Dry stone walls in Puglia

Among the many peculiarities that characterize the Salento landscape and Puglia in general, there are undoubtedly the dry stone walls. These walls give all visitors one of the most authentic faces of Salento such that they immediately understand where they are. The creators of the “dry stone walls”, who handed down this art form through the centuries, were certainly the descendants of the Messapians and the Neoliths.

What do dry stone walls consist of?

The dry stone walls in Puglia are made up of stone blocks placed one above the other, fitted together without the use of cement or other materials, and belong to the ancient customs of the farmers. They began to use them to protect their crops from pastures, to mark the border between one property and another, as a small fence for animals, or they built them along the coast to defend the crops from atmospheric agents.

These stones of various sizes were obtained from the rock, specially crushed, and were aligned by means of increasingly more defined techniques, which were handed down from father to son in the profession of “paritaru” (“parite” in Salento dialect means wall).

Over time the walls have evolved and the functions they have performed are innumerable. There are the walls dating back to the Messapi era with a structure of squared blocks placed horizontally, the patrician ones which carried out the task of delimiting estates and farms belonging to families of great name, those of the common people, built by the farmer himself to delimit the small property called chisùra.

Construction techniques

The construction technique requires that the base of the wall is made up of two rows of large stones, then the smaller stones are set upwards and, finally, the small cracks are closed with small fragments of rock. Stone slabs placed edge-to-edge close the wall at the end, once the desired height has been reached.

• There is a particularity of walls, called “paralupi walls” built to face wolves (once very frequent in our territory).

• The “walls” which, in particular, enclose some farms, present an element that differentiates them from other dry stone walls. The terminal area of the wall is in fact made up of a raised curb made with large flat stones (“cappeddhi“), which protrude from the wall (outwards), so as to prevent wild animals from climbing and penetrating inside the enclosure, where there are tasty domestic animals: rabbits, chickens, etc.

These stone embroideries are a tangential example of the union between man and nature: aesthetically, in fact, it often happens to notice how between one stone and another there is the presence of fauna and flora, which are an important element of ecological diversification and landscape. The color of the rock, tending towards white, thus mixes with green, and offers a pleasant play of colors that express the beauty of the Salento land.

Many will have noticed, especially in the Apulian countryside or at abandoned airports, perforated metal grills and will have wondered what they are or where they came from. They are nothing more than artefacts dating back to the Second World War period, today reused to create gates and fences on private properties, mostly peasants: their name is Grelle.

History and uses of the Grelle

Even today it is possible to see Grelle used as railings, fences and gates, especially in farms or old homes. Traces of it can also be found at the landing strips of disused military airports (such as in San Pancrazio Salentino, Leverano, Galatina or Manduria).

In fact, this is the reason why they arrived in Puglia during the Second World War. Aviators used them to quickly set up landing or taxiways for aircraft. In just one week, at the time, it was possible to set up a thousand meter runway.

“Marston mats” was the other name by which the Grelle were known in America, in honor of the city in North Carolina, near the Camp Mackall airport. It is precisely here that the grates were produced and tested in 1941. Being made of a very resistant metal and due to the holes, they allowed them to stick perfectly to the ground, even if the track was wet. This also allowed it to be used to cross inaccessible areas where war vehicles would have sunk or to set up small temporary bridges.

Immediately after the war, however, the Americans abandoned this “bulky” material and this represented a real fortune for the Apulian farmers who, having emerged from the world conflict, had to somehow start again. Many of these Grelle were sold to foundries while others, worked by blacksmiths, were transformed into railings, fences and gates. From that moment on they still resist in many Apulian countryside.

When you happen to see these curious perforated metal grids from now on, you will know that they are none other than the Grelle, the “Pierced Steel Planking” (PSP), developed by American ingenuity and from the United States which reached Puglia.

It’s in Presicce that we find the greatest number of hypogean oil mills in Salento dug into the stone, called trappeti. Here, there was an intense production of olive oil, the main economic source since ancient times. The oil mill or “trappeto” derives from the name that the ancient Romans gave to the machine for pressing olives to separate the stone from the pulp.

