The Southern Table - Southern Italy - page 487

is burrata, a mozzarella filled with a wickedly buttery cream. Burrata itself was invented
in the neighbouring region of Puglia; the swampy fields around Foggia are famed for their
buffalo-milk goodness.
As for that irresistible taste, it's the high fat content and buffalo milk protein that give
mozzarella di bufala the distinctive, pungent flavour so often absent in the versions sold
abroad.
Fifty years ago, Italy's Domus magazine dispatched journalists nationwide to collect Italy's best regional
recipes. The result is Italy's food bible, The Silver Spoon, now available in English from Phaidon (2005).
Puglia, Basilicata & Calabria
Italy's Busiest Virgin
Campania and Sicily may produce some impressive olive oils, but southern Italy's olio
(oil) heavyweight is Puglia. The region produces around 40% of Italy's olive oil, much of
it from the region's north. Indeed, Puglia is home to an estimated 50 to 60 million olive
trees, and some of these gnarled, silver-green icons are said to be thousands of years old.
While Pugliese oil is usually made up of two particular types of olives - faintly bitter
coratina (from Corato) and sweet, fat ogliarola (from around Cima di Bitonto) - there is
no shortage of common olive varieties. Among these are cellina di nardò, frantoio, lec-
cino, peranzana, garganica, rotondella, cima di bitonto and cima di mola. The European
Union itself formally recognises four Denomination of Origin of Production (DOP) areas
in Puglia in order to protect the unique characteristics of each terroir: Collina di Brindisi
DOP, Dauno DOP, Terra d'Otranto DOP and Terra di Bari DOP. Sweet fruitiness charac-
terises the oils from Collina di Brindisi, while Dauno DOP oils are noted for their aromat-
ic, well-rounded nature. Ancient growing regions define both the Terra di Bari DOP and
Terra d'Otranto DOP oils, the former known for their clear colour and almond notes, the
latter for their darker green hue and fresh herb aroma.
Whatever the origin, the best oil is made from olives that are picked and rushed to the
mill, as olives that are left for too long after harvesting quickly become acidic. Pugliese
farmers traditionally harvest the easy way: by letting the olives drop into nets, rather than
paying for labour-intensive harvesting by hand. This means the olives are too acidic and
the oil has to be refined, often taken north to mix with higher quality, costlier oils. That