RED RIDING HOOD

My Life in Sicily finished after a year spent on this island. It was time to turn on my Tintine (a beautiful red car), hop on a ferry and say goodbye. I was nostalgic as a was driving through Reggio Calabria. But soon I was in Puglia – the region with the best Italian cheeses.

My first stop was not much known but soon to be popular: Alberobello. It’s under Unesco since 1996. Instagram took it’s turn and make it more and more popular. As we arrived, it was a cold winter day but still full of tourists. I wonder what kind of chaos they experience during the summer time.

The history of the trulli is linked to an edict of the 15th-century Kingdom of Naples that subjected every new settlement to a tribute. In 15th century, it has been imposed to the owners of the territory of Alberobello that they build their dwellings dry, without using mortars, so that they could be configured as precarious buildings and easily demolished. The peasants, working in the fields soon decided to group their little houses for protection, sometimes sleeping in these houses (trulli) in the middle of the fields, sometimes storing their tools.

We had a sleepover in one of these trullis. It was quite and romantic. Not much warm as the stone does not heat much. I remember it was indicated not to spend too much time under a shower in order to keep the warm water running. This is because the village is old, under the UNESCO protection and the plumbing system is hard to be emplaced.

Still, to spend the night inside the trullo was unique and somehow cozy. Once you get in the bed, after a good meal and long day of driving – the feeling is divine.

Many of the houses have the symbol on the roof. This is the signature of the local architect. But as well, it served as the orientation for peasants to recognise their trullo.

Time to eat. In Puglia you eat burrata, mozzarella, ricotta and Cacioricotta. This one-of-a-kind soft cheese is Puglia’s take on ricotta. It’s created using cow, goat or sheep’s milk and two different cheese-making techniques that include curdling the milk. Traditionally produced in the spring, cacioricotta is flaky and delicate with the perfect hint of saltiness.

We paired it with local sun-dried tomatoes, olives and dry meat.

The warm focaccia with the dry tomatoes inside the dough was the best one I ever had. Rustical Puglia, but authentical. Totally different from the developed north of Italy.