Italy Puglia cooking vacations and wine tours

I and Marika send all of you our warmest wishes for a wonderful and happiest 2012!!    We hope to see again all our friends that came to attend our cooking courses from everywhere in the world in the past years ….and we hope to keep sharing the beauty, culture and food of Italy with new friends.

Given the success of our Christmas cooking classes and tour in Matera last week, we are pleased to announce another SPECIAL tour in Matera on April 17-21, 2012.

Matera is located in Basilicata, a region at the border with Puglia, just 2 hour drive from Lecce. Matera became very famous after the Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ movie. The old town is called Sassi which means stones, because the houses are carved out of the rock. Originally only the facade of these dwellings was built up to set up a door or a window which let light and air the house.

Matera is also a culinary paradise. It is very famous for its bread (an IGP product), but also for the pasta, the excellent cheese (caciocavallo, ricotta) and the Aglianico del Vulture Superiore wine, which is the first DOCG wine from Basilicata. Introduced in Basilicata by the Greeks, Aglianico is planted on the Mount Vulture, an extinct volcano, on high altitudes in the region in between 200-700 metres. Vulture has volcanic soil and is rich in mineral water, which is totally reflected in the flavors and taste. Aglianico is an acidic variety, very tannic and requires a few years of aging before you can enjoy it.

During our tour in April, you will learn how to make traditional dishes of the Matera and Puglia cuisines: from local fresh pasta, to focaccia, sauces etc. All in the beautiful setting of the Matera’s Stones-Caves. You will taste the excellent local olive oils, bread and cheese and you will have fun exploring the beautiful old town of Matera with your news friends.

Happy 2012 and hope to have you on our cooking tours in Matera and Puglia with us!

We have been receiving lots of requests from our guests attending our cooking classes, culinary and wine tours in Puglia, about best places to visit while on vacation in Puglia and best things to do in each town.

We are happy to share an itinerary that could be helpful to travellers coming for a one week / 10-day vacation in Puglia.

First of all, please note that we think the most important reason why you should come to Puglia is its food, olive oil and wines. For sure you will love Puglia, if you love simple, fresh and delicious Italian food and [...] Continue Reading…

We are so excited to find out that our extra virgin olive oil tasting tours in Lecce got featured in the May Sunday Times Travel Magazine.
I and Marika love telling our guests about the benefits of extra virgin olive oil for the heart and health in general. We love teaching them how to taste extra virgin olive oil and how to use it in order to preserve all its benefits. We love preparing dishes and pairing them with the right olive oils. We love when our guests go back home and tell us how picky and expert on [...] Continue Reading…

I and Marika are very pleased to let you know that we decided to add Italian language classes to the Stile Mediterraneo School’s programs in Lecce Puglia.

Food and wine from Puglia and Southern Italy will always be our focus: during our programs our guests will have a chance to study the beautiful Italian language while learning about the Italian food and wines. Programs include: conversations, lots of practice with local people, visits to best markets, wineries and producers, a cooking class…and lots of eating! You will meet new friends, learn about Italian culture, food and wine.

We will have a special tour from [...] Continue Reading…

We are so proud to announce that our Stile Mediterraneo blog has been chosen to receive a Tripbase 2011 Blog Award. This award has been given to the best 10 Italian cuisine blogs in 2011.

This year, all awards have been featured in CNBC, CBS and AOL News.

We thank all Tripbase readers for voting for us and look forward to providing lots of more interesting content about Puglia food and wine.

There is no other day of the week, that I love as much as Sunday.

It’s the day when Marika does not have to go to the hospital (for work! of course) so she can make all her delicious Italian recipes and dishes. She usually wakes up early, goes on a bike ride and then in a couple of hours she is able to arrange a 5-course meal for the traditional Italian Sunday meal we have with the whole family.

When we were young our Grandmother used to cook the Sunday meal. Until a few months ago it was our Mother’s turn. Now [...] Continue Reading…

Watch a video of our past special tours at the villa castle. This is what to expect if you enter and win our contest! There are 20 days left. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Enter our contest to win a free 8-day cooking holiday with us in a 17th century villa castle in Puglia Italy!
This contest expires on March 8th, 2011. So hurry up!

To learn how to enter the contest read here

I and Marika interrupt our series of Mediterranean recipes and cuisine from Puglia to bring you something a bit different and very delicious.

As Marika (the Cardiologist!!) says: “the important thing is to eat everything in moderation”!

So today we decided to join our internet friends Michelle and Sara and celebrate the World Nutella Day!

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And what’s better than the traditional bread with nutella that all Italians have had for breakfast at least once in their life? Therefore, we decided to prepare a very easy breakfast recipe, with a Pugliese twist: we used our home-made durum wheat bread with some Pugliese ricotta!

Two [...] Continue Reading…

I and Marika are just back from a wonderful 3-day cooking workshop held in Milan where all best Italian and International chefs got together to share the secrets behind their recipes and dishes.

Imagine yourself in the same room with Italian chefs from Massimiliano Alajmo, Carlo Cracco, Gennaro Esposito, Davide Oldani, Antonello Colonna, Niko Romito, Andrea Berton, to Elio Sironi, Davide Scabin, Ciccio Sultano and Massimo Bottura, who was recently awarded as the best chef in the world by the International Academy of Gastronomy in Paris.

The International chefs included: Inaki Aizpitarte, Paul Liebrandt, Sat Bains, Magnus Nilsson, Yoshihiro Narisawa.

During the three [...] Continue Reading…