Tag: taranto

Grilled meat from Laterza

Grilled meat from Laterza.

Grilled meat from Laterza is a product for roasting, consisting of cuts of sheep meat and goat meat, freshly slaughtered and stacked on steel skewers.

Grilled meat from Laterza is a fresh cutted sheep meat and goat meat product, alterned with red onions of Acquaviva delle Fonti, prepared to be roasted. The appearance, color, consistency and flavor are characteristic of sheep meat and goat meat.

Product category

Fresh meat and cured meat

Priduct origin area

city of Laterza (Taranto, Apulia, Italy)

Productive process

Cuts of sheep meat and goat meat, freshly slaughtered, hand-worked and selected with a uniform weight of 80-100 g each, are threaded alternately with red onion of Acquaviva delle Fonti on steel skewers, previously treated to the flame in a wood-burning oven .

Period of production

All year long.

History and Tradition

No written documents were found since the production process was handed down from generation to generation.
Tradition is ensured by the constancy of the production method adopted by a time longer than the one provided by the legislation.

description from Atlante dei Prodotti Tipici di Puglia Prima edizione – October 2006

2017-03-04
Alberobello and the Valle d’Itria

Alberobello and the Valle d’Itria.

it’s an article by Italia.it – italia.it

The Valle d’Itria welcome the visitor with unmatched olive tree groves, trees born from a red soil that perfume and makes the landscape around a succession of wonderful chromatic effects.

Also known as the Trulli’s Valley, the Valle d’Itria is collocated between the Apulian provinces of Bari, Brindisi and Taranto (Puglia, Italy) and includes many towns including Alberobello, Carovigno, Castellana Grotte, Ceglie Messapica, Cisternino, Fasano, Locorotondo, Martina Franca, Walnuts, Ostuni, Putignano, San Michele Salentino, San Vito dei Normanni and Villa Castelli.

Perhaps due to the white of the buildings or due to the vegetation that frames them, every town and every village of the valley, is wrapped in a magical, almost fairy-tale atmosphere.

In the heart of the Itria Valley, Alberobello is a must-place to visit with its trulli, a UNESCO site listed in the World Heritage List in 1996. It is impossible not to be fascinated by a walk along the streets of Monti and Aja Piccola.

In the valley there is not only Alberobello. The country sourrounding is scattered about beautiful villages with typical buildings: just think about Cisternino, which rises in this area called “Murgia of the Trulli” counted, together with the nearby Locorotondo, among the most beautiful villages in Italy. Mentioned until the mid-eighteenth century “Luogorotondo” for the characteristic roundabouts of the historical centre.

Between Bari and Taranto is located Martina Franca, the most populated town in the Itria Valley, well-known for its beautiful Baroque architecture and the same musical festival.

Then, there is the White City, the only one in the valley with a balcony on the sea: Ostuni. Called White city due to its characteristic old town, once entirely painted with white. Ostuni is together with Taranto and Santa Maria di Leuca, one of the ideal vertices of the Salento peninsula.

Absolutely to do a “trip to the center of the earth”, to the Caves of Castellana (in the municipality of Castellana Grotte), where Grave, the first and largest cave as well as the only one connected to the outside, and then the White Cave will leave speechless words to any visitor.

In Alberobello, among the trulli, local association organize in a spectacular scenery the Living Nativity, in December, and the Living Passion during the Easter period.

In Martina Franca, in July, since 1975, you find the Festival of the Itria Valley.

On the hill overlooking the elegant village of Fasano, you find the homonymous selva “Selva di Fasano” inside which you find the Zoo Safari, a park suitable for children and old people who offers the visitor a truly amazing experience; Over 40 animal species to discover into the wild.

Walking, workshops and tastings at the several educational farms, farms distributed throughout the territory that propose for schools, but not only, direct observation and study experiences, and then manipulations, fruit harvest, participation in the various stages of transformation Of agricultural products, creation of small objects in clay, tasting of typical products.
For example “Sporcamussi”: you can not get up from the table without the dirty mouth of cream and sugar. They are the typical desserts of Bari and Itria Valley, and they got that name because they are so good that, eating them in a single bite, they delight the palate but also they leave traces!

2017-02-25
Mottola, when nature is a set

Mottola, when nature is a set.

is an article by Città Meridiane – cittameridiane.it

Mottola, Wilderness and Caves of God, in the Murge Tarantine among reliefs of deep graves and deep canyons.

Among the most spectacular and even less well-known paths in the land of Puglia there is the Murge Tarantine area, hills interrupted by deep canyons that run perpendicular to the Ionian coast: a rock universe formed two million years ago.

