TARALLI WITH FENNEL SEEDS

CURIOUS FACTS There are many different stories about the origins of Taralli, from more imaginative to more likely ones. Like many other Italian iconic food products, taralli were prepared for the first time by chance in 15th century. According to the most widespread story, a woman lacked food for her children, so decided to put together and cook all the ingredients she had: flour, salt, oil and white wine. First, she made thin strips from the dough and then she gave them the form of rings and baked them. The recipe has been edited and improved over time. For example, a further step has been added in order to make Taralli crispier and crubly: boiling taralli in water and oil before baking them. This step softens the dough and makes taralli crispy and crumbly once baked.  Nobody knows the specific etymology of the word ‘tarallo’, but there are several theories. The most famous ones suggest that the word could come from:  the Latin word ‘torrere’, meaning to toast the combination of ‘tar’, from Italian, with ‘danal’, from French, referring to a rolled bread typical of the areas beyond the Alps. the French word ‘toral’, meaning to dry PROCESSING  The ingredients of the original recipe are very simple: flour, extra-virgin olive oil and white wine. Given the success of this product, many manufacturers also add spices or seasonings to the traditional dough to offer even more unique products, such as taralli with Fennel seeds. However, what makes Taralli really special is the double-cooking procedure.  The preparation of traditional Apulian taralli involves just a few simple steps: Carefully choosing genuine, high-quality raw materials. Mixing the ingredients together until they form an elastic dough, which is then divided into 8cm-long sticks Creating 1cm-diameter rings by overlapping the extremities of the sticks Double-cooking the rings by first boiling them in water and oil until they rise to the surface and then baking them for about half an hour.