An Alternative Recipe of Apulian Panzerotti Living alone is a wonderful experience, before you actually realise that your mum is not going to cook for you anymore and you’ve never touched a pan for eighteen years of your life. When I moved to Nijmegen, I would cook pasta every day to try to keep my ‘Italianness’ although it is quite impossible to find the right ingredients to recreate my mum’s dishes here. So I’ve started experimenting with different recipes using fresh and local products, opening my cuisine horizons to other cultures and tastes. During my last vacation in Italy, I went and ate panzerotti - a traditional dish from Puglia (or Apulia) known also as ‘calzone’ or ‘fried pizza’ in some other Italian regions - in a special shop in my parents’ hometown. The cook, Davide, had a really singular idea of panzerotti: he would take the original filling tomatoes and mozzarella - and play with it, inspired by traditional dishes from all around the world. Every panzerotto was an explosion of tastes; the one I ate was inspired by his 2005 trip to Australia, characterised by figs, gorgonzola, and speck. Such a weird union of tastes, isn’t it? Therefore, I will now explain to you how to cook panzerotti, and I will challenge you to add your country’s traditional ingredients to the traditional recipe and share it with your fellow students! Get creative in the kitchen! • Daniela Piangiolino
INGREDIENTS Preparation time: 15 min Cooking time: 5 min Rising time: 2 hours Ready in: 20 min
FOR THE DOUGH • 500 grams of flour • 300 ml of warm water • 3 g of dehydrated brewer’s yeast (or 10g of fresh brewer’s yeast) • 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil • 6 grams of sugar (1 small teaspoon) • 10 gr of salt (1 generous teaspoon) FOR THE STUFFING • 200 gr of mozzarella for pizza in cubes • 100 gr of tomato puree • Salt and Pepper to taste • Oregano to taste • Seed oil for frying
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