🇮🇹Bari, Italy
The Orecchiette Pilgrimage
"Little ears" of hand-shaped pasta tangled with bitter turnip tops, garlic, anchovy and chilli. Made on the street by the pasta grandmothers of Bari's old town.
Why this dish?
Orecchiette con cime di rapa is Puglia distilled: ear-shaped semolina pasta (orecchiette, "little ears") cooked with cime di rapa - bitter, mustardy turnip tops - and dressed with garlic, anchovy melted into olive oil, and a kick of chilli. The bitterness of the greens against the salty anchovy and the chewy pasta is the whole, perfect idea. Simple, rustic, intensely regional.
The magic is in the making. In Bari Vecchia, the old town, women still sit in the doorways of Via Arco Basso - "orecchiette street" - shaping pasta by hand on wooden boards, drying it on racks, selling it to passers-by. Eating this dish where the pasta is literally made on the street in front of you is the kind of living-tradition food experience that's getting rarer in Italy. Worth the longer flight south.
Our Picks
Le Travi - Da Mimmo
- Address
- Largo Chiurlia 12, Bari
- What to order
- Orecchiette con cime di rapa, and a Puglian primitivo or negroamaro; maybe burrata to start (Puglia's other gift).
- Book ahead
- Worth booking - small and popular.
- Pro tip
- Walk Via Arco Basso first to watch the pasta being shaped - then eat it fresh nearby.
The orecchiette ladies of Via Arco Basso
Via Arco Basso, Bari Vecchia
The living, hand-shaping pasta tradition of Bari - grandmothers selling fresh orecchiette from boards in their doorways.
- What to order
- Buy a bag of hand-shaped orecchiette to take home; then graze Bari street food - sgagliozze (fried polenta) and panzerotti (fried stuffed pockets).
Good to know
Cime di rapa (turnip tops) are meant to be pleasantly bitter - that's the dish, not a flaw. Puglia is burrata and primitivo country; both are excellent here. Via Arco Basso (orecchiette street) in Bari Vecchia is the highlight; go in the morning to see the pasta-making. Flights are limited (mainly Stansted) - book early.
Your day plan
Wheels up to wheels down.
Flight goals - what you're aiming for
- 06:30Depart London
- 10:20Land Bari
- 10:55Bus/train into the centre (20 min)
- 11:25Bari Vecchia; watch the pasta-makers on Via Arco Basso
- 12:45Orecchiette con cime di rapa at Le Travi "Da Mimmo"
- 14:15The seafront promenade, the Basilica di San Nicola
- 15:45Coffee and a Puglian pastry; buy orecchiette to take home
- 16:45Back towards the airport
- 18:15Depart Bari
- —Leave well-fed and ready for the journey
