Edited by Maria Luigia Vurro
In a very famous episode of Love Bugs, which has now gone viral, the Barese actor Emilio Solfrizzi hysterically explains to Giorgia Surina, a Milanese doc, what the preparation of his favourite dish, considered the top among Bari delicacies, consists of. Solfrizzi's hysteria is well-founded: his girlfriend in the series, Giorgia Surina, cooks the components of this dish, i.e. rice, potatoes and mussels, separately, then combines them into a single dish. Too bad that Bari tradition dictates that the three main ingredients must necessarily be cooked together. Quoting the same Solfrizzi, "patateriseccozze is a unique title', an inseparable pagan trinity that has been the test of Apulian housewives for generations.
The real curiosity about this dish is its dualism: potato rice and mussels, which we will call by its scientific name, tiella, for convenience, has over the centuries become an identity dish, a 'food DOCG without a crown' of the land of Bari, with a very strict specification and a production area of choice, namely Bari vecchia, but at the same time has strong cultural roots that embrace the entire Mediterranean basin, including Spain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco and even Palestine. A rich and complex history, that of the tiella, which starts from its very name.
The name tiella indicates the vessel, i.e. a steel or terracotta pan, in which the dish is cooked, in the oven in modern times but originally over burning coals. For the sake of fairness, even though this could lead to a strong diatribe with the Bari community, it should be pointed out that in Salento there is taieddha, whose recipe is practically identical to the tiella bareseincluding the seasoning of philosophical dissertations on the addition of courgette. Not only that: in Calabria the name tijeddra is used to identify numerous baked pasta dishes, with meat, fish and seasonal vegetables. So, the name is not exactly exclusive to Puglia, let alone Bari.
In fact, it would appear that the name derives from the Greek tagenonwhich simply means 'casserole'.
A word from which a multitude of Mediterranean dish names are derived, including the sayyadiyye Lebanese, a rice dish with fried sea bream and a sauce of sesame cream, lemon juice and pine nuts, or the famous Berber tajine, a seductive stew of squid, swordfish and prawns enriched with spices, tomatoes and black olives. It is extremely easy, from the
etymological, to draw a line connecting the tajine, the tiella/taieddha pugliese and the Spanish paella in its countless variations, since all these dishes are named after the container in which they are cooked. But while in the Apulian tradition the tiella can be made of various materials and in various shapes, the paella must be round and low, with two side handles to lift it and bring it directly to the table, while the tajine is made of earthenware and has a tall conical lid. Beyond the border of nominal similarity, the differences multiply.
The paella de marisco, which many identify as the 'progenitor' of the Bari tiella, features a multitude of seafood products in addition to the simple mussels, as does the tajine: squid, prawns, langoustines, combined with shellfish stew, saffron, sweet paprika and chilli pepper come together in a dish that tastes like a meeting of coastal fish cuisine
Spanish and Middle Eastern spice culture. A characteristic, that of the spices, which in the tiella, enriched by the intriguing simplicity of a pinch of onion, tomato, pecorino cheese, parsley and a sprinkling of black pepper, has no counterpart. Potatoes are absent from the 'paella de marisco', but we find them in many other regional variations of this very famous Spanish dish and in some variations of the tajine. The type of rice used also changes: paella is enriched by the so-called 'bomba rice', so called because of its rounded shape. La
tajine is cooked without rice, but in some variants it is accompanied by white basmati.
So where does the tradition of tiella come from?
In fact, traces of this dish's history can be found in the gastronomic culture of rice in the Mediterranean basin. Arriving in Sicily and Spain after having travelled through Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Morocco, this little white grain already had a greater history behind it: initially used as a medicinal plant in Mesopotamia, it had become a respectable side dish for poultry, fish and vegetable dishes, it was ground together with sesame and nigella to make bread in Iran and, among the Arab peoples, it was cooked in milk or broth together with honey, date molasses and grape syrup.
Middle Eastern recipes also see it 'dirtied' in yellow and ochre with a combination of spices: saffron and sweet paprika in the Arab kabsa or the chickpea and lentil dishes of eastern Morocco. But we find a hint of similarity in the Palestinian maqloubeh, a casserole of rice, chicken (or fish in seaside locations such as Gaza) and aubergine or cauliflower,
in which the real special feature is the layering of ingredients. Maqloubeh in Arabic means 'overturned', a name that refers to the fact that before being eaten, this dish must be overturned from the pan in which it was cooked into a large serving dish. It is therefore essential for those cooking maqloubeh to arrange its ingredients in layers, in
so that chicken and vegetables are on top of the flan when it is flipped over.
And it is precisely the layering that is the real novelty of the queen of Bari dishes. Totally absent in the Spanish paella, in which the rice is rhythmically mixed and sautéed with the other ingredients, very rudimentary in the Palestinian maqloubeh, the skilful alternation of layers of potatoes, rice and mussels is transformed into a true masterpiece of gastronomic engineering in the tiella. And here it becomes necessary to delve into its 'specification'.
Tiella originated as a peasant and seafood dish, to be prepared if possible the night before or a few hours before eating it (woe betide trying to eat it freshly baked!) and poor in ingredients, the choice of which was initially tied to the availability of vegetables
specific seasons. Hence it is easy to respond to the diatribe about courgette, which went viral with an advertisement by the local gas company, Amgas: putting courgette in the tiella is not an offence and does not violate the rules of the 'production specification'.
Even in the heart of Bari's old town, every family has its own particular recipe for tiella, including a strange, little-known fusion variant that adds a bit of egg to the courgette as a glue between rice and mussels. But the latter, lacking any real witnesses able to affirm its actual existence, is lost in legend.
The recipe for this simply named dish should not mislead, as unfortunately happened with Giorgia Surina's character in Love Bugs mentioned above. The ingredients are few, it is true, but they must be prepared with care. The rice should be rinsed in cold water to remove some of its starch, the mussels (strictly from Taranto) should be maniacally cleaned with a metal straw and opened raw with a small knife. They should be kept in their own liquid for optimal cooking. The baking tray should be sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil and onions, before welcoming the base of potatoes (and courgettes, for the more adventurous) cut into even slices (no more than ½ cm thick). Layering involves alternating potatoes, seasoned with onions, tomato, parsley and pecorino romano cheese, mussels (with a valve, of course) and rice, arranged to be contained by the valve. Everything until the pan is completely filled, the last layer of which must be potatoes and liquids filtered from the mussels. No additional water, no salt, just the precious saltiness of the sea and, at most, pecorino cheese.
The story of the Bari tiella is not entirely new, but it is undoubtedly original. Rice, potatoes and mussels, in their simplicity, are transformed into a single dish that unites families and attracts star chefs, food lovers and experts from all over the world. It is a merit that no one can take away from Bari and the people of Bari.
Read the whole special on Apulian cuisine. Browse the magazine below and turn to page 79
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