The frisella is a “bread biscuit” of baked durum wheat, cut in half horizontally and made to biscuit again in the oven, it will have a porous face and a compact.

A bit of history…

Before the Second World War, wheat flour frisella was reserved for wealthy tables and a few other celebratory occasions. The lower classes of the population consumed barley flour friselle or mixtures of barley and wheat.

Frisella can be stored for a long time and this made it a valid alternative to bread, in times when flour was scarcer.

In the past in Apulia it was used to wet the friselle directly in sea water, and eat them seasoned with only fresh tomato, crushed on it to let out the juice.

The shape responds to precise transport and storage needs, in fact, they were threaded into a cord whose terminals were knotted to form a necklace, which was easy to hang for easy and convenient transport and dry storage.

Frisella was in fact a bread for travel; hence the use of bathing in sea water by fishermen, who also used it as a bottom for fish or mussel soups, usual food during fishing trips that lasted several days.

This biscuit bread is very versatile, can be seasoned with garlic, oil, tomato and basil in its classic version but you can space and experiment with combinations such as grilled vegetables, olives, a burrata, and enrich it with raw ham.