When they were born and how they worked

• Their birth can be dated to the 11th-13th centuries; the first were built on the Pozzomauro greenhouse. The typology of the traps in that area is simple, being dug into the tuff rock and with a dirt floor.

• Starting from the 19th century, the underground oil mills were gradually abandoned, above all due to industrial evolution, and replaced by semi-underground or elevated oil mills.

• Since the 1990s, some of them have become tourist destinations through some reclamations and renovations; public bodies and protection bodies have worked to recover these real finds.

Also called “green gold mines“, they have produced fine olive oil since ancient times, starting from the exclusive fruits of the centuries-old olive trees. The reason why the production took place in the rock is given by the fact that the economy and trade of oil took the place of that of wheat; furthermore, the underground environment ensured better conservation of the oil and kept it away from enemy eyes.

Team of workers who worked on the process of this precious good was called “ciurma” (crew) or also “trappitari“, who operated under the guidance of the supervisor called “nachiro“. The ciurma or trappitari worked for the entire period between November and May, living inside the oil mill, without ever leaving, except for the most important holidays.

A fundamental role was also played by animals; the latter were placed in the stables. In another room, the “sciave” (olive storage) were placed, before they were crushed by the wheel (turned by a blindfolded mule) and then pressed.

How were the hypogean oil mills in Salento structured?

Each oil mill is made up of organic and functional environments with notable aesthetic and architectural interest: storage areas, living rooms, work areas, kitchen areas, dormitories and the stable. The construction scheme was always the same; a staircase dug into the rock and covered with a barrel vault led to a large main room, where the grinding and pressing operations took place.

The grindstone rested on a circular platform of hard limestone; around this central part there were a series of small rooms including the rooms intended for the rest of the workers, the tool storage, the stable for the animals and the rooms for storing the oil.

These rooms had no direct light, except for one or two holes in the center of the main vault. In these environments the milling work was very long; it ran from November until after Easter.

But why were the oil mills underground?

The most commonly known reason why the oil mill dug into the stone was preferred to the one built on the ground floor was the need for heat. The oil becomes solid around 6°C. Therefore, in order to simplify its extraction, it is advisable that the environment in which the pressing takes place is warm and constant. This could only be ensured in an underground environment heated by lights lit day and night, by the fermentation of olives and above all by the heat produced by the toil of men and animals.

In addition to this, the economic reasons should not be underestimated; the cost of labor to obtain an excavated environment was relatively modest because it did not require the construction work of specialized personnel, but only arm strength, not involving purchase and transport costs of the construction material.

Role of hypogean oil mills in Salento today

The presence of the trappeti in the various centers of Salento is historical.

• In Gallipoli, housed in the basement of Palazzo Granafei in the historic centre, the 1600 oil mill can be visited.

• In Noha near Galatina, in front of the castle door there is the Casale oil mill; a 300m2 space that houses a seat carved into the rock with a vault covered in stalactites.

• But Presicce holds the record thanks to the high number of underground oil mills created between the 18th and 19th centuries. Over 30 underground oil mills, hidden under the main square, produced oil exported to all European markets.

The underground oil mills in Salento are evidence of a thousand-year-old civilization as well as representing an important part of the economic and social culture of the area.

During your walks through the historic centers of Salento, you may come across houses with a particular architectural shape. The phenomenon of courtyard houses, born in 1500 in Salento, favored, in past times, the social cohesion of families thanks to its structural characteristics.

The courtyard house is common throughout the Mediterranean area also for common reasons related to the climate: part of the work that would otherwise have to be carried out indoors could easily be moved outdoors.

How they were structured

• From an architectural point of view, these homes are composed of a courtyard conceived as a multifunctional space outside the home, as a place of work, storage and warehouse, shelter for working animals, space for socialisation, entertainment and play to which accessed from a portal overlooking the street.

