Things you do for a hungry friend - Shepherd's bread

How to feed a hungry biker - Variations of Friselle with pistacchio ricotta 

Friselle the double baked rock hard bread from Puglia comes in handy in two different situations in life.

First: You decide your job really seriously sucks and you decide to become a shepherd herding sheep for weeks out in the field.

Second: You have friends like we have (or us) that like to surprise you. They usually come with two classics:

"Do you happen to have a little nibble" often followed by "A drink? Oh well, I'll have what you have" (have a look at their faces when you tell them - camomile infused water ;-) ). 

In this particular case it was Pavel - No offense we love your visits :-) Especially when you bring your camera...

Here is what we did together:

Two variations of friselle with pistacchio ricotta cheese.

This is what it takes:

• a handful of cherry tomatoes
• a small shallot
• bunch of basil leaves
• a few spoons of our fig jam (unsweetened)
• as many friselle (we get ours at mozarellaart) as you need (alternatively thick slices of completely dried bread or even just toasted bread) 
• ricotta (ideally very fresh ) with pistacchio (if you can't get that just mix a few lightly salted pistacchios under the regular ricotta)
• good olive oil like our oil from Olivi 
• fresh black pepper
• a bit of fresh lemon/lime juice
• a pinch of organic sugar
• pinch of sea salt

Get your friends involved!

In this case let them do this:

 Have a pot with cold water ready and ask them to quickly dip in the friselle from both sides. Let them rest afterwards. (Actually the Italian shepherds did that with wine - your choice :-) ). The friselle are so dry to allow the shepherds to take it with them for weeks without getting spolied. When you dip them the outside gets nicely soft and the inside stays perfectly crunchy. Great combination of textures.

On this photo I did the first ones myself but trust me the rest was done by him ;-)

In the meantime focus your voodoo on the preparation of the toppings:

Classic Tomato Salsa-Ricotta topping:

Very finely chop up the shallot - There is no excuse in the world for thick pieces of onion - 

Slice the cherry tomatoes in half, de-seed them (that makes them less soggy) and slice them into thin slices. 

Chop the basil. Mix all of the above in a small bowl. Season with a splash of lemon/lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Let it rest for a moment for the aromi to get mixed up.

That's usually a good moment to have a sip of wine with your friends.

While you do that ask your friends to generously spread the ricotta on the friselle. Since our friends are usually particularly hungry - No offense, Pavel! - we calculate at least 2 friselle per person.

In fairness he came by bike ;-)

On one of them distribute the salsa on top of the ricotta. Be generous with the salsa - remember the friselle are still dry inside and the salsa provides a nice source of moist.

On the other one just distribute a good soup spoon of our unsweetened Fig Jam. Give it an additional kick with freshly ground black pepper.

The whole preparation will not take you longer than 10 minutes and trust us, the result will look and tast amazing.

In the end it should look somewhat like this:

This for me is a typical dish from the cucina povera which is just waiting to be discovered again. Like many other dishes which we now enjoy this was born out of necessity using the simplest products you can find around in the area. I know I should ask for forgiveness since I am not sure that the fig version with black pepper and ricotta exists in Puglia. Sorry friends from Puglia I didn't mean to mess with your traditions - but try it!

When we had this we drank it with a wine from the same region. It should be a wine with not too much complexity and rich in flavor and body. We like it with the Negroamaro from Vinosia. Negroamaro is a typical grape variety from the region. Its fruity taste goes really well with the sugar and acid in the salsa and fig jam. It also has enough body to stand against the spices but not too much to overpower the fine taste of the ricotta.  

Enjoy it! Experiment with the basic idea and most importantly SHARE it with friends. Let us know how you liked it!