Re-milled durum wheat semolina, boiled potato that keeps the crumb moist, water, yeast and salt: the soft dough is spread in round oiled trays, left to rise twice, then topped with hand-crushed cherry tomatoes — never cut with a knife —, baresane olives, oregano and a generous stream of Apulian extra virgin olive oil.
It was not born in a kitchen, but in the public ovens of Bari Vecchia. Bakers used a piece of leftover dough to test the oven's temperature before baking the bread: that «test piece» was topped with whatever was on hand — at first just oil and salt, later also tomato once it arrived from the Americas — and given out to the neighbourhood's children, so as not to waste the leftover dough.
Today a consortium brings together the historic bakeries that still make it with local wheat and sun-ripened Apulian tomatoes, following regulations that set out ingredients and proportions: it is eaten warm, cut into wedges, at any hour of the day.