A landscape that catches eyes and fills the soul, among rocks and Mediterranean steppe. Walking on the edge of the cliffs, in the midst of lentisk trees and juniper bushes, it seems to be in a another world, still little traveled by tourism and made of countries perched on the brink of deep canyons sourrounded by orange trees and olive trees.

As Mottola, located on a panoramic hill overlooking the deep blue of the Taranto’s Gulf.

Here is the most spectacular and majestic canyon of Puglia, the Petruscio’s canyon, from the vertical rocky wall painted by caves.

The rock village has developed on the sides of the canyon “gravina” in italian language, within the different levels of the interconnected caves that have been used for centuries as houses, animal shelter, religious worship centers and even cemeteries.

Twisting paths lead to the bottom of the gravina but the most interesting point of observation is the one from which you can admire it right from the center of the horizon: well known to few have allowed us to create spectacular photos that give the idea of how deep and extensive this is Split engraved in the rock.

Mottola also has an old town circular center that hangs on the hillside between intricate streets and steep stairs and many churches, which should certainly be more valued. Located on the top is the 13th century Mother Church.

But the most interesting churches are certainly those rupestrian and the most beautiful of St. Nicholas, called the Sistine Chapel of rock civilization, where it remains open in front of the cycle of 24 frescoes dating from the XI to XIV century.

Another singular rupestrian church is the one of Sant’Angelo, which is the only case in Puglia, a two-story hypogean rock church, a typical architectural solution of Cappadocia and the Byzantine world. It is a pity that the frescoes are very compromised by water infiltration, favored by the overturning of the above ground.

Around Mottola there is a real open-air museum between ancient farms “masserie”, trulli, cisterns, rock villages and the “Grotte di Dio” ( caves of god ) dugged into tuffy valleys and immersed in the intense aroma of rosemary, thyme and oranges. And here is the culture of living in the cave, with architectural jewels from the iconographic apparatus of exceptional artwork such as the finely frescoed crypts, real pinacoteche guarded in rock formwork. These are not isolated phenomena, though here they reach a very high level of fine art but fall into a natural, anthropic and cultural habitat typical of the Mediterranean basin, extended from Turkey to Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Armenia, southern Italy, Tunisia, Jordan, Israel, France and Spain, and characterized by the use of the cave excavated as a temple, church, dwelling, fortress, village, necropolis.

In a small garrison, among rosemary plants and capers and olive trees, rises the church of the Madonna del Carmine or Madonna Abbàsc, partially excavated in the rock that, when it comes to a sunny day, looks like a small clump of Greece in the Apulian land.

To deceive the shape of the upper part of the sanctuary and the murky white of the walls. Legend has it that on April 22, 1506, the Virgin of Carmel appeared in dream to the clergyman Francesco Pietro di Filippo, who rested in the cave where he lived, and ordered him to build a dedicated chapel. Since then, during the Lenten Saturdays, there is a crowded votive pilgrimage from Mottola to the chapel and from many nearby centers.

We relentlessly leave this paradise of peace and devotion. With a promise: we will return to Mottola to visit the much more that the city offers to those who are ready to seize its often hidden sights, cause nature is a set.

photo by cittameridiane.it

2017-02-22
Capocollo of Martina Franca

Capocollo of Martina Franca

Capocollo of Martina Franca is a sausage made from meat from pigs born and raised extensively in the territory of Martina Franca.

The production technique provides certain characteristics such as the treatment stages by vino cotto and smoking. Capocollo of Martina Franca has a deep wine red in color and a pronounced aroma linked to the use of spices and the smoking process. The texture is soft and fragrant flavor with sour feeling imparted by vino cotto and well supported by the quality of the meat.

Product category

Meat (and offal) and their preparation

Area of origin

The surrounding area of Martina Franca (Taranto, Puglia, Italy)

Productive process

Capocollo of Martina Franca is a sausage made from meat from pigs born and raised extensively in the territory of Martina Franca. The raw material is formed by the upper portion of the neck of the pig and from a part of the shoulder. After salting, the meat is washed with vino cotto ( from white wine Martina), mixing with aromas of local herbs, thene there is the ligation in pig gut to form pieces of cylindrical shape and weight of 0,5- 2 kg. The smoking process takes place by burning wood and the bark of a Fragno oak, a tree native of Balkans now present only in some areas of Puglia. The seasoning lasts about 3 months.

Production period

All the year.

History and tradition

The historical testimonies describe pig meat processing according to the protocol used for the production of Martina Franca capocollo since the seventeenth century.

description from Atlante dei Prodotti Tipici di Puglia Prima Edizione – Ottobre 2006

2017-02-08