Orecchiette strike in Bari: “It’s false that they are industrial”

Today and tomorrow the pasta makers of old Bari, who display and sell homemade orecchiette on the street every day, are on strike: it is a form of protest against the suspicions that the typical Bari pasta is not really fresh but bought and passed off to tourists as handmade. In addition to some food influencers on social media, doubts were raised by some journalistic reports, which also spoke of poor hygienic conditions in food storage in improvised restaurants in private homes, which triggered some violent reactions from ladies and their relatives.

Interviewed by ANSA, Angelo Caputo, husband of Nunzia, the founder of pasta makers who were also involved in Dolce&Gabbana commercials, explains: “It’s a protest because everyone is attacking us, enough is enough. Because we make real orecchiette, made by us. Those of others are not industrial, they are dried to allow tourists to take them home with them. It’s not true that we sell industrial Orecchiette, it’s all rubbish, they put this item in tour”. The protest, he continues, “is also against the Municipality of Bari which must put us in order: we want to pay taxes and do everything necessary but they must put us in a position to work”.

The strike, he assures, “will continue for another day, no more: we feel sorry for the tourists who came to ask where the orecchiette are and why there were no ladies there to produce them as always, and we explained everything”. In old Bari there are many families who work with orecchiette, only in the street where Nunzia is, the so-called Low Arco, there are ten.