As I'm sure most of you are aware, we are fairly passionate, and potentially bordering on obsessive, about food . Gastronomy in all its varied facets is a source of great pleasure and we are willing to travel and endure high water and hell to get fresh local produce/seafood/cheese/anything edible. I suppose this is a characteristic I have inherited from my parents. My mother is an excellent chef and growing up we were always treated to a multicourse meal every night of the week. Whilst this meant that we often didn't eat before 9pm as my mother did have a day job, it instilled in both my brother and I an expectation of quality and homemade food as the status quo.
My parents have also always been rather eccentric when it comes to the acquisition of food. They think nothing of driving 2 hours, across the US border to get lamb racks straight from the best producer in Washington state to seeking out the best vintage of a particular California Zinfandel, even if it means acquiring it from a little wine importer in Dorset of all places and then reimporting it back to the West Coast!
Returning to the case in point, we have a particular obsession with burratta. Whilst buffala mozzarella has been a mainstay on the Italian menu globally, I first discovered burratta 3 years ago at Il Baretto restaurant in Marlyebone in London. I was confused at first at what I was tasting. The outer shell had the texture of the mozzarella I was familiar with but the creamy inside was a mystery to my taste buds. After this experience I set off to discover more about this cheese and introduced it to my father when he was in London as we discovered that Whole Foods was importing from Italy.
As it turns out, Puglia is the hot bed of burratta and a variety of mozzarella that you would never taste outside the region. There are latterias in a number of the towns, each of which produces its own burratta. It was with this in mind that we set off yesterday morning to Giola delle Colle in search of some cheese for a quick lunch.
As we arrived in town, we passed a local cyclist meandering along and to make a long story short, he took us to the best latteria in town to sample the cheese. It was here that I discovered that burratta is in fact mozzarella filled with straciatella - the soft creamy cheese that oozes out when you cut into the mozzarella exterior. I went a bit over the top in the store, expecting a hefty bill to pay. Much to my surprise my bounty of mozzarella topped out at a fraction of the cost anywhere else on earth - the goods and bill photographed below.
We ended up eating our fill of mozzarella in a piazza adjacent to a medieval castle before getting some advice from the locals for our itinerary ahead before setting out towards our next destination, Noce. As we hadn't stopped in a restaurant for lunch we made a quick pit stop at a Q8 petrol station out of town. As with much of Italy, you often find the most beautiful things in the most unexpected of places. This station had one of the most beautiful bars complete with a myriad of cocktails and pastries. We went for a couple peronis in the sun to quench our thirst post mozzarella indulgence.
Post pit-stop we made our way towards Noce where yet again we were greeted by gracious hosts at our B&B. We had planned only to stay one night but given their hospitality and the. variety of small towns in the area worth a visit we are now on our 3rd night here! 62km the first stay and a mere 30km yesterday but as always some
great food and experiences in between.
Some photos of our latest culinary adventures below in addition to a few photos of the Castellana Grotte which we visited yesterday. No photo could accurately depict the magnitude and magic of these caves over 100 meters underground and kilometres in length. It was hard to believe they were real and reminded us of Disneyland - turns out their fantasy was born out of reality.
Today we are off to see some other mountain towns and hope to get a few miles under our belts before setting off in search of our next destination tomorrow.
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