What to eat in Bari

Bari's cuisine is based on three typical agricultural products found in the Puglia region: wheat, olive oil and wine. A wide variety of fruit and vegetables is also produced locally. Local flour is used in homemade bread and pasta including the famous "orecchiette", hat-shaped pasta, "recchietelle" or "strascinate" (orecchiette of different sizes) and "cavatelli".
Homemade dough is also used for baked "calzoni" , pies stuffed with onions, anchovies, capers and olives; fried "panzerotti" with mozzarella cheese, simple "focaccia" (a kind of pizza) with tomatoes, etc.
Meat dishes and the local Barese "ragù" (stuffed meat rolls cooked in tomato sauce) often include lamb, pork and often horse meat, considered something of a local delicacy.
"Pasta al forno", a baked pasta dish, is very popular in Bari and was historically a Sunday dish. The traditional recipe consists of "penne" or similar tubular pasta shapes, tomato sauce, small beef and pork meatballs and halved hard boiled eggs; but different families have variations. The pasta is then topped with mozzarella or similar cheese and then baked in the oven to make the dish top crispy.

Bari is the capital of an important fishing area, so it offers fresh fish, and also seafood (octopus, sea urchins, mussels), often eaten raw. In fact, perhaps Bari's most famous dish is the oven-baked "Riso, patate e cozze" (rice with potatoes and mussels).

By Margherita, Alessia, Caterina, Rosemary, Stefania

("focaccia" picture from www.flickr.com)