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Pasta days 0

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Stile Mediterraneo

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

Because of such an important event, we are hosting special PASTA cooking classes at our cooking school in Puglia.

On these days, cooking courses will focus on the preparation of traditional Italian pasta from Puglia: from egg tagliatelle; to durum wheat semolina orecchiette; durum wheat semolina cavatelli; stuffed ravioli and gnocchi.

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

Dates:

June 13 and June 26, 2010

July 2, 2010

September 12, 2010.

Hope you will join us!

If you are interested in our pizza, focaccia and bread days click here!

Tags: cooking classes pasta
Category cuisine, Hand-made pasta, Pasta & Rice

Orecchiette pasta with cime di rapa 2

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Stile Mediterraneo

There is no better way to start the day than to wake up and find out that the weather outside is beautiful and sunny (65° F!) even if we are still in February!

So I and Marika went to closest beach in Lecce, where the Sunday farmers market takes place. It was a real feast with all those colorful and fresh vegetables and fruit. Even if it’s still February, we already found fresh green fava beans, strawberries, early tomatoes, chicories!

I and Marika usually buy our vegetables from our favorite farmer, who only sells what he produces and what’s in season. Now it’s broccoli rabe (or turnips) season, so today he was selling his super fresh broccoli rabe. While in Lecce we eat orecchiette with tomato sauce, in the Bari area broccoli rabe are used to prepare the traditional orecchiette pasta, along with anchovies, garlic and chilly pepper (please don’t put any cheese!!).
So today we prepared the orecchiette the Bari way. This dish is called: orecchiette with cime di rapa!

The broccoli rabe belong to the broccoli family, but they are different in taste and a little but more bitter.

It is very important to know that medical research demonstrated that broccoli rabe are very powerful against stomach, lung, and colon cancers, and promising research hints at protective effects against breast and prostate cancers as well.

As usual, I and Marika got excited and bought way too many broccoli rabe for our Sunday lunch!

RECIPE:
4 servings

10oz orecchiette pasta
1lb 10oz broccoli rabe (or turnips)
1 garlic clove
chilly pepper
2 anchovy fillets
1 tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION

Clean the fresh broccoli rabe (turnips) and cook them in boiling water for about 8 minutes. Then add fresh orecchiette pasta to the water with broccoli and cook all together for other 5 minutes until the pasta is al dente (or 10 minutes if the orecchiette are dry).

In a saucepan put the olive oil and sautè the garlic clove, the chilly pepper and the anchovies (cut in small pieces) just for 2 minutes.

Drain the pasta and broccoli rabe and add them to the saucepan. Add the breadcrumbs on top and sautè the pasta for about 2 minutes. Because of the anchovies in Puglia we don’t add any cheese. Serve when still warm!

Tags: broccoli orecchiette pasta
Category Hand-made pasta, Pasta & Rice

Traditional durum wheat orecchiette pasta 2

Posted on November 01, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

What a fun day today! I and Marika made orecchiette fresh pasta with our Nonna and Mamma! Orecchiette pasta is the typical pasta course we have on a Sunday lunch. Usually our Grandmother prepares orecchiette. Because today was a special holiday (we celebrate the All Saints day) and all our family was getting together, I, Marika and our Mom went to help our Nonna.

We started making the orecchiette at 9am so that the pasta had enough time to dry before lunch (usually our Nonna starts making pasta at 7am!!…but it would have been a bit too early for us).

In Italian, “orecchietta” means little ear.
There is no other way to make the authentic orecchiette pasta, than by using a blunt-ended knife, a wooden board and….. your thumb! No machine please!! and no other sort of kitchen tools to make the typical “hat” shape.

The shape of the orecchiette pasta is completely different depending on if you are in the North (Bari area) or in the South (Lecce area) of Puglia.

In the Lecce area, we eat the orecchiette with the tomato sauce (made with basil) and the cacioricotta cheese (either goat or sheep). Therefore the orecchiette look like hats, because we want to collect as much tomato sauce as we can! And people who took our cooking classes know how good our tomato sauce can be!!

In the Bari area, orecchiette are eaten with cime di rape (which look like Broccoli, but are a bit more bitter) and anchovies. Therefore, orecchiette are flatter.

The size of the orecchiette pasta is completely different from town to town, even 3 km apart!

Of course, the traditional hand made orecchiette are made with durum wheat mixed with some rye flour. The dough is a little bit harder to work, but the resulting pasta has so much more flavor and a fantastic texture!!

The fact that eating durum wheat pasta is so healthy (Marika, as a Cardiologist, confirms!), ….did not make us feel guilty when we served big portions of orecchiette today at lunch.

