What’s the best way to experience Bari like a true local? Easy: let yourself be conquered by the typical dishes of Bari cuisine!
Simple and genuine, the culinary tradition of Bari will be able to transform your stay into an unforgettable adventure of discovering new flavors!
Between focaccia, raw seafood, orecchiette con le cime di rape and the famous tiella of patate riso e cozze, we at Free Walking Tour Bari can’t wait to let you taste our favorite typical dishes!
Ready to discover what to eat in Bari? Then continue reading!
What to eat in Bari for lunch
When it comes to what to eat for lunch, we from Bari have no doubts: pasta will always be our first choice.
It suffices for the clock to strike midday for all the streets of the city to be flooded with the scent of delicately fried vegetables and succulent meat sauce, while from every house in the Old Town the cry goes up: “posso calare la pasta?”
The Bari recipes for pasta-based first courses are innumerable and very ancient, but our favorites remain the simplest and tastiest ones: orecchiette con le cime di rapa with meat sauce, Spaghetti all’Assassina and – of course – patate, riso e cozze!
Orecchiette con le cime di rapa and orecchiette with meat sauce
Who says Bari says… orecchiette!
Symbol par excellence of Bari cuisine, the history of orecchiette dates back to the 12th century!
It was precisely during the Norman-Swabian domination that this new type of pasta began to spread in the Bari territories, with a rounded shape and slightly concave in the center… in all similar to an ear, in short!
Also called récchietèdde or strasc’nat due to the curious way of giving them shape by dragging the dough along a large cutting board, the tradition of handmade orecchiette is still alive in the narrow streets of the Old Town.
With our Free Tour The First you will have the opportunity to closely observe the mastery of the Orecchiette Ladies, the women who prepare huge quantities of orecchiette of all sizes by hand and with love every day!
The best way to taste the Bari orecchiette is certainly accompanying them with the famous cime di rapa or with a tasty meat sauce!
Spaghetti all’Assassina
If, on the other hand, you love spicy and scorched flavours, there is a typical Bari dish that is right up your alley: Spaghetti all’Assassina.
Invented in 1967 by the famous chef Enzo Francavilla, Spaghetti all’Assassina is a original Bari recipe and owes its curious name to the generous quantity of chili peppers with which they are seasoned.
Prepared by cooking the tomato sauce and spaghetti in a single iron pan, so as to make the spaghetti crunchy and slightly burnt, Spaghetti all’Assassina is a completely vegetarian dish and perfect for any time of the year!
The tiella di patate riso e cozze
Those who want to taste the truest flavor of traditional Bari cuisine, on the other hand, cannot miss a taste of the famous tiella of patate, riso e cozze.
Like the classic Spanish paella, the Bari tiella is a typical dish of the peasant cuisine of Bari. Quick to prepare and substantial, it was the perfect recipe to refresh the laborers after a long day of work in the fields.
Cooked in a single pot, the tiella, originally included not only potatoes, rice and mussels but also other vegetables based on what you had at home.
In short, a real recovery dish that combines the flavors of the land and the sea in pure Bari style!
What to eat in Bari for a snack
When walking through Bari, it is impossible to arrive in the afternoon without feeling a little peckish!
Let’s find out together what to eat in Bari when it’s time for a snack!
Focaccia
Like everything related to food, snacks are a serious matter for us people of Bari and must strictly be based on… focaccia!
Invented by our ancient Phoenician ancestors and arrived in the province of Bari during the Greek colonization, focaccia is undoubtedly one of the most loved street foods by Bari residents and tourists.
It is no coincidence that, in 2001, focaccia was even able to beat McDonald’s!
In that year, in fact, a small branch of the famous American fast food was inaugurated in Altamura, a town in the province of Bari. But right next to the brand-new McDonald’s there was a modest bakery specializing in the production and sale of focaccia, the Di Gesù Bakery.
Surprisingly, the US hamburger giant did not compete against the small bakery and was forced to close after only one year from its inauguration due to lack of customers!
With its fragrant dough, the taste of fresh tomatoes and its generous amount of olive oil, the focaccia from Bari has thus become famous all over the world.
There are countless bakeries where you can taste this all-Bari delicacy, but if you want to enjoy a focaccia “blessed by the hand of San Nicola” then there’s only one place to go: it’s the Panificio Fiore in the heart of the Old Town.
