• Taralli con lo zucchero
• Preparing Scaldatelli
• Boiling and Baking Scaldatelli

Dolciaria Monti is a family-run tarallificio, like most small businesses in Italy are. Their products are mainly consumed locally but they ship about 30% to other parts of Italy. Nepotism is something that is usually criticized but when it’s seen from a different point of view, it feels absolutely necessary. I find that nepotism is viewed as “unfair” only when it’s jobs that other people want! But what if you have something to give your children that they don’t want?

In Salvatore’s case, he entered into the taralli-making business through a side door. The grandparents of his wife started making taralli and other pastries from their home in Monte Sant’Angelo for weddings and special occasions, using the family’s wood-burning oven. Soon, they started selling taralli at the weekly market in Manfredonia, as taralli weren’t yet common to be found there.

They were selling so many taralli they stopped the pasticceria pastry-making side of their business and concentrated on just taralli, opening a store in Manfredonia.

Salvatore and his wife have three sons, none of which are interested in continuing to work for Dolciaria Monti, much like the case of the forno Pugliese I mentioned months ago (though he has daughters). Luckily, his nephew has expressed an interest in the tarallificio. He started at an early age, 13, and now works alongside his wife, who he met while she was also working there.

Luckily their children also seem interested and spent the afternoon there. Before you start talking about child labor laws, their children were on summer vacation (yes, I’ve been sitting on these pictures a while) and it was refreshing to see how much they enjoyed being with their parents and concentrated on actually making the taralli. Hopefully they will be able to pass the store directly on to their children.

Scaldatelli are a form of taralli, and the name means something as scalda is from the verb scaldare “to heat/warm up” and they are quite large, thick circles a bit larger than your palm.

The raw ingredients: flour, olive oil, some other special ingredients like semi di finocchio fennel seeds, are mixed in a large mixer. They are sometimes made with hot pepper, as well (my favorite).

The dough is then turned out onto a table to rest.

When the family is ready, they slice huge chunks of the dough off and feed it into the dough cutter, which cuts them into lengthwise strips.

The soldiers coming out of the dough cutting machine, ready for the next step.

Number 5 is alive? The sight of the dough being fed into the dough-cutter had a familiar look to it.

Salvatore demonstrates how they used to cut pieces and hand-roll the dough. Now the machine does this for them but they still have to form the scaldatelli by hand. The strips of dough are then formed into a circle and “signed” by the thumbprint that seals the two ends together. They used to do the entire process by hand and they were able to make about 25 kilos of product every day. Now that they’ve automated the mixing and cutting, they’ve been able to make about 150-200 kilos of scaldatelli every day (in addition to other products).

I see this little girl, the same one admiring the taralli allo zucchero, as the future boss of this taralli empire. She was diligent and interested in everything about it! (Or maybe she’ll just be a food blogger, like me)

Next up…the scaldatelli are not ready to go into the oven…yet! I’ll show you what happens next.

Dolciaria Monti
Via Della Croce 44, Manfredonia

---
Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Inside a Pugliese Tarallificio: Boiling and Baking Scaldatelli
• Inside a Pugliese Taralli Maker: Taralli con lo zucchero
• Inside a Pugliese Forno (Breadmaker), part 2: Into the Oven!
• The Best Holiday Cookie Swap Ever
• Inside a Pugliese Forno (Breadmaker)

I am lucky to spend a lot of time in Puglia, and I love sharing what I see there: going inside a breadmaker’s, going to a festival celebrating mozzarella, an army of orecchiette, or learning how to open and eat sea urchin!

This time around, I’m inside one of my favorite Tarallificio – Biscotteria makers in Manfredonia, Dolciaria Monti. Taralli, (tah-RAHL-lee)a traditional Pugliese snack, is what I like to call “Italy’s Pretzel” – a versatile, crunchy snack made with flour and Pugliese olive oil as the main ingredients.