• All the entrances to the individual rooms that make up the building overlook the courtyard. The rooms are hardly connected to each other from the inside.

• As time passed, another room was built in the courtyard: the house of the firstborn. In this way we arrived at multi-family courts.

• With the improvement of the living conditions of the farmers, who went from laborers to small owners, the elementary courtyard house was enriched with a covered driveway, connecting the road and the house, called samportu or sampuertu. The horse and the trailer were stored in this room and the straw and work tools were stored.

• A first important modification to courtyard houses are the so-called shutters, or doors, from here the socializing moment begins to lose importance and the need for privacy begins. Process that will lead to the detachment of the children’s family from that of the parents, thus moving from the extended family to the small family, i.e. the one today.

• The stable, the room where the well is located and the “pile” for the laundry (a tub generally dug into a block of stone) also overlook the courtyard. At the back of the houses, in some cases, there is also a small garden, not paved unlike the courtyard.

The social importance of courtyard houses

The “courtyard houses” were owned by large landowners, who had their laborers use them as homes. It was usually a single family unit who lived in these houses, but often some rooms were given to married children who, in this way, continued to live together with their family of origin. The rooms were quite large, but sparsely furnished.

This type of housing promoted socialization and had a great function of social cohesion. The layout and architectural structure of the house were therefore important for the socialization process, the living cell was such as to favor the coexistence of the family, in this way the father and/or grandparents, in continuous contact with their children and grandchildren, spent the free time talking and telling fairy tales, the so-called cunti and culacchi which kept together and allowed the traditions and aspects of the popular culture of the time to be passed down.

In recent years there has been a recovery of “courtyard houses” by the owner families, who often use them as private homes or as accommodation facilities, in particular B&Bs – renovated with taste and following the styles of Salento architecture. Many examples of “courtyard houses” are found in the towns of Salento Greece, in Salento.

Currently there are 11 municipalities that make it up, all in the province of Lecce: Calimera, Carpignano Salentino, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d’Otranto, Cutrofiano, Martano, Martignano, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia, Zollino.

There are many recipes of the Apulian Christmas tradition but certainly among the tastiest and most appreciated are the “cartellate“, a dessert that has small variations depending on the part of the region in which it is prepared. The Apulian “cartellate“ are a fried and crunchy dessert with a shape similar to rolled ribbons or roses which can be covered with honey or vincotto but are also delicious eaten alone, if you prefer.

Getting together as a family to prepare them all together is a widespread ritual in many homes: an opportunity to meet and pass on to the younger generations, a recipe that never fades and of which there are testimonies since the times of the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans and which in Bari appeared in an account of Bona Sforza’s wedding banquet in 1517. In the recipe for Apulian cartellate there are few simple ingredients: flour, oil, white wine, to obtain a simple but tasty dessert that will accompany the end of the meal Christmas holidays.

The original recipe for Apulian cappellate

For the recipe for Apulian cartellate you will need:

• 1 kg of flour
• 200 g of olive oil
• 200 g of white wine
• Salt to taste
• 1 liter of peanut oil
• vincotto of wine or figs or honey

Procedure for preparing the Apulian cartellate

1. First, let the olive oil and white wine cool in a saucepan over low heat then, once cooled, add this mixture to a bowl to which add a pinch of salt and the sifted flour.
2. At this point, knead the mixture by hand or with an electric mixer and, if you realize that the dough requires it, add more white wine. The result must be a smooth and homogeneous mixture that you will let rest for about an hour.
3. After this time, use a rolling pin to make the dough thin and cut 2cm wide strips using a serrated wheel.
4. Twist the strips of dough on themselves to obtain the typical crown shape of the folders and leave them to rest overnight.
5. At this point you can proceed with frying in a liter of peanut oil: the carnelians are ready when they have taken on a nice golden colour.
6. For decoration, heat the vincotto in a saucepan for a few minutes, then immerse the folders. For honey, however, it will be sufficient to sprinkle the folders with the help of a spoon. If you like, you can sprinkle a little cinnamon, sugar or chocolate flakes on the surface.

