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What exactly the word "tarallo" means and where it comes from, nobody knows for sure. For many, the origin of the name is to be found in the Latin word “torrère”, which means “toast”, due to their crunchy and slightly brown aspect. According to others, however, deriving from the Italic term "tar", meaning wrap, or from the French "danal", which refers to the round panel, the shape can be rounded. Also from the French, some trace it back to the French “toral”, which stands for “dryer”. Among all these hypotheses, the one currently considered most probable is another, which would make tarallo come from the Greek “daratos”, which translated means “sort of bread”, given that it is in any case a bread-making product.
Taralli: olive oil, turmeric and pepper, chilli and paprika, olives and peppers, onion, wholemeal semolina, cereals, toasted wheat (burnt wheat)
Beyond the meaning of the name, when does this ancient recipe date back, which today has become very famous, and well beyond the borders of its region of origin? Finding that to meet this Apulian specialty for the first time it is necessary to go back to the fifteenth century, a period in which the southern regions were facing a hard period of famine. According to legend, the credit for having kneaded the very first tarallo in history goes to a mother and the pressing need to feed her children. In fact, having nothing in the pantry other than flour, olive oil, salt and white wine, he decided to put them all together to create a dough, then flattened and separated into thin strips closed "in a ring" which, once leavened, they were put in the oven. It goes without saying that the result was absolutely surprising and that, from that moment on, the recipe for the first taralli, born as an expedient to fill the belly in a moment of hardship, made the rounds of all the houses, marking the Apulian territory forever. Thus, many housewives began to prepare them by oiling the first tielle (the pans) and then going to cook them in the town's common ovens. In a short time, from a food made with homemade "emergency" ingredients it becomes a baked one, mass produced at a very low price and, therefore, sold to anyone.
Gradually, these little rings began to be eaten as an accompaniment to main meals, becoming the symbol of moments of conviviality with the family or with guests. It is no coincidence, therefore, that they are the protagonists of a famous saying about food: “ending up with taralli and wine” indicates this ancient custom of the peasant tradition of offering tarallucci and wine to guests as a sign of friendship.