RECIPE:
4 servings

10oz orecchiette pasta
1/2 onion
1lb fresh ripe tomatoes
chilly pepper
fresh basil leaves
sea salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
grated cacioricotta pugliese cheese

PREPARATION

Follow our instructions on how to make our family style fresh tomato sauce, using the olive oil, onion, fresh and ripe tomatoes, sea salt, basil and chilly pepper.
In a large pan, bring to boil lots of water with sea salt. Please DO NOT add any olive oil to the water, because orecchiette pasta is made without eggs.
Then add fresh orecchiette pasta to the water and cook for 4- 5 minutes until the pasta is al dente (or 10 minutes if the orecchiette are very dry).
Drain the pasta and in a bowl mix the orecchiette with the tomato sauce.
Add the grated cacioricotta pugliese cheese on top.

Serve right away!
Accompany with Negroamaro wine from Puglia.

BUON APPETITO!

Tags: durum wheat orecchiette pasta tomato sauce
Category cuisine, Hand-made pasta, Pasta & Rice

Durum wheat semolina 7

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

One of the key ingredients of the Puglia cuisine is semolina from durum wheat. In Italian, semolina translates into “semola di grano duro”.

Semolina can only be made from durum wheat and is very yellow in color. It is completely different from the white flour (farina Bianca) which comes from softer wheats.

Durum wheat semolina is much richer in protein and healthier because slower to be digested.

Puglia is a big producer of durum wheat. In fact Puglia is also known as the “Granaio d’Italia”, Granary of Italy. If you go to the Northern part of Puglia, the so-called Tavoliere di Puglia, you will be amazed by the beautiful yellow grain fields.

In Puglia all types of fresh handmade pasta, dry pasta, bread and even some cakes are made of durum wheat semolina. For pasta nothing else is used but durum wheat semolina and water. Our personal experience is that kneading the pasta dough made of durum wheat semolina is much easier than with other kinds of flour. It just gives you the perfect consistency right away and the resulting taste is unique!

All bread made in the Altamura (read this interesting article The Bread Is Famously Good, but It Killed McDonald’s ), Laterza and Matera areas, is made of durum wheat semolina as well, which results in a more yellow bread. The interesting thing about bread made of durum wheat semolina is that it can last for many days or even a week, if kept in a dry environment and in a paper bag (we actually think it is much better after two or three days). No preservatives are added to this bread!

Very impressive results are also reached when semolina is used to bake cakes or tarts. Not only the color is very warm and beautiful, but also the taste is much richer.

Tags: durum wheat semolina
Category Hand-made pasta

Italian fresh tagliatelle pasta with mussels 0

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

In Puglia we have many culinary traditions associated to a day of the week or a holiday. Minestrone is on Saturday; orecchiette hand-made pasta with tomato sauce and ricotta cheese is rigorously on Sunday; fava beans or lentils on Monday …..and so on. Every day of the week has a traditional menu that all the local families respect!
Of course we have traditional menu per the special holidays: we have some special fried pastries (called pittule) on Dec. 8th (the Virgo day) and for Christmas; Ciceri and tria (sort of tagliatelle with chick peas) on March 19th (Saint Joseph); fried cod fish during Passover; lamb on the Easter day.
I think the funniest thing is that we also have culinary traditions depending on whether months have a “R” in their name.
Therefore, we don’t eat mussels in months such as: FebRuary, MaRch, ApRil etc. because mussels are likely to be empty. We only eat them in May, June, July, etc.
Well, Puglia is a big producer of mussels: the economy of the area around Taranto or nearby Lecce, by the Ionian sea, is based on the mussel farming. This means that we have so many recipes with mussels in our traditional cuisine of Puglia.
In general I just love mussels! It’s like with cherries: when I have a big plate of mussels in front of me, I start with one and then I can’t stop anymore! I love them cooked in all the possible ways: pepata di cozze (just with garlic, white wine, pepper and parsley); tiella (baked in the oven with rice, potato, cheese, wine and tomatoes); stuffed (with breadcrumbs, eggs, pecorino cheese, pepper)….and of course with PASTA! I love pasta with mussels!
So after all the past months with a “R”, today ApRil 22nd….. a local fisherman told me that a “true gourmand” appreciates mussels in months with a R! He did not need to tell it twice. I was craving for some hand made tagliatelle with mussels. Now, I am the happiest person in the world.

This is the recipe. It also works with linguine…but of course of good quality (they need to be “al dente”).

4– 8 servings
- 1000 grams mussels
- 1 carrot
- 1 garlic clove
- pinch red chili
- 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
- leaves of parsley, chopped
- 2 tbs white wine
- 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 500 grams of hand made tagliatelle

Warm a large pot, pour in a few drops of olive oil, then add garlic and chili. Cook for a few seconds, then add the mussels, the sliced carrot and the cherry tomatoes. Pour in the wine and cover with a lid.
Cook for 2 minutes or until the shells are open. Remove some of the shells (keeping the inside!).
In the meanwhile cook the pasta al dente, drain it and add it to the mussels. Add the parsley, mix everything and cook all together for 2 minute. Serve immediately.

Do you have any other recipe with mussels? Please share it.

Tags: mussels pasta recipes tagliatelle
Category Fish & Meat, Hand-made pasta, Pasta & Rice, Recipes