Curiosities about Apulian cartellate

The etymology of the word “cartellate” could refer to the word “carta” (paper) or “incartellare” (i.e. “to wrap up”) or come from the Greek word “kartallos” that is, a pointed-shaped basket.

Cartellate have different names depending on the places where they are prepared: in Bari, for example, they are called “carteddate” or “scartilléte” but also “péttue“, “chelustre” or “sfringioli“. In Gravina in Puglia they are called “chiòsere” while in Salento “cartiddate“. In the province of Foggia, in Lucera they are called “crùstele“, in Torremaggiore “névele“, in San Giovanni Rotondo “carangi“.

How can you resist a crumbly shell of fried leavened dough that contains a delicious filling of tomato and mozzarella? Walking through the streets of Lecce and Gallipoli you can’t help but come across some takeaway window where trousers are put on display, these extraordinary delicacies that can also be enjoyed during a walk or while stopping at a bar table. The Apulian calzone recipe is one of the most replicated in Italy, which is why we want to share the original one with you.

Here is the recipe for the Apulian calzone

Ingredients for approximately 15 calzoni:

• 500 g of “00” flour
• 80 ml of milk
• 150 ml of water
• 25 g of brewer’s yeast
• 10 g of salt
• 10 g of sugar
• 40 g of lard

For the stuffing:

• an egg yolk
• fior di latte mozzarella
• tomato sauce
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• Origan
• sunflower seed oil for frying

Preparation

• To prepare the calzone dough, sift the flour into a well on a pastry board together with the salt; in the meantime, heat the milk and water together slightly: they should be lukewarm.

• Add the sugar and yeast inside and then begin to gradually incorporate the flour, kneading continuously. At this point, add the lard, continuing to work the mixture until it becomes compact. Sprinkle the dough with olive oil and let it rise in a bowl until it has doubled in volume (it will take approximately 3 to 5 hours)

• In the meantime, prepare the filling. Cut the mozzarella into very small cubes and in a bowl mix together the mozzarella and tomato puree; salt and flavor with oregano. Once the dough has risen, take the dough and make approximately 15 balls from it which you will roll out with a rolling pin until each ball reaches a diameter of 13 – 15 cm and a thickness of around 3 mm.

• Now fill the center of each disc with the tomato puree and mozzarella filling that you have previously prepared, seal the edges of the dough with the beaten egg yolk, close it in half, thus forming a crescent and press well on the edges with the fingers, to prevent the calzone from opening during cooking and the filling from coming out.

• Let the calzoni rise for another hour and then fry them in a pan with plenty of boiling oil until they become a nice golden colour. Drain them on absorbent paper and serve them hot! Didn’t your mouth water? Enjoy your meal!

Among the various dairy specialties that undoubtedly contribute to making the name of Puglia important and famous in Italy and abroad, we find a true classic of this southern region, namely the Apulian burrata. Although it is also produced in nearby Basilicata, it can be assumed that the best-known burrata is that of Andria. Here, burrata has also obtained the protected geographical indication (IGP), which is accompanied by other variants both from the Murgia and from other areas of Puglia.

Its name might make you think of butter, however, we must not be misled in this sense: the Apulian burrata is obtained from cow’s milk, and is characterized by its decidedly softer consistency and also characterized by a stringy component. It is therefore the soft nature that is recalled through the name of this cheese. Inside the burrata itself we find the equally famous stracciatella, made up of shredded mozzarella and fresh artisanal cream, while the external casing is made up of stretched curd. This cheese is also characterized by its appearance which resembles a bag, considering how there is a knot to enclose all this goodness.

