Cooking classes and vacations in Puglia Italy

Summer has definetely arrived in Puglia and we have been experiencing unusual warm temperatures for the whole week.

This also means that we can also finally find all the super delicious summer fruit.

Marika has been making all sorts of fruit salads, which not only are very delicious, but also very refreshing and healthy.

Today she made a fruit salad with cantaloupe melon and pineapple.

She says this is the best fruit salad to have on a very hot day, like today!

Due to its water and mineral content, this juicy and fresh salad made of cantaloupe melon and pineapple can help rehydrate our body on such a warm day!

Pineapples and cantaloupe melons are perfect for salads, juices, fruit cocktails, snacks and also if you like decorating with fruit. We tried to make a swan using just  toothpick!

Cantaloupe melons have lots of other health benefits. They are a good source of potassium and are rich in anti-oxidants that can help prevent cancer and heart disease. They are very rich in Vitamin C, beta-carotene and Vitamin B complex.

Pineapples also have many other health benefits. They are a good source of Vitamin C (which acts a powerful anti-oxidant against free radicals) manganese, calcium, potassium, fiber and bromelain enzyme (which aids digestion and the immune system).

What is your favorite summer fruit salad? How do you make it?

For more information about our cooking tours in Puglia Italy please check out our classes calendar or contact us at info.stile@gmail.com. 

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Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School in Puglia is rated # Best Thing to do in Puglia on Tripadvisor!

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!

For more information about our cooking classes please visit the Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School Calendar or subscribe to our newsletter.

Stile Mediterraneo is ranked #1 Best Thing to do in Puglia on Tripadvisor!

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!

For more information about our cooking classes please visit the Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School Calendar or subscribe to our newsletter.

Stile Mediterraneo is ranked #1 Best Thing to do in Puglia on Tripadvisor!

Read more information about the Cooking and wine tour at the castle or write at info.stile@gmail.com

I and Marika have been cooking for the whole day today, trying different recipes for our Sunday’s Easter lunch menu.

We are very happy about our decision!

It is always hard to pick what to make, because in Puglia we have lots of traditional dishes that we only prepare during the Easter week. What we like about all our Easter recipes is that they are simple and made with very local and seasonal ingredients.

So,for our Sunday’s Easter lunch I and Marika we’ll make this Easter focaccia bread. It has the shape of an interweawed garland, topped with eggs and with lots of suprises inside!

In fact we’ll stuff the bread with everything we like: olives, cheese, ham, tomato, onion and….Marika’s delicious capers!!! (people attending our cooking classes in Puglia may remember them!)

It is similar to the Easter bread we made last year, because this focaccia bread also has eggs. They are symbol of Easter and they can’t miss on our table. However, the preparation, stuffing and resulting taste are totally different.

This Italian Easter focaccia bread is made with the same dough we usually use to make our bread or focaccia.

With the dough, we make three different strips that we fill with olives, cheese, tomato, capers and onions. Then, with the three strips we make the shape of a garland, that we top with eggs and decorate with holy olive palms.

Just for you to know, soon after we took the picture, we tried this focaccia bread (still warm): fantastic!!

What traditional Easter recipes do you have?

For more information about our cooking classes in Puglia Italy 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. 

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INGREDIENTS:

4 servings

4 potatoes

10 ½ oz (300 grams) cardoncelli mushrooms

Chopped parsley

3 ½ oz (100 grams) grated Parmigiano cheese

4 cherry tomatoes, in small cubes

1 ¾ oz (50 grams) breadcrumbs

black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

pinch of sea salt

PREPARATION:

Peel and slice the potatoes. Cut the mushrooms in small pieces.
In a little bowl add half of the parsley, the tomatoes, half of the Parmigiano cheese, 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, black pepper, sea salt and some water. Stir everything together.
In a baking pan pour a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and place a first layer of potatoes. Add on top the mushrooms. Then add the parsley with the tomatoes and parmigiano cheese.
Cover everything with another layer of potatoes.
Sprinkle on top with the remaining parsley, parmigiano, breadcrumbs, a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and black pepper.
Place the potatoes and mushrooms in the preheated oven and bake at 350 °F (180 °C) for about 30 minutes.

