"Eat this now," Beppe DiGesu said by way of warm introduction as he handed me a thick slice of focaccia, scorched and crusty, topped with olive oil, salt and pieces of tomato, baked directly on the hot stones of his family's oak-fired artisanal bread oven in Altamura, a town in the Apulian hills an hour's drive from the Adriatic Sea. I had arranged to visit Beppe DiGesu, a 4th generation baker, after tasting his exceptional bread a few days before at an Oldways conference on olive oil and the Mediterranean diet here in southern Italy.
What is Oldways, you ask? The (very) short answer is that they're a remarkable food think-tank based in Boston committed to preserving traditional eating habits -- like the Mediterranean diet -- and incorporating them into our modern lifestyles. As part of their mission they bring together a rich mix of scientists, farmers, chefs, cooks, journalists, businesspeople and other engaging folk to learn about traditional diets at conferences around the world. I was fortunate to have been invited to the latest one here in Puglia. (Please check out their website and do all you can to support this amazing organization!)
Yes, Oldways studies the nutritional benefits of traditional diets but they go much further than that. They look at the very deliciousness of these foods -- how they are so damn good to eat as they are good for you. They ask how can we take this goodness from say, Puglia -- olive oil, simply prepared fresh vegetables and legumes, rustic pastas and breads, grilled seafood and fresh cheeses -- and make it part of our modern eating habits, too. I mean, why wouldn't we want to eat like that?
I arrived at DiGesu with Heidi Swanson, an awe-inspiring fellow conference participant, accomplished photographer and cookbook author, and creator of 101 Cookbooks. We wanted to visit artisanal producers at their workplaces, so we rented a tiny-car-cum-oversized-lawnmower and drove the Apulian backroads past olive groves, Adriatic coast, old stone walls, old stone villages and flocks of sheep.
While he makes incredible focaccia, Beppe DiGesu's signature bread is a hearty, rustic traditional Altamura loaf made from local ingredients including durum wheat (the same wheat as pasta), a yeast culture that's been nourished for the past half-century and the "ambiance" of the bakery, as he said -- the natural spores on the walls and ceiling that add to his bread's unique taste. We watched as his bakers shoved loaf after loaf into a huge wood-fired oven with a 15-foot paddle. An hour later the bread was ready: It had a thick crust but the yellowish crumb (from the pasta flour) was surprisingly moist and spongy. Beppe explained that baked this way, his rustic bread kept for almost a week -- a food as practical as it was delicious.
Here's Beppe with his bread...
