La Bombetta Pugliese - Street Food at its Finest, Illustrated

La Bombetta Pugliese is a specialty of the Valle D'Itria, south of Bari, and the folks at the Bombetta Pugliese stand in the street foods section of Torino's Salone del Gusto didn't mince words: "It's not healthy!" they cried, and indeed there isn't much healthy in a well-seasoned pork braciola swapped around a piece of cheese and grilled.

"But it's good!" They shouted. And people came, drawn also by the music they were playing and the wonderful aromas rising from their grill: they couldn't keep up with demand.

In short, Bombette Pugliesi are an ultimate street food, though this hasn't always been the case: historically bombette were the meat enjoyed (rarely) by the poorest of the poor, sharecroppers who took the trimmings nobody else was interested in -- if it was fatty, so much the better because fat = calories = energy -- wrapped it around bits of cheese, and cooked them in the communal ovens butchers kept lit for their poorer clients. Even their size is rooted in poverty: they are small because small cooks faster, requiring less fuel.

Of course that was then.

Now bombette are a fixture at country fairs, and people cook them over the coals when they have friends over.