THE PADRE PEPPE, WALNUT LIQUEUR
Padre Peppe – The History.
In the early 19th century in a monastery of Altamura, the capuchin friar Giuseppe Ronchi started fostering a dream: producing an elixir to cure body and soul on a cold winter’s night and hot summer days. He felt that this could only be achieved by respecting nature and using mother’s nature gifts. One day, while he was looking at the walnut grove of the cloister, he had an idea: he picked the walnuts which still were in their green bull and he felt his dream was about to come true. It took several years to develop the final recipe, but friar Giuseppe had plenty of patience. His scrupulosity and his desire to create something which would have made people think of him with gratitude in the future did the rest. Now when we sip Padre Peppe we cannot fail to be grateful to friar Giuseppe and to his wonderful dream.
La Ciallèdde
It is the typical way to use and eat Altamura bread.
Ingredients:
Altamura stale bread, cut in thin slices and extra-virgin olive oil.
Broth:
½ litre of water;
1 sliced onion;
3 cloves of garlic;
1 stick of celery;
few cherry tomatoes;
a pinch of salt;
parsley and red-chilli pepper.
Cut the bread in thin slices and lay them on the plate. Cook all the ingredients and pour the broth onto the sliced bread. Season with extra-virgin olive oil.
Options:
With one poached egg in the broth.
With potatoes;
With black olives;
With “cime di rape”(top turnips).
The farmers used to eat the Ciallédde, served in the traditional plate made of clay used by the reapers, that had the shape of an inverted cone, glazed in its internal part and formerly used during wheat harvesting.