Chef Juliette
Sandwiches
Five classical fillings between bread buttered to every edge, cut into tidy rectangles and held under a light weight: a French buffet lesson in softness, proportion, and restraint.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Puccia Salentina with Capocollo
Created by
The hollow bread of Salento, its puffed interior the perfect vessel for paper-thin slices of capocollo and oil-rich sun-dried tomatoes. This is what Pugliese workers carry to the fields.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Italian, Pugliese
Quick Meal
Picnic
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•15 min total
Yield4 sandwiches
Puccia is the bread of the Salento, the sun-scorched heel of Italy's boot where the Adriatic meets the Ionian. It puffs in wood-fired ovens until nearly hollow inside, creating a natural pocket that needs no knife to open. Bakers in Lecce and the villages scattered across the peninsula have made it this way for centuries, though they would never call it a recipe. It is simply bread.
The filling here requires restraint. Capocollo from Martina Franca, aged in the trulli houses of the Valle d'Itria, has a sweetness from the wine used in its cure and a whisper of smoke from the wood fires. Sun-dried tomatoes preserved in oil contribute their concentrated summer intensity. These two ingredients, tucked into the hollow of warm puccia, create something greater than their parts.
Do not heat this sandwich. The capocollo is not bacon. It is a cured meat of considerable refinement, and subjecting it to heat destroys its delicate texture and complex flavor. The Italians understand what Americans have forgotten: quality cured meats are eaten as they are, at room temperature, where you can taste the months of patient aging.
Puccia emerged from the wood-fired communal ovens of the Salento peninsula, where families brought their dough to bake alongside their neighbors' loaves. The bread's distinctive hollow interior was not designed but discovered: the high heat of these ovens caused the semolina dough to puff dramatically. By the 18th century, workers carrying puccia to the olive groves and wheat fields had learned that its natural pocket held fillings without making the bread soggy.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
puccia salentina rolls
Quantity
4
about 5 inches diameter
capocollo di Martina Franca
Quantity
8 ounces
sliced paper-thin
sun-dried tomatoes in oil
Quantity
1/2 cup
drained and roughly chopped
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
from the draining tomatoes
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
freshly ground
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| puccia salentina rollsabout 5 inches diameter | 4 |
| capocollo di Martina Francasliced paper-thin | 8 ounces |
| sun-dried tomatoes in oildrained and roughly chopped | 1/2 cup |
| extra virgin olive oil | from the draining tomatoes |
| black pepperfreshly ground | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Sharp serrated knife for slicing the puccia
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the bread
If your puccia is fresh from the bakery, it needs nothing. If it has sat a day, warm it briefly in a 350°F oven for five minutes to restore its crust. Slice each roll horizontally, about two-thirds of the way through, leaving a hinge. The interior should be mostly hollow, a natural pocket. If your bread is dense and breadlike throughout, you do not have puccia.
- 2
Layer the capocollo
Drape the sliced capocollo into the hollow of each puccia. Do not stack it in a tight wad. Let it fold loosely, with air between the slices, so each bite yields tender meat rather than a compressed mass. Use about two ounces per sandwich. The meat should be sliced thin enough to see through.
Ask your salumiere to slice the capocollo on the thinnest setting. Thick slices are chewy and hide the delicate flavor. This is not deli meat. - 3
Add the tomatoes
Scatter the chopped sun-dried tomatoes over the capocollo. They should nestle into the folds of meat, not sit in a pile. Drizzle a small amount of the tomato oil over the filling. The oil has absorbed months of tomato flavor and should not be wasted.
- 4
Finish and serve
Grind black pepper over the filling. Close the puccia gently, pressing just enough to hold it together. Serve immediately, or wrap in paper for carrying to wherever you are eating. This is picnic food, field food, standing-at-the-counter food. Do not plate it with garnishes and pretend it is something else.
Chef Tips
- •Capocollo di Martina Franca is cured with cooked wine and smoked over almond shells and oak. If unavailable, a quality coppa from Emilia-Romagna is acceptable, though the character will differ. Do not substitute American capicola, which is a different product entirely.
- •Sun-dried tomatoes preserved in good olive oil bear no resemblance to the leathery specimens sold dry in bags. Seek out those packed in oil, preferably from a Pugliese producer. They should be pliable, deeply red, and taste of concentrated summer.
- •True puccia should be nearly hollow inside. The dough puffs dramatically in a wood-fired oven. If you cannot find authentic puccia, a focaccia di Puglia or pita bread split carefully can approximate the concept, though purists in Lecce would object.
- •This sandwich does not want cheese. The richness of the capocollo and the oil from the tomatoes provide all the fat it needs. Adding mozzarella or another cheese would dull the clean flavors.
Advance Preparation
- •The filled puccia can be wrapped and held for two hours at room temperature. Beyond this, the bread softens.
- •Do not refrigerate after assembly. Cold firms the fat in the capocollo and mutes its flavor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 175g)
Calories
465 calories
Total Fat
20 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
13 g
Cholesterol
40 mg
Sodium
1170 mg
Total Carbohydrates
52 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
19 g
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