Sponza Frise

Lately, I am on the track of pottery used for cooking.   I have a wonderful book on Faience cooking pottery from the south of France.  The shapes, colours, and specific uses of the various pots are fascinating.   They include mortars, skillets, tians, milk strainers, daubieres, pitchers, and so on.  

While in Italy recently, I found terra cotta cookware in artisan pottery shops as well as basic hardware/kitchen shops.  

My most interesting find was a type of strainer bowl, which in Locorotondo is called a cialledda, and in Lecce is called a sponza (Puglia dialect for drench) frise (type of bread) or sponza friselline.   The bowl is like a medium sized low bowl with a half moon shaped strainer covering half the bowl.    Stale bread is dried to a crisp in a warm oven. The usual bread is a bagel type of bread with a small hole.  The bowl is filled with water, and the bread is soaked and then strained on the perforated platform.  The bread is then eaten with oil, tomato, onion, salt, and rosemary.  

This was explained to me in Italian by the potter in Lecce, but two American art students had to come out and explain it in English.   Then Elizabeth at Masseria Aprile explained the local way.

[from a website on Apulian cooking] Craftsmens', shepherds' and farmers' faith has not been shaked in their humble bread, that bread for which Apulia is rightly famous. Statistics indicate that the daily consumption, between "frisedde" and "panette", 800 grams per person. (In the Apulian dialect, the double consonant "dd", in words like "frisedde" "cialledda", and so on, is cacuminal, that is to say that they are pronounced by turning your tongue back against your palate in order to obtain what almost sounds like "eddr". This is not just something unusual done in Apulia but it is found in many southern Italian dialects). "Frisedda" is a work of art that was created by a people whose sobriety has taught them the habit of eating very well but also how to go on prolonged fasts. Ciambella, which has a narrow hole, is made of whole wheat flour or white, baked, then cut in two horizontally and put into the oven again to get crispy. Then to finish there is little to do: just dip it into cold water and when it is well soaked, dress it with oil, pepper and salt. Tomatoes and onion may be added, too, if you like. That's it! But the shepherd and the farm-laborer with a "frisedda". and a glass of wine call the two their midday meal. With the same ingredients but using boiling water instead, you have a "cialledda".





It reminded me of our Mennonite dish called Reische Tweibach.   Stale buns are cut into two or three pieces and dried crisp in the oven.   A pot of coffee is made.   Each person around the table has a cup of coffee and a bowl and a spoon.   You soak 2 or 3 pieces of tweibach in your coffee and then transfer to the bowl.   Then add cream and jam.   In our house, cream was canned Pacific milk, and jam was usually plum with the skins.