Freselle Pugliese

Along with the much discussed salad caprese, this is probably my favorite way to enjoy summer tomatoes. I couldn't find many references to this delightful dish on the forum, and as it never shows up on restaurant menus I thought a thread might be in order. You can find these hard little ring shaped breads at any Italian bakery, but I never knew what to do with them until an Italian neighbor invited us over for a snack one summer evening.

Very easy to prepare, you begin by rubbing the surface with a cut clove of garlic, then a brief run under the tap to soften things up. Top with coarsely chopped ripe tomatoes, a bit more oil, basil, black pepper and good salt. Hot peppers, anchovies, shaved Parmesan ,olives or nice Italian (or even better Spanish) tuna or sardines also find their way in from time to time. Available in whole wheat and white, I like both (but the wheat ones do get rancid after a while). The little ones from IL Mulino are particularly good but sometimes hard to find. Those from Palermo bakery and D'amatos aren't bad either.

Like salad Caprese, when the ingredients are top notch the end result can greatly exeede the sum of it's parts.I imagine there must be lots of other variations (which I would love to hear about). With the excellent tomatoes showing up recently in local farmer's markets this has been dinner several times this week. I hope others are enjoying this simple dish as much as I am.

K,

The standard spelling is freselle. The Pugliesi certainly make and eat them and so the phrase freselle pugliesi definitely can be appropriate in a Pugliese context, but it seems worth noting that freselle are made and eaten throughout Southern Italy. In the old days, they were a very common basis for a meal and something which I grew up eating alongside my grandfather and father back east; I still consume them on a regular basis but in general, they are far less popular around here than they were 30 or more years ago, according to my friends in the baking world.

Incidentally, there's a section of my paper for this year's Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery that discusses the traditional uses of freselle.

I get mine at the Italian Superior Bakery in Tri-Taylor:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=25477#25477

Antonius

Antonious:

Thanks for the response. I've changed the title to the spelling you suggest (from friselle). Though I've seen both I will readily defer to your expertise on this. I had the feeling freselle were an 'old school' thing. Too bad, as they are one of my favorite foods and there's hardly any better way to enjoy summer tomatoes.It's unfortunate they aren't more widely appreciated. I'd be very interested in learning more. Any way to obtain a copy of your paper?

I haven't been to Superior, but do sometimes get them from Scafuri bakery
which is nearby.

Kuhdo,

Yes, I agree, the «friselle» spelling is frequently enountered and note that I didn't say it was wrong but rather just offered «freselle» as the standard spelling -- the former is a reasonable rendering of (some) dialectal pronunciations. If I remember correctly, D'Amato's uses an Americanised spelling, «frizzelle» or something along those lines with double -z-, which, if one tries to pronounce it as if it were actually Italian, yields gibberish.

Anyway, indeed, pretty much an 'old school' thing but part of a noble culinary tradition. Thank you for the interest in the paper -- I'll peeyém you in that regard.

'O panë 'e poverö è sempë durö...
Antonius

I loved these when I lived in NYC, and went to the Bronx a lot with an Italian friend. His mom served freselles with pasta fagioli. I loved the peppery flavor with the soup -- beans with proscuitto cooked separately. Diced tomatoes added at the end. Cooked macaroni added to the bowl first, and then the bean soup. And the leftovers were never mixed! The freselles in NY were much smaller than the ones here.

The idea of using them as a basis for bruschetta, basically, is very interesting. Never thought of wetting them to soften. Good idea.

tcdup wrote:I loved these when I lived in NYC, and went to the Bronx a lot with an Italian friend. His mom served freselles with pasta fagioli. I loved the peppery flavor with the soup -- beans with proscuitto cooked separately. Diced tomatoes added at the end. Cooked macaroni added to the bowl first, and then the bean soup. And the leftovers were never mixed! The freselles in NY were much smaller than the ones here.

The idea of using them as a basis for bruschetta, basically, is very interesting. Never thought of wetting them to soften. Good idea.

I sometimes use these in soup as well. Usually with Ciopinno, where they seem to go really well. They are really at their best with tomatoes though. Although the ingredients are indeed quite similar to bruchetta, the overall effect is very different. By the way, in these parts they come in two sizes (roughly 4"and 6"), even smaller ones (about donut size) can also be found, usually imported from Italy.