Can a region of just 500,000 residents give life to two focaccia recipes that are so different yet equally tasty? The answer is a resounding “yes” if we make a stop in Basilicata, on our journey through Italy’s pizza, focaccia and piadina recipes! Here in Basilicata, the specialties in question are the fucuazza and the strazzata. Two focaccia recipes that represent the identity of the region and its inhabitants – and even a little of the outside influence from its “powerful” neighbors, the focaccia barese and the pitta calabrese!
Fucuazza
Drawing territorial boundaries between the fucuazza and the strazzata is difficult, if not impossible. It seems, however, that the epicenter for both focaccia recipes is Avigliano in Potenza - at the heart of the Lucanian baking tradition. According to the street food gurus at www.cibodistrada.it, the ‘fucuazza cu la prmmarora’ is an authentic street food of Basilicata. In fact, at the Antico Forno di Valvano, making fucuazza is an ancient tradition and art form. It’s a focaccia prepared on a baking sheet, with a rather flat dough and crunchy edges, seasoned only with extra-virgin olive oil, oregano, tomato and baked in a wood-burning oven. The dough is a hymn to simplicity, prepared according to tradition from flour and sourdough – the fruit of a millennia closely tied to the art of baking in Puglia, and to baking in Laterza and Altamura in particular. The current appearance of the fuchuazza is obviously an "update" of the late eighteenth-century recipe, though, since tomato sauce didn’t exist prior to that. And without tomato, fucuazza would have been more similar to the “mother” of all pizza and focaccia – the ‘placenta’ cited by Cato the Elder, to which we are all forever indebted.
Strazzata
Strazzata is another specialty that you can enjoy in the streets of Avigliano, but it’s a little different from fucuazza. In fact, its donut shape and the hole in the center are reminiscent of the Catanzaro pitta calabrese. The dough, however, is made with different ingredients: soft wheat flour, durum wheat semolina, water, natural yeast and a pinch of salt. But the ingredient that makes it unique is the addition of coarsely chopped chili pepper in generous quantities. The donut shape is not a secondary element, either – it helps to divide it in half when tearing by hand (hence the term ‘strazzata,’ which means ‘ripped’ in local Lucanian dialect). And a good strazzata is always filled with other ingredients like prosciutto crudo or caciocavallo cheese. It’s often filled with Lucanian sausage or an egg omelette with bell peppers. And we can’t forget the ciambotta lucana – the extra-rich peperonata made with bell peppers, eggplant, zucchini, onions, cherry tomatoes, red chili pepper and oregano. We’re in the land of spicy peppers, after all!
A symbol of abundance
Traditionally, strazzata was the focaccia for parties and festivities – weddings in particular. Wedding lunches, as anthropologist Giovanni Battista Bronzini explains in his book “Vita tradizionale in Basilicata” (1986), lasted two whole days – from Saturday to Sunday – and they began with an auspicious "breakfast" at the bride's house. In the middle of Saturday morning, the groom’s relatives were served strazzata stuffed with prosciutto and pecorino cheese or provolone cheese – all accompanied by wild fennel taralli and m'stazzuol (sweet taralli covered in sugar). The same ritual was then repeated at lunchtime – but this time at the groom's house, where the bride’s family members were served. The more fillings you had for your strazzata, the more prosperous your future would be according to tradition, so the two families would almost compete with one another to make their strazzata the best. Red chili pepper was also added to the mixture without reserve: The more pepper, the thirstier you’d be – a thirst the local wines quenched willingly. Now, a festival takes place every year in August to celebrate the strazzata tradition, in a hamlet of Avigliano called Stagliuzzo. Beware, however: In Matera, the term ‘strazzata’ (‘u'strazzet’ in dialect) refers to a specialty sweet made with flour, almonds, eggs, sugar and cocoa. (It has nothing to do with strazzata focaccia from the region.)