Fixed stage of our Free Tour The First, for more than 100 years, the Fiore Bakery has been baking a large quantity of hot wheels cooked in a wood-burning oven and prepared according to the ancient traditional recipe every day.
Apulian Taralli
The Panificio Fiore also offers the opportunity to taste another must of the snacks of Bari and Apulia: the taralli.
Based on flour, olive oil, salt and white wine, according to legend, the Apulian taralli were invented in the 1400s by a young mother to feed her little children.
The curious name “tarallo”, on the other hand, would seem to derive from the Greek word daratos which literally means “variant of bread”.
Excellent to break hunger while waiting for dinner or to accompany an aperitif, Apulian taralli can be tasted in their classic version and in many other tasty variations: with onion, chili pepper, fennel seeds and even turmeric or curry!
Sgagliozze and popizze
If you are looking for a pure Bari-style finger food for your snack, then you just have to go to Largo Albicocca to taste the traditional sgagliozze and popizze!
Included in our Free Tour The First, Largo Apricocca preserves one of the symbols of Bari street food: Maria delle Sgagliozze, the reference point for tasting the best sgagliozze and popizze in the whole city.
Fried cubes of polenta seasoned with a light sprinkling of salt, sgagliozze are never lacking in Bari aperitifs. As well as popizze, simple pancakes with a small and irregular shape.
Raw seafood
Finally, if you are in Bari you cannot miss the opportunity to have a delicious aperitif based on raw seafood.
Called the “fishermen’s breakfast”, raw seafood is certainly the dish that best represents the pride of Bari for its history and traditions.
Composed of black mussels, oysters, sea truffles, sea urchins and octopus, raw seafood must be strictly eaten raw and seasoned with a few drops of lemon at most.
Savoring a fresh plate of raw seafood, sitting in front of the sea, and sipping a cold beer, is a real initiation rite to the culture and authentic flavors of Bari for travelers!
What to eat in Bari for dinner
When dinner time arrives, Bari is divided between those who prefer typical vegetable-based dishes and those who cannot do without a nice fish-based dish.
Let’s see together which are the typical dishes of Bari’s cuisine to enjoy for dinner!
Typical vegetarian dishes: fave e cicorie and la cialdèdde
Let’s start with the vegetable-based dishes, perfect for those looking for tasty vegetarian or vegan options!
Typical dish of poor peasant cuisine, fave e cicorie is one of the oldest and most nutritious recipes of the Bari culinary tradition: legend tells how it was the ancient Greeks who made this dish known to the peoples of Puglia!
Consisting of a simple puree of cooked and crushed white broad beans, accompanied by a generous amount of boiled chicory and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, fave e cicorie is the perfect dish for all those who love simple and genuine flavours.
Even la cialdèdde is a vegan recipe of the peasant tradition.
It is a cold salad perfect for summer evenings, prepared using only the freshest ingredients from the Apulian countryside: cherry tomatoes, carousels, red onion, potatoes, oregano, green beans and the ever-present extra virgin olive oil.
Typical dishes based on fish
If, on the other hand, you want a pure Bari-style dinner, then you can’t help but taste two iconic fish-based recipes: stewed cod and octopus “cooked in its water”.
Cod is one of the most popular ingredients of Bari fish cuisine, perfect to be eaten fried or stewed.
A typical dish of the autumn and winter period, stewed cod is rigorously prepared in an earthenware pot with fresh cherry tomatoes, Bari olives, salt, oil, and celery.
The octopus “cooked in its own water”, on the other hand, honors one of the most appreciated ingredients of the Bari cuisine: the octopus, in fact.
Perfect to be eaten raw, blanched, in salads or as a condiment for pasta, the Bari tradition has it that the best way to eat octopus is after it has been cooked in its own water.
Leaving the octopus to cook in an earthenware pot, together with cherry tomatoes, salt and plenty of oil, in fact, you get a delicious sauce with the scent of the sea in which it is mandatory to make a slipper with good fresh bread!
If reading the history and recipes of the typical dishes of the Bari cuisine made your mouth water, then you just have to book a Food Tour of Bari!
We at Free Walking Tour Bari offer you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the culinary tradition of our city and spend a day like a true local!
We can’t wait to let you discover all the typical dishes of Bari’s cuisine! Are you ready to join us?