The history of the Farinella of Putignano

Starting from 1317, the Benedictines handed Putignano into the hands of the Order of the Knights of Jerusalem, and the fiefdom became "Baliaggio", under whose command there was, that is, the Balì. Later came the bloody and frightening Saracen invasions that sowed terror and death. It was during one of these that the inhabitants had the idea of ​​sprinkling their whole body with a hazelnut-colored powder and showing themselves to the usurpers as if they were monsters. The Saracens, thinking of a serious and mysterious contagious disease that had hit the inhabitants of the town, fled away in terror. What was that mysterious dust that saved Putignano? The Farinella.


It is said that as early as the 18th century, Farinella arrived in the cookbooks of the cookery masters of the noble palaces as an ingredient to obtain dishes then defined as "noble". It was used by the gentlemen, plain on pasta with sauce, on well-seasoned vegetables, combined with boiled potatoes or seasonal fruit, and even as a dessert by mixing it with sugar.

It was instead, in 1902, when the political debate between socialists and conservatives, between Giolittiani and anti-Giolittiani became stronger and stronger, due to the peasant riots in the area and the relative harsh repression put in place by the police. The contenders resorted to flour of chickpeas and barley to stigmatize the attitudes and positions of the opponents. The honorable Giolittiano Vito De Bellis, a native of Gioia del Colle, made a sort of praise of this "dust" to defend the work of the mayor of Putignano during those riots, and, in this regard, he ended up earning the appellative of "honorable della farinella".