consistency of the dough. Serve then with fresh tomato, oregano, salt and some olive oil. As a variation, rub a slice of garlic on the frisella before moistening it.
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).
About the Author:
Many food enthusiasts wanted to know about the history of Italian food. This is because most of them do not simply eat different kinds of foods. They also find some information about them.
No comments:
Post a Comment