The delicious Bari focaccia is one of the many typical dishes of the Apulian cuisine. Enjoy it with us!
A delicious appetiser, a wonderful mid-morning snack, a tasty aperitif before dinner: this is Focaccia Barese, the queen of Bari's street food, in the southern region of Puglia. The focaccia is never missing from the table. At any time of day, in any part of the city, you will always find someone eating a steaming, fragrant, soft and at the same time crunchy piece of focaccia. Enjoy it with us!
Bari focaccia is one of the versions of focaccia that can be found all over Italy. You can find it in all the bakeries in Bari and its province, but it is worth mentioning at least the oldest, the Fiore bakery, a stone's throw from the Basilica of San Nicola. In 2019 it won the award for the best focaccia in Italy, as decreed by FICO Eatalyworld, the famous food theme park in Bologna.
How to make focaccia
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The Bari focaccia has a simple preparation: flour, ground semolina, yeast, lots of oil and half a boiled potato. This is the base dough, then many beautiful tomatoes are added on the top, oregano and Bari's green olives, to give the right flavour to it. You can find different type of focaccia, a thick one, white with potatoes and rosemary (or other ingredients) or with whole flour, but the traditional is always the best.
How to taste the focaccia
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To enjoy the focaccia in the best way you have to eat it hot, very hot, at risk of burning the palate with tomatoes. In fact, some prefer to remove them just because they are too hot. In many, however, will quarrel to have the piece with the olive, the most delicious. Accompanied by a good beer is the best; the most greedy also appreciate it with a slice of mortadella.
The focaccia for the people of Bari
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But how to order focaccia in Bari?
Let's take a look at the focaccia's units of measurement according to Bari dialect. The whole focaccia is called a "wheel", because it is circular in shape, usually shared by several people. The 'stezz' is the actual portion, which can be ordered by weight, but will always be less than a quarter of a wheel. For the hungriest there is the 'half wheel', half of a focaccia.
Whether it's a half wheel or just a small piece, never leave Bari without tasting the focaccia, it's like a love affair without kisses.