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!

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!

nutella

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 days ago we made a huge loaf of home-made and durum wheat bread, that we cut in slices and froze (so that we can have for breakfast for the next days).

Today we used this bread to make our breakfast bruschetta.

Bruschetta with home-made bread, ricotta, nutella and orange zest.

INGREDIENTS

1 slice of durum wheat bread
1 oz cow milk ricotta
2 tsp nutella
bitter cocoa powder
orange zest
2tbsp sugar
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp rum

PREPARATION

Slice the bread and toast it.

Spread a good amount of ricotta on half of the bread. Spread a good amount of nutella on the other half.

Cut the orange zest in small pieces and caramelize it by melting in a saucepan sugar with water. Then add the orange pieces and keep stirring. When the water is all absorbed switch the flame off and add the rum.
Once the orange zest is caramelized, add it on top of the ricotta.
Sprinkle some bitter cocoa powder on top.

Have fun celebrating nutella!

Happy Nutella Day 2011!

What I and Marika like the most about making our own bread at home is all the nice memories that it brings back.

There is nothing better than the flavors all around our house when we bake the bread in the oven. It reminds us of our childhood when our Grandmother would make the bread for all her grandchildren. She would call us when the bread was still in the oven and bring us together around her kitchen table: we would eat that delicious and warm bread with just extra virgin olive oil and fresh tomatoes. Nothing else. It was the best bread ever, made with lots of love. 

Nowadays, once a week I and Marika make our own bread. The nice smell of the bread baking in the oven reminds us of those moments.

This is the recipes of the bread we made this week. We usually use durum wheat flour to make bread in Puglia, but for this specific recipe we used Kamut flour (asa Triticum turgidum and Khorasan). Kamut flour is an ancient type of wheat related to the durum variety. It is richer in protein, minerals (magnesium and zinc), Vitamin Bs and Vitamin E, than common wheat. It is easy to digest and, being not refined, it retains all nutritional qualities.

INGREDIENTS

2 lb 8oz kamut flour
3 cups water
5 1/2 oz sourdough starter (or natural leaven /mother dough)
2tsp sea salt

PREPARATION
First have to make your own sourdough starter (we will make a post about it).

Put 2lb 2oz of kamut flour in a bowl. Add the water and the sourdough starter. Stir the ingredients together with a wooden spoon. Add the sea salt. Cover the bowl with a moisten napkin and let the dough rise for 24 hours.

Move to a marble table and knead the dough with your hands after adding the remaining 6oz kamut flour. Make a round or rectangular shape. Prepare a baking pan with some olive oil and flour. Place the dough on the baking pan and let it rise for another hour.

Pre-heat the oven and bake it at 400 F° for the first 10 minutes and at 350°F for the last 20 minutes.

What memories does home-made bread bring you back?

Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School Puglia celebrates its fifth anniversary in 2010!

Because of such an important event, we are hosting special PIZZA, FOCACCIA and BREAD cooking classes at our cooking school in Puglia.

On these days, cooking classes will focus on the preparation of traditional Italian pizza, bread and focaccia from Puglia.

Classes will be at a very special price! Contact us at info.stile@gmail.com to book a place.

Dates:

June 19, 2010

July 9, 2010

September 19, 2010.

Hope you will join us!

If you are interested in our Pasta days click here!

If you travel around Italy, you will certainly notice that food and recipes change completely from region to region and most of the times also from town to town. Even pasta, which is always thought of as the typical Italian food, is made with different ingredients depending on whether you are in the South or North of Italy.

Pizza is certainly one of the few national Italian dishes. Pizza was first made in Naples, but now you find it anywhere in Italy. The pizza dough is always made with the same ingredients: water, yeast, flour, salt, extra virgin olive oil.
What changes from region to region is the thickness of the dough or may be the topping variety.

We are putting together a list of some of the best pizza places in Italy. Please tell us where in Italy you had your best pizza!

Bitter Campari is an orange, non-alcoholic drink usually served with ice and a slice of orange. It reminds us of the English pims, but there is no mint and cucumber in it. It is also a bit bitter, that’s why it is called the “bitter Campari”.

Any coffee bar in the Sant’Oronzo square would be perfect for a rustico.

All the coffee bars would have the very local newspaper “Il Quotidiano” where you may find only news about events happening in the Lecce area (from politics, to economics, events etc).

Of course the most followed news are:

-Lecce soccer team

-weather in Puglia

-Horoscope!

-Lottery numbers

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.