The origins of Apulian burrata

One might think that the origin of this Apulian specialty is to be found in a very distant past: instead, burrata was born in 1956. That year was marked by extraordinary snowfalls in the Murge, and precisely in the area between Andria and Castel del Monte, Lorenzo Bianchino, active at that time at the Piana Padula farm, had a brilliant intuition. With the snowy streets, the latter decided to replicate what was done with manteche, another famous cheese, with burrata, that is, to store the stracciatella inside a sort of bag prepared with mozzarella paste. To prevent milk and its precious derivatives from being irremediably thrown away due to the city’s supply difficulties, Mr. Bianchino invented a new type of cheese, which then became famous in our country and therefore also in the rest of the world.

The preparation

This typical Apulian cheese is produced throughout the year, following artisanal preparation methods, which make it one of the most significant examples of the dairy art of this southern region.

• First, we proceed to raise the temperature of the raw milk up to 35-37 degrees.
• Subsequently, the same milk is left to ferment naturally with ad hoc ferments, or with citric or lactic acid. Fermentation ends when a pH between 6.1 and 6.2 is reached.
• At this point, the preparation proceeds through the coagulation process, through the use of rennet, which must take place in a few minutes.
• At this point, the curd is broken and the product obtained is left to rest so that the whey can drain.
• Then the stretching process takes over, using boiling (sometimes salted) water.
• After processing, the stretched curd must be frayed to be combined with the liquid cream, to prepare the stracciatella, which represents the heart of the burrata.
• A part of the spun paste is then used at this point to create the characteristic “bags”.

To enjoy this Apulian cheese in the best way, you will have to make sure the freshness of your burrata. In fact, it is not easy to find due to transport difficulties. A good pairing is represented by consumption with tomatoes, taking care to serve the burrata with a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Another way to savor this Apulian specialty is certainly in delicate bruschetta, or savory pies, pasta dishes and rolls.

The Apulian bombette are small (3-5 centimeters) meat rolls made with slices of capocollo (pork neck) rolled up on themselves, seasoned according to taste, skewered on the classic thin skewer and roasted. They are generally filled with pieces of Apulian canestrato cheese, salt, pepper and sometimes parsley.

The term “bombette” is clear about the explosion of taste that occurs when tasting them. The origins of this preparation, a very important piece of the Apulian food tradition, date back to the 1960s when some local butchers began to offer them as freshly cooked food and to be consumed on site, in a public environment that became almost familiar when, together with the meat of the counter chosen on the spot, the meal was accompanied with good red wine. Since then their fame has made them sought after and loved by everyone. The bombette are generally cooked on the grill or in the classic stoves that some butchers still have. Often served as street food, they are excellent with a good slice of local bread.

The bombette are typical of the butchers and grills (with the traditional cooking method) of Bari, Brindisi and Taranto, cities in which it is easy to consume them freshly roasted, or buy them and then cook them at home. Many associate the geographical origin of this specialty with the territory of the Itria Valley and it is claimed that outside the borders of Puglia, bowler hats are almost unknown.

Variants of the Apulian bowlers

The traditional Apulian bombette are then filled with pecorino or caciocavallo and seasoned with a little parsley. However, there are several variations spread across the territory of Puglia and other neighboring regions, recipes kept by every single butcher who claims his mastery by offering his own “house” bombette. Among the most popular are those without “filling”, simply seasoned with salt and pepper, or those wrapped with slices of bacon; other versions include the addition of cooked ham or minced meat to the cheese filling, up to the spicy ones.

The Ceglie biscuit (in Salento dialect “U Pesquet”) is a typical biscuit from Ceglie Messapica, a city in the province of Brindisi. It is a recipe that is part of the peasant tradition, in fact it is said that during weddings or the most important banquets, these biscuits were prepared to offer to the guests. They are prepared with almonds, local fruits widely used in cooking, and filled with jam: for this very reason, it is possible to find them in the town’s bakeries with grape, cherry, fig or quince jam. But the Cegliese biscuit can also be prepared at home, using simple ingredients to obtain sweets with a delicious taste and aroma. They are perfect for accompanying tea or as a snack but also as a gift to someone you love. These biscuits are so good that they have been awarded the Slow Food Presidium recognition.

