Italy Puglia cooking classes and wine tours

If you have ever had breakfast in Italy, you may already know that the typical Italian breakfast includes a cappuccino with something sweet: a croissant or a pastry or some biscuits. That’s a must in Italy, no matter where you go: from Milan to Rome, down to Puglia. Very rarely you will see an Italian person have breakfast with those fantastic scrumbled eggs that I used to enjoy when I was living in the US (so good!).

I and Marika love breakfast! It’s really our favorite moment of the day: we love waking up with our fantastic Italian espresso coffee and we like eating a big breakfast. However, we cannot have anything sweet right after we wake up (just give us a couple of hours and we’ll be ready for it!). We need something savory and lots of fruit of course.

So this is our favorite breakfast: pecorino sheep cheese and our home made jam, with some Pugliese bread.
The pecorino sheep cheese comes from a fantastic local cheese maker who has his own sheeps and goats and makes very limited production (just for the family and few loyal customers). I and Marika love supporting him!
For the jam, we hope our guests who attended our cooking classes in Puglia still remember what we are talking about!

Juts out of curiosity: 20 minutes after the above picture was taken, the pecorino cheese was almost gone!!

For more information about our cooking classes, market and cheese tours in Puglia contact us at info.stile@gmail.com or subscribe to the Cooking School in Puglia Newsletter.

OR:

We are just back from the first two days at the Mercatino del Gusto organized by Slow Food in Maglie Puglia and we have already so much to tell about this year event, which celebrates the 10th anniversary!

I and Marika woke up very early this morning. We wanted to get to the local cheese artisan before he finished his delicious ricotta cheese.

While the fresh ricotta was being made just in front of us, we were both mouthwatering at the idea of making our favorite Agnolotti pasta, stuffed with ricotta and Parma ham.

If you ever come to Puglia, you will be surprised by the fact that we look like a whole region of vegetarian people: we eat lots of vegetables (eggplants, artichokes, bell peppers, zucchini), legumes (chickpeas, fava beans) and cereals (wheat, faro/spelt etc).
Moreover, all traditional pasta from Puglia: orecchiette (which means little ears), tagliatelle, trofie, sagne…is made with NO EGGS! Just water, a pinch of salt and durum wheat flour (or barley flour).
Everybody attending our cooking classes is always impressed by how diverse, Italian culinary traditions can be from region to region. This applies to the fresh pasta: which is without eggs in Southern Italy; and with eggs in Northern Italy. However, when we come to agnolotti, ravioli or lasagne, also in Puglia we use eggs.
Ricotta and Parma ham are the best combination for the stuffed pasta! You can make different shapes using different cutters: squared ravioli or the round agnolotti. For the filling, instead of the Parma ham, you can also use asparagus or spinach, or a mix of fresh herbs if you prefer.
Please try and tell us what you think.

Agnolotti stuffed with ricotta and Parma ham.

INGREDIENTS
Agnolotti pasta:
(3 servings)
200 grams durum wheat flour (you can use all purpose flour)
2 eggs
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Stuffing and dressing:
150 grams Ricotta cheese
100 grams Parma ham
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
Sage leaves
100 grams grated Parmesan cheese (good quality)
a pinch of grated nutmeg

PREPARATION

Put the flour in a bowl with the two eggs and the extra virgin olive oil. Knead the dough until it gets very smooth.
Cut the dough in little balls and using the pasta machine, stretch out the dough in very thin sheets of pasta.

Cut the Parma ham in very small strips and mix it with the ricotta using a spoon.
Using a teaspoon, place some ricotta and Parma ham on the pasta sheet (in the middle), and fold it.

Cut the stuffed pasta using a pasta cutter and close it with your fingers.

It is important you cook these stuffed agnolotti right away. Boil the water in a pan adding a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (so that they don’t stick). Add a tsp of sea salt and cook the pasta for 5 minutes.
Remove the pasta al dente and sauté in a saucepan with a few drops of olive oil and the sage leaves, for 2 minutes.
Serve adding the grated parmesan cheese and nutmeg.

