A Bari street food traditionally traced to the 1500s (XVI century), born as a way to use up bits of bread dough at the end of pizza day. Filled with whatever was on hand — typically tomato and mozzarella, sometimes onion or anchovy — and dropped in hot oil. The Luini family from Puglia took over an existing Milan bakery (founded 1888) in 1949; Giuseppina Luini introduced panzerotti there from the 1960s, and it's now the city's most famous take-away snack.
Bari street food traced to the 1700s, born to use up bits of bread dough at the end of pizza day. Filled with tomato and mozzarella and dropped in hot oil. The Luini brothers brought the form north to Milan in 1949, where it's now the city's most famous take-away. Fried not baked — a baked panzerotto is technically a calzone, and Bari will tell you so. Tomato is reduced almost to jam so it can't leak.
A half-moon of fried dough the size of a fist, blistered gold and shiny with oil. Tear it open and steam comes out first; molten mozzarella stretches in long ropes against tomato that's been cooked down almost to paste. Eaten standing up, two hands, paper underneath. The good ones are fried not baked — a baked panzerotto is technically a calzone and Bari will tell you so.
Sealing matters more than filling. The edge must be crimped dry — any tomato juice trapped against the seam blows the seal in the oil and ejects the cheese. Frying temp sits around 180°C: lower and the dough soaks oil, higher and the outside browns before the inside heats through. The tomato is reduced almost to jam precisely so it can't leak.
Variations
Bari classic with tomato + mozzarella, fried; Luini Milano (since 1949) sells the northern Italian benchmark with 20+ fillings; Foggia version is bigger and oven-baked (locally still called panzerotto); Salento goes filled with stewed greens and ricotta forte; the Apulian sweet version stuffs with sweet ricotta and is dusted with sugar.
On the Palate
Where Panzerotti sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
How it's made
4 steps · 1 hour 30 min
- 19 min
Prepare a dough with wheat flour, yeast, olive oil, and salt.
- 219 min
Roll out the dough and cut into circles.
- 324 min
Fill each circle with mozzarella and tomato sauce.
Watch outReduce the tomato almost to jam before it goes in, and keep it a small spoonful away from the rim — a loose, wet filling seeps to the seam and there's no sealing it after.
- 438 min
Fold and seal the edges, then deep-fry until golden.
Watch outCrimp the edge bone-dry — a smear of tomato juice on the seam will blow open in the oil and shoot the cheese out; keep the fry oil around 180 degrees so the middle heats before the crust browns.
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