How to prepare the Ceglie biscuit

The recipe for the Ceglie biscuit is handed down from generation to generation, a preparation based on genuine ingredients that is very easy to make at home.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of toasted almonds
• 150 g jam (to taste)
• 500 g of granulated sugar
• 4 whole eggs
• 1 lemon
• 50 g honey
• 10 ml of citrus rosolio (a typical liqueur based on alcohol, water, sugar and citrus fruits such as lemon, bergamot, cedar and mandarin).

Method:

1. Toast the almonds in the oven, then grind them by cutting them into coarse pieces (be careful not to reduce them to flour).
2. Mix the almonds with sugar, honey, grated lemon peel, eggs, gradually adding the citrus fruit rub oil, until you obtain a smooth and non-sticky dough.
3. Spread the dough on the baking paper and, on one edge, spread the jam; then close, folding the strip, leaving the jam in the centre.
4. Using a knife, make irregularly shaped biscuits (like cubes of approximately 4 cm) and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 160-180°.

If you like, once cooked, Ceglie biscuits can be covered with a glaze made of sugar and cocoa, called “Gileppo“. To prepare it you will need:

• 1 liter of water
• 1 kg of sugar
• 100 g of bitter cocoa

In a pan, add the water with the sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool, stirring until the cream becomes white. Melt the icing in a bain-marie, add the cocoa and mix well until it becomes an icing with which to glaze the Ceglie biscuits.

It is difficult to explain the overwhelming love for this extraordinary place, a land made of landscapes, colors and mysteries: Salento which has very ancient, even prehistoric, roots. We start precisely from the 4th millennium BC. with the birth of the Dolmens in the Salento area.

The latter, as well as the Menhirs, appear to be the oldest monuments existing on earth, probably dating back to the Neolithic.

In some the entrance has a door cut into several vertical plates, to prevent access to wild animals. There are several hypotheses regarding the function of the Dolmens. The most accepted is that they are funerary monuments, but according to other theories they performed the function of altars and places of worship.

Where are the Dolmens located in Salento?

Most of the Dolmens found are in Western Europe; specifically in Puglia there are 23.

• These are concentrated in the areas of Bisceglie, Corato, Giovinazzo, Trani, Ruvo di Puglia, Terlizzi and Molfetta, in the Brindisi area (Cisternino and Montalbano) and in the Taranto area.

• In Minervino di Lecce there is the “Li Scusi” dolmen, the first to be found in Puglia (in 1879), it is one of the most particular and representative of Salento and can be recognized in the regional classification due to its size. The name would allude to a hypothetical hiding function. The “Li Scusi dolmen cultural park” has been set up here: a project to enhance the territory which takes the form of a nature trail among dry stone walls, centuries-old olive trees and country paths.

• Giurdignano, defined as the “megalithic garden of Italy”, is a small village known nationally for the highest number of stone monuments. It houses 7 intact dolmens: from the so-called “Orfine” (about 1 meter high) to the “Peschio” (discovered in 1910). From the “Chiancuse” (of which only the roofing slab is visible) to the “Grassi” (two “twin” dolmens, unique in Italy). From the “Gravasce” to the “Stabile” (the latter is thought to be an altar). The Giurdignano Pro Loco organizes exclusive walking routes, even at night, by bicycle or by carriage.

• Also in the city of Melendugno, 2 dolmens were found: the “Placa” (made up of 7 blocks that support an irregular roof) and the “Gurgulante“.

• Finally Salve you will find the “Cosi” dolmen, discovered in 1968 by Giovanni and Paolo Cosi, inside which human remains, terracotta shards and a fragment of obsidian were found. At about 600 meters, there is the Argentina – Graziadei dolmen, which can boast a better state of conservation than the “Cosi”.

By virtue of this analysis, the hypothesis of a small Salento “Stonehenge” now lost forever becomes much more real. A historical and cultural resource that could be an opportunity for cultural development and visibility. In light of this, it is absolutely worth enjoying the evocative journey among the “stones” of prehistory.