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Friscous® Petramarè is a dry baked product, innovative and highly appreciated by leading Michelin-starred chefs, with roots deeply embedded in Salento’s culinary tradition. A tradition that, historically, found the origin of taste in scarcity rather than abundance.
Friscous®
Friscous® owes the golden hue of its grains to traditional Salento artisanal bread-making techniques, based on the decades-long experience of master bakers, natural leavening (sourdough starter), and the use of stone ovens fired with olive wood.
Salento. Farmer with a pajara in the background.
Stone and olive trees are still today the main elements shaping the Salento landscape. It is one of the richest areas in the world for the presence of centuries-old olive trees and, above all, stone constructions such as menhirs and dolmens—ancient testimonies of Neolithic populations—dry-stone walls that stretch for kilometers marking property boundaries, and numerous rural buildings (*pajare*) scattered throughout the hinterland, built with stones cleared from the surrounding land and assembled without the use of mortar or other binders.
Bread-making. Salento countryside.
In the past, in these rural buildings—sometimes located many kilometers away from urban centers—bread and other traditional foods, such as tomatoes or figs, were baked on site in ovens built of solid stone (flint) and fueled by *stroma*, that is, the residues (twigs and leaves) from olive pruning. In the early hours of the day, these filled the surrounding countryside with unmistakable fragrances, made of smoke and the aroma of baking delicacies.
Salento countryside
In the same way, small towns were enveloped during bread baking by the scent of stone ovens, whether private or public, run by master bakers. These figures acted as true masters of ceremony in a kind of collective ritual that still lives on in the memory of the elderly.
Wood-fired oven
After midnight, bakers would go from house to house to start the bread-making process. The women would then place the flour in the *madia* (kneading trough) and, after spreading it out, add water, sourdough starter, and salt in the center, working it with ancient, skilled gestures. About three hours later, the dough was ready for baking and was entrusted to the experienced hands of the master bakers.
The recovery of ancient baking techniques, genuine ingredients such as turmeric, “Cappelli” durum wheat flour with a low gluten index, and sourdough starter, along with strict production protocols based on high quality standards, make Friscous® a product firmly rooted in tradition yet at the same time innovative, fragrant, and wholesome.
A. Vincenti
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