Healthy Mediterranean Cuisine in Puglia
Posted on
November 22, 2009 by
Stile Mediterraneo
Puglia is certainly a region of extra virgin olive oil, which replaces butter almost everywhere: we put it on top of bread and salads; we use it for cooking and baking.
One of the most common questions our guests ask us during our cooking classes and olive oil tastings is whether it is better to fry in extra virgin olive oil vs other oils.
I and Marika think that one of the major takeways from our cooking classes is that our dishes can be delicious and very tasty even if we don’t deep fry ingredients, as the most traditional local cuisine would require.
I and Marika were lucky enough to be brought up by our GrandMother who taught us almost everything about the traditional home made recipes of Puglia. However, the traditional cuisine sometimes requires ingredients to be deep fried.
I and Marika have moved on and re-intepreted those traditional recipes in a healthier way. Because Marika is a Cardiologist and I am an extra virgin olive oil taster, we have a more Mediterranean approach. We love to smell and taste the flavors of raw extra virgin olive oil. We don’t want to destroy its healthy benefits and flavors by frying it.
Also, we don’t want to destroy the benefits of the ingredients we use by frying them.
Therefore our guests are always impressed when we can make very tasty stuffed eggplants, eggplant parmigiana or zucchini parmigiana, meatballs etc, without frying them!
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Tim, thank you for your comment! We totally like your approach. In fact we think there is no problem with having fried food once in a while. In fact we believe that we should eat everything….but in moderation. Nice to read you only use extra virgin olive oil!
When we fry foods, we always use EVOO.
I’d say, during any given week, we might eat 4 or 5 things that include some form of fried vegetable or food, and I always use EVOO to fry. In fact, we don’t even have any other types of oil in our house anymore. The past two years have seen us transition into 100% extra virgin olive oil for everything.
It just depends on what we are making. For example, if we are having a special salad or dish that requires some fried fish or chicken, I always use olive oil. Sometimes I make breaded fried beans where I lightly coat the beans with extra virgin olive oil, then toss them with flour, dill, basil, and celery flakes, then fry them lightly on each side and serve them with fresh lemon juice squeezed over the top. Other times we eat the beans in a salad with a light drizzling of extra virgin.
We fry rarely these days, but when we do we use olive oil, all the way