Barricades in Bari: why the city’s ‘pasta grannies’ are under scrutiny

Sellers of fresh orecchiette in southern Italy are fighting back after being accused of tricking tourists with bought wares

Nunzia Caputo was five years old when her grandmother put a stop to her playing on the street outside their home in Bari and summoned her to help make orecchiette, the ear-shaped pasta believed to have originated in the southern Italian port city, to be sold to passersby.

I used to go out to play every afternoon with my friend Giulia," said Caputo, now 67. But then, on a whim, my grandmother said I wasn't allowed to do that any more. She told me: From now on, you must learn how to make orecchiette.' I started to cry."

Tourists watch Nunzia Caputo make fresh pasta outside her house in Bari