Flavors of Puglia - Tapa dura

Dazzling combinations of colorful, earthy vegetables.  Comforting soups with beans, grains, and fragrant herbs.  Simple seafood dishes prepared with fish and shellfish straight from the sea.  Pasta adorned with fresh, flavorful sauces.  Food that embraces the humble abundance of Puglia, from olive groves, wheatfields, vineyards, gardens, and the blue waters of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.  In this first-ever cookbook devoted to the foods of this bountiful region, located at the heel of the Italian boot, Nancy Harmon Jenkins combines her masterful knowledge of the Mediterranean with the recipes and traditions of Pugliese home cooks.

Featuring more than 100 recipes, for every course from the antipasti to dessert, Flavors of Puglia introduces American home cooks to the aromas and flavors of the cuisine of Puglia.  Taking a culinary tour of this remarkable region, Jenkins offers recipes for classic Pugliese dishes including tiedda, a casserole made with mussels, potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini; and orecchiette, Puglia's famous ear-shaped pasta, tossed with pungent broccoli rabe and dressed with a sprightly mix of oil, garlic, and red pepper.  Other recipes include panzerotti, deep-fried tarts filled with onion-olive stuffing or a spicy pork filling; stewed black olives served with chunks of country-style bread for sopping up herb-scented olive oil; calzone, a two-crusted pizza with olives, leeks, and a hint of anchovy; and fresh fish and shellfish served on their own, in casseroles, or seafood stews.

Jenkins offers graceful descriptions of Puglia's landscape and introduces readers to local fishermen, bakers, pastamakers, olive oil producers, and winemakers who produce the best food the region has to offer.  A detailed section for travelers offers restaurant and hotel suggestions and provides a list of dishes and food products that are specialties of the region.  A resource guide and extensive notes on choosing ingredients round out this splendid cookbook, which will win readers over to this charming and, as yet, undiscovered region of Italy.