Taralli from Puglia, Italy

Taralli are traditional Italian savory snacks made of boiled and baked dough, similar to breadsticks, pretzels and crackers, but they have their own specific taste and texture.

There are many different flavors.

Some of the spices used are fennel seeds, anise seeds, chili powder, onions, garlic, olives, oregano, dried tomatoes, rosemary, salt and some are also pizza flavored. People can have fun adding different spices and creating new flavors. 

In Italy they are eaten often as an antipasto together with different kinds of cheese, olives, and deli meats. In addition, they are often eaten by themselves as a snack. 

People often have them in their home and if someone comes to visit, they can offer taralli with wine. A well-known Italian saying goes: “Finire a tarallucci e vino,” which means “to end with taralli and wine.” It’s similar to the saying “To make it up before a glass of wine” or ”To end up good friends” after a fight or conflict.

Taralli can be found throughout all of Italy. I used to live in the northern part and would buy pre-packaged taralli at the store. But every time I went to Puglia, in southern Italy, I always found bakeries filled with fresh taralli of different shapes, sizes, and flavors. This is because taralli come from Puglia.

Puglia is very special to me because I was born there. My husband’s family is from there too. In fact, we grew up with a lot of the same food cultures and traditions.

Puglia has a lot of tourism. It is famous for its beautiful beaches, marine reserves, seafood, olives trees, delicious fancy food, castles, cathedrals, Baroque art, and some unique little cities like Albero Bello, in which there are unique house shapes, called Trulli. Polignano a Mare is famous for its beautiful scenery of clear sea water and rocks and cities like Martina Franca or Ostuni, which are called the “white cities” because all the houses are white.

Taralli are also traditional from other southern regions in Italy, like Campania, Basilicata, Lazio, Molise, and Sicilia. Each region has its own recipe. Taralli from Naples are very famous.They are usually bigger in size then the ones from Puglia, and are made with lard instead of olive oil. In addition, they often have almonds in them.

The origin of taralli is not very clear, but the tradition says that taralli originated during a great famine around the year 1400. There was a mother who didn’t have much food to give to her kids. She came up with this recipe made of the simple ingredients that she had available in her home: olive oil, flour, white wine, and salt. 

Nobody really knows where the word tarallo came from, but some people say it comes from the latin verb “torrère,” which means “toast” because of its crunchy and tan color or from the greek word “daratos” which means a kind of bread.

I love having taralli available as a snack at our house. I enjoy watching the kids eat taralli, because they grow up loving the food that my husband and I grew up with and taste a part of Italy without even knowing it yet. I hope one day when they will visit Italy they will feel at home by recognizing the food they grew up with.

Rosmary Taralli from Puglia

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Ingredients

  

• 1 kg flour 8 cups
• 400 ml white wine
• 270 ml olive oil
• 17 grams salt 1 tbsp
• 17 grams rosmery 1 tbsp

Instructions

 

• Put the flour in a bowl and add half of the white wine, salt, oil, and rosemary. Mix it together.
• Add the second half of the wine and keep mixing until it becomes a dough.
• Knead the dough for 5 minutes.
• Rub olive oil on your hands and grab a 2-inch piece of dough.
• Form it into the shape of a tube 5 inches long and a little more than a ½ inch wide.
• 
• Close the tube to create the shape of a ring.
• Boil a big pot of water, and sprinkle a small pinch of salt into it.
• When the water boils, add 10 taralli to the pot. At first they will sink, but after a few minutes they will float.
• Grab them with a big spoon and put them on a cotton kitchen towel.
• Do the same for te rest of the taralli until you have boiled all of them.
• Let them dry for at least 5 hrs or overnight.
• Grab the taralli from the kitchen towel very slowly so they don’t stick to the towel.
• Preheat your oven to 360 F
• Put parchment paper on a baking sheet and add all the taralli to it. They can be close to each other because they don't grow when baked.
• Bake the taralli for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes of baking, turn off the oven but leave the taralli inside to keep warm for another 10 minutes.
• Enjoy. You can store taralli for a little over a week inside an airtight container.