Inside a Pugliese Tarallificio

• Taralli con lo zucchero
• Preparing Scaldatelli
• Boiling and Baking Scaldatelli

Since I have so much to share, I’ll be talking more about how taralli are made and various forms of them this week, but for today, I’ll tell you more about the taralli posted on Friday.

They have several names – Taralli / Taralluci con lo zucchero – Tarallini glassati – Glassati al limone and a few others I’m sure you’ll inform me of (leave them in the comments!).

These taralli also had a special function: they were once used in la colazione, “the breakfast” which was not actually breakfast, but something given to wedding guests as a sort of bomboniere, or wedding favor, including tarallucci con lo zucchero and scaldatelli, which I’ll talk about soon. S’ grandmother can remember La Colazione being used in weddings in that area but now it’s practically extinct as a practice.

The dough for these taralli dolci sweet taralli is not the same dough as the savory ones. It’s slightly sweeter, and the flavor of the oil is not as prevalent in the savory ones. They are also much thicker than normal taralli, so it still has a firmer exterior but a softer semi-cakey/crumbly inside.

That is, once you get past the sugar glaze. The lovely, super-lemony sugar glaze which I think I could drink if not under constant supervision.

The glaze is first heated on the stove, where it’s stirred until the correct consistency is reached. I’ll be speaking more about the family that runs this tarallificio but, as you can see, these taralli con lo zucchero are this girl’s favorite kind. She looked on wistfully until she got a chance to stir, too.

After the glaze is ready, the taralli are dipped and set on wire racks to drip off excess glaze. If you’d like to put your mouth underneath to catch the drips, you’re not alone. The smell in the small kitchen is enough to drive you crazy.

The stainless-steel counter underneath also serves a second purpose. When the taralli have stopped dripping but the glaze is still warm, a pastry scraper gathers up all the excess with a few efficient swipes.

Another Pugliese army is assembled and ready, similar to the orecchiette. After they cool down enough, they’ll be weighed and put into plastic bags for sale. I never forget a bag for our taralli order.

How would you eat these sugary, lemony treats? Have you eaten them before?

---
Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Inside a Pugliese Tarallificio: Boiling and Baking Scaldatelli
• Inside a Pugliese Tarallificio: Preparing Scaldatelli
• Fresh Pasta with Basil, Tomatoes and Burrata
• Inside a Pugliese Forno (Breadmaker), part 2: Into the Oven!
• New Additions to the Artigianale Basket for a Menu for Hope

Some ingredients for a perfect barbecue in Italy:

Plenty of pane e pomodoro, bread and tomatoes, the most addictive form of crack that I know of. Start with fresh Pugliese bread, which has a few holes for the oil to fall through (and then you can fare la scarpetta and wipe it all up with your last remaining bite). The tomatoes have to be so ripe that when you rub them on the bread, they explode immediately and all you’re left with is a lonely inverse tomato skin. Top that with the finest Pugliese oil, and some rucola / rocket / arugala for a spicy bite.

What more could you want?

A wood-burning oven, to replenish the barbecue coals or to toast the bruschetta while everyone is salivating and waiting with their plates casually clenched in their hands. Also doubles as a warming device.

You must have some animals around, if anything to break up the afternoon. Unless they are too busy playing alone to bother with you. If they can be as cute as these, you’ll be ok with just looking at them.

Mom and daughter take a break.

A splendid view of olive trees straight on until the sea, to remind us that we can’t get closer to Mother Earth in this moment.

As you watch her make things grow before your very eyes.

And you must, you absolutely must, have a Conga Line.

What would you add to make this Barbecue even better?

---
Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Chestnut Flour Chocolate Chunk Muffin Recipe
• Made in America: Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
• Made in America: Barbecue Baked Beans with Bacon Recipe
• A Day Trip from Milan to Monte Barro, Regional Park near Lecco
• 4th of July Fireworks in Milan, Expat Style