To contact us please email at: info@stilemediterraneo.it

One of the good things about living in Puglia, apart from the weather, is that you can get the freshet handmade mozzarella at any small little “bottega” or artisan shops.

For Pugliese people, mozzarella is not just another example of cheese, but it belongs to the specific “mozzarella” category. When you go to a restaurant and you ask for some cheese, they will bring you to the table all the most amazing cheese you can think of: Pecorino, Parmigiano etc. But if you want a mozzarella, you need to specifically ask for: a “mozzarella”.

In Puglia there is a big tradition and culture around the mozzarella.

If you try the mozzarella in Puglia, you understand why. It has a high moisture content and is very tender and tasty. And it doesn’t matter if it is a buffalo mozzarella or a cow milk mozzarella (though, the one from Puglia is traditionally the cow milk mozzarella and we call it fior di latte). When you cut a piece of mozzarella with your fork and you have all the milk coming out….you start mouthwatering and you are just in paradise!
I believe the main reason why mozzarella is so good in Puglia is because lots of artisans still hand make the mozzarella, as opposed to using a machine. One of the best food experiences you can have is to eat a mozzarella a few minutes after it was handmade. Can it be any fresher than this?
Mozzarella belongs to the “pasta filata” cheese.

This means that after the milk is curdled, the mozzarella is stretched and kneaded until it gets very soft. The interesting thing is that the artisan stretches the mozzarella dough with his hands and a wooden spoon. However, this is not as painless as when you make a pizza or bread: the mozzarella dough is submerged in VERY HOT water (which can go up to 90°C). So for sure it’s not something for those who have delicate hands and skin!

Mozzarella in Puglia is made from cow milk, whereas in the Naples region, it is made from buffalo milk. When I was little I was told that cow is lighter than buffalo milk. I am not completely sure this is true, but it has always given me a good excuse to eat double portion of mozzarella.
Many times I pointed out that Puglia has many different culinary traditions. The size of the handmade pasta, the way we make the focaccia, the flour we use for bread and pasta, the way we name dishes, may all change from town to town, even if they are just a few miles apart.
Of course this also applies to the mozzarella. When you are talking about mozzarella in the Bari area (the Northern part of Puglia) you are certainly referring to the burrata. Burrata is a mozzarella which has inside a mix of cream and mozzarella.
In the Lecce area (Southern part of Puglia), instead, it is very rare to find the burrata and it is not very common for the local people to eat it. In Lecce, locals would eat the simplest and tasty fior di latte mozzarella made from cow milk. The fior di latte comes in many different shapes: the small nodini (knods), the beautiful trecce (braids) and the wonderful and huge “bombe” (YES! It means bombs!..because of their size).

All artisans say that handmade mozzarella can last up to one week. I never succeeded with this sort of experiment because I always finished my mozzarella in the same day it was made. However, if you want to keep the mozzarella for more days, put it in a bowl and cover it with milk! That’s the secret!

Have you ever tried a mozzarella from Puglia? How much mozzarella were you able to eat? (including the one you stole from your friend’s plate!)

Contact us at info.stile@gmail.com

Lecce is the baroque capital of the Salento area and Puglia. Typical dishes in Lecce are: Ciceri and tria, thepuccia bread, Sant’Oronzo eggplants, annulieddu a lu furnu, anchoviesarragonate, cutlets, snails with onions, gnemeriidde, Lecce sausage, black pudding, cartellate, taralli, quince jam, dried fruit, marzapanecakes.

Typical dishes in the Salentine province are: lampasciuni, early artichokes, ‘ncapriata (broad bean soup).

In the villages by the sea there are lots of fish markets with lobsters, mullets, dentex, bass, prawns, squid, cuttle fish, mussels, sword fish, rock crabs, tuna. Specialities in Gallipoli are: Gallipoli soup, spaghetti with crab sauce, fresh boiled mullet roe, the Gallipoli scapece.

Gastronomy in Maglie includes: pecorino cheese; ‘mbruscatizzi; dried figs with almonds, lemon peel and dried chocolate; raffiuoli (Easter cake).