Pane di Altamura Dop is a traditional Apulian bread product from the zone of the Murgia Altamura in the province of Bari.
Delicious Italy – To get an idea as to how long and how much this bread has been part of the Puglia local food culture, the Latin poet Orazio in the 37 BC was hailing it the best bread he had ever eaten.
The Bread’s Place in Local Life
For centuries in local agricultural society each family used to prepare a large dough of bread at home.
They would then take it to a public oven or ‘forno a legna’ where it would cook with others made by families from the rest of the village.
To avoid confusion the baker would mark each piece of bread with the name of its owner.
When baked each family knew which loaf was theirs.
Although it is more romantic to think that the baker would call out the names one by one as he distributed the finished product.
The main characteristic of Altamura bread is its shelf life. It can last one or even two weeks and the average loaf is a kilo in weight.
This was to guarantee sustenance for the workers in the sparse fields of the ‘Murgie’.
Such was the filling nature of the bread their weekly diet consisted of little more than bread, olive oil and water.
