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.

There is one thing that you should certainly not miss when you come to Lecce in Puglia: the delicious Pasticciotto Leccese! There is no other place in Puglia or in Italy where you can have it! People from other places in Puglia come to Lecce on purpose to eat the pasticciotto.

Pasticciotto is a pasta frolla (sweet pastry) tart filled with lemon cream. Pasticciotto is the typical pastry that people in Lecce have for breakfast. If you want to do what the locals do in Lecce that’s what you should order, together with the espressino coffee, while enjoying the sun in the Santo Oronzo Square in Lecce.

In Lecce almost every coffee bar will serve the pasticciotto. However if you want to eat one of the best, you should go to Ascalone in Galatina (on the way South to Gallipoli).

I and Marika were recently interviewed by Sharon Sanders for a beautiful article she wrote about our Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School in Puglia and which was published in the Dream of Italy newsletter. In this article we share our secrets and travel recommendations for Puglia. We tell Sharon the story that when Cinzia lived in Milan, Ascalone refused to sell her a tray of pasticciotti to be taken back to the North with her. The baker wanted the pasticciotti to be enjoyed warm! Read the Dream of Italy Newsletter to find out more!

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

Bordered by the Adriatic sea to the East and the Ionian sea to the West and with a landscape with millions olive trees and vineyards, Puglia is an ideal location for a gourmet holiday.

The local Mediterranean cuisine has an emphasis on durum wheat pasta, seafood, vegetables, cheese and extra virgin olive oil. Recipes are simple, but still very tasty because based on fresh ingredients.

Puglia wines are made from indigenous grapes and taste the equilibrium between the sun, the wind, the sea and the soil.

Please join our 2010 cooking and wine workshops in Puglia

• June (12-19) & October (2-9): cooking workshops in a 17th century castle in Puglia
• April-December: 1 day, 4 day and 7 day cooking classes in Puglia
• April-December: wine tours and olive oil tastings in Puglia

For more information visit our calendar or contact us at: info.stile@gmail.com. 

Subscribe to the Cooking School newsletter.

We can certainly say Puglia is an artichoke lovers’ paradise!

If you come to Puglia at this time of the year you’ll see artichokes everywhere: at the markets and at every street corner the farmers sell their fresh artichokes. All the locals buy to eat them fresh or to preserve in extra virgin olive oil, mint and cloves (delicious!!)…to be eaten in the summer on top of our fantastic bread.

The artichokes have many important nutritional benefits. In addition to being full of fiber and iron, they contribute to lower the blood cholesterol. In fact, by promoting bile secretion in the liver, they help reducing the LDL cholesterol.

In the 1970’s, European scientists discovered that the bitter taste of the artichoke is due to a plant chemical called cynarin, which has the ability to reduce cholesterol.

In Puglia we prepare the artichokes in so many different ways and I and Marika have them at least 6 times per week at this time of the year. One of Marika’s favorite ways to prepare them is with carrots, rice and parmigiano….a sort of risotto but more Mediterranean because we make it with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.

INGREDIENTS
3 artichokes 
1/2 lb rice
2 carrots
1/2 onion
vegetable broth (as necessary)
1/4 glass white wine
3 1/2 oz very good Parmigiano
2 tbsp very good extra virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste
black pepper

RECIPE
Clean the artichokes and the carrots and chop them in small pieces. Put them in a non-sticking pan at low flame adding a few tbsp of vegetable broth. Stir and add the onion, cut very fine.
Add the rice and stir very gently and not very frequently. Add the wine and after a few minute other broth, little by little when necessary.
Add sea salt and black pepper to taste.
When the rice is cooked “al dente“, add the parmigiano. Serve and add the extra virgin olive oil.

The only issue we have with artichokes is pairing them with the right wine. What wine do you like having with artichokes?

There is one dish that cannot miss on Italian tables at midnight on December 31st.

This is the Lentil soup! Because they resembled coins, in the past they were thought to bring financial prosperity in the year to come. Nowadays, we associate them to general good luck, in any field. I and Marika had lentils for three days in a raw….just to be sure!

 Usually lentils are prepared with cotechino (pork).

What are your New Year’s culinary traditions?

WE WISH A WONDERFUL 2010 AND NEW DECADE TO ALL OUR READERS!

Subscribe to the Stile Mediterraneo newsletter

I and Marika don’t eat lots of sweets (apart from tons of the famous hazelnut ice cream from Lecce we already wrote about!).

Subscribe to the Stile Mediterraneo newsletter

One of the most typical fish from the Mediterranean sea is the Dorade.

INGREDIENTS
2 servings
1 lb 3 oz dorade
coarse rock salt (as necessary)

 

BUON APPETITO!

For more information about Stile Mediterraneo cooking classes and wine tours in Puglia Italy please write at info.stile@gmail.com

 

The smell of the coffee made with a moka machine and the sound of the coffee coming up are rituals that take place every morning in all Pugliese houses.
Everybody has a moka machine at home, which is supposed to make the best espresso coffee.

Then, we go to a bar for the typical breakfast in Lecce: espressino and pasticciotto.
Espressino is served in a small glass coffee cup. It is made of one shot of espresso, with a bit of foam milk, and cocoa powder both on top and in between the coffee and milk. When the barman is inspired, you get a little heart or flower drawing in your espressino!!

Before lunch, it’s time for the nocciolino, wich is made of one shot of warm espresso with a small ball of hazelnut icecream. The combination of warm coffee and cold icecream is fantastic.
After lunch, it is time for an espresso or for an espresso macchiato (with a little bit of foam milk on top).
For more information about Puglia cuisine, our cooking classes and wine tours in Puglia Italy please write at info.stile@gmail.com

Its production has to follow a specific procedure: it can be made with the durum wheat semolina varieties: “Appulo”, “Arcangelo” which are produced in the Alta Murgia area, in Puglia.