TASTE the BEST OF ITALY with the LOCAL EXPERTS

Almond paste lamb is the traditional sweet all local families have for the Easter festivities in Puglia.

This sweet is made only twice a year: in the shape of fish at Christmas, and in the shape of lamb at Easter.

The difference between our Puglia almond paste and the Sicilian marzipan is that the almond paste is raw, while the marzipan is cooked.

The best almond paste lambs are made by the nuns from Lecce. So if you are in Puglia for the Easter festivities you should not miss to taste it.

The best quality ones have very little sugar and the almond paste is made of very good quality almonds (locals from Puglia, of course!).

The almond paste lamb is filled with quince jam (very traditional in Puglia) and sometimes with faldacchiera (egg yolks and sugar).

The almond paste is made of almonds, very little sugar and is kneaded with a local liquor.

This is the perfect sweet for those who love almonds.

Happy Easter and Buona Pasqua from Lecce Puglia!

The famous book about Italian pasta by Stefan Maiwald dedicates a whole chapter to the two sisters’ Cooking School in Lecce Italy.

If you are in Italy this coming weekend you should celebrate the new Primavera Spring visiting one of the 700 beautiful monuments, castles, churches, palaces and parks around Italy which, usually closed, will be exclusively open to visitors on March 23-24.

This event is organized by the FAI, il Fondo Ambiente Italiano, which raises funds to preserve, restore and manage some of the most beautiful places Italy has.

For a full list of all places open in Italy please check out the FAI website and click on the region you are interested in. The website is in Italian but it is easy to get the name of the monuments.

ROME – ROMA
PALAZZO SPADA, SEDE DEL CONSIGLIO DI STATO

Indirizzo: Piazza Capo di Ferro, 13, 00186, Roma, ROMA

TIVOLI
PARCO DI VILLA GREGORIANA – BENE FAI

Indirizzo: Largo [...] Continue Reading…

To celebrate Saint Joseph day, in Puglia we eat Zeppole. They are delicious and ….huge pastries, which you can only find in March. Therefore if you are in Puglia and you miss them….you’ll have to come back next year!

I have always loved Saint Joseph day. March 19th is my father’s name day (his name is Giuseppe or Joseph) and is also Father’s day in Italy. So lots of things to celebrate today!! We have always had a big family lunch….and in the afternoon lots of friends come celebrate my father, bringing big trays with huge zeppole pastries. And when I say huge….I mean it!

Because of their size, it is always very tricky to eat zeppole without getting some lemon cream all over the face!

Zeppole are made of a baked or deep fried dough, topped with [...] Continue Reading…

Why is the Mediterranean diet so important?

The article in the Wall Street Journal clearly explains why the latest results of the massive study conducted on more than 7,000 patients in Spain and published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine are extremely important.

The WSJ  says “Few previous studies have succeeded in proving a direct link between a diet (rich in EVOO, seafood, beans, good grains, vegetables and fruit) and a reduction in life-threatening events like strokes, instead assessing the diet’s impact only on weight loss or certain cardiovascular risk factors, like blood pressure or cholesterol”.

For this post I interviewed Dr. Rascazzo (cardiologist, whose e-book inspired the Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School’s principles).

Based on her experience, she says that this study is really important because it proves that [...] Continue Reading…