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!

If you like this post you may also want to read:

-our post on how to make orecchiette with cime di rape (turnips or broccoli rabe)

-our post on how to make our family’s fresh tomato sauce to accompany our orecchiette pasta in Lecce.

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

One thing that I and Marika certainly love about the cuisine of Puglia is the fact that even though our recipes are very simple to prepare, the resulting dishes are extremely delicious. Tomato sauce is the recipe that best represents the simplicity of our cuisine. We use only these ingredients: fresh and ripe tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, basil leaves and onion. Nothing else! We promise the resulting tomato sauce will be unforgettable.

To make a good tomato sauce the quality of the tomatoes you use is very important as well as the extra virgin olive oil you add on top at the end.
Contrary to what people normally think, Italian cuisine does not use as much garlic as other cuisines (i.e. Spanish). Therefore to make the tomato sauce in Puglia we tend to prefer onion to garlic. Also, in Puglia we don’t cover the taste of the main ingredients we are using: if we make a tomato sauce we want to taste the tomatoes and not the onion. Therefore we don’t use too much onion.
As for the extra virgin olive oil, we prefer to add it at the end when the tomato sauce is ready and not in advance. This is because once cooked, the extra virgin olive oil loses all the health properties and flavors. Whereas if you add it raw it still has all its flavors.

To remove the acidity our grandmother always told us to cook the tomato sauce at least for two hours. If you don’t have that much time, you can use a sliced carrot that helps removing the acidity, instead of using sugar.

RECIPE
6 servings

Ingredients:
2 kg of fresh and ripe tomatoes
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ red onion
1 tsp sea salt
Basil leaves
Red pepper flakes

Preparation:
Soften the onion with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Cook the tomatoes for about two hours. Blend them with a food processor and cook them again at very low flame so that the sauce reduces more. Add basil, sea salt, red pepper and extra virgin olive oil.

If you like this post you may also want to read our post on how to make fresh orecchiette pasta with tomato sauce and cacioricotta cheese.

For more info please email at: info.stile@gmail.com

In Italy, we say that we are a population of “Mammoni” (mummy’s people): la “Mamma” is a very important person for Italians in general.

Therefore, today’s Mother day is going to be a very important festivity (almost more important than Christmas!). Everybody gives to their Mammas the most beautiful flowers.

I and Marika thought of making a “savory flower”. We were inspired by the red color of the beautiful poppies we now have in the countryside in Puglia.
We prepared this summery strawberry dessert, that we called “strawberry flower”.

Recipe:
(for 6 servings)

500 grams strawberries
20 ladyfingers
1 tbsp sugar
1 freshly squeezed lemon
Mint leaves

For the pastry cream:
4 yolks
½ liter skimmed milk
7 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp 00 flour
1 lemon zest

To prepare the strawberry sauce:
Leave aside 10 big strawberries. Cut in small pieces the other strawberries and place them in a bowl with 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 freshly squeezed lemon. Stir with a spoon and let them marinate in the fridge. After about 2 hours, use a food processor to reduce the strawberries to a sauce (leaving some big chunks of fruit).

To prepare the pastry cream:
Put the yolks and sugar in a pan and mix with a spoon, while adding the flour little by little. Pour half milk and keep stirring with a spoon until the flour is completely dissolved.
Peel the whole lemon zest and add it to the mix. Move to the stove, reduce the flame to the minimum and keep stirring with the spoon, while adding the remaining milk. Keep stirring for about 8-10 minutes. Let the pastry cream cool down completely (for at least 1 hour) and then remove the lemon zest. (Instead of using the lemon pastry cream, you could also use the mascarpone cheese).

Dessert preparation:
Place a first layer of ladyfingers in a serving bowl and, using a spoon, moisten them with the strawberry sauce. Add a layer of pastry cream on top.
Continue adding another layer of ladyfingers, strawberry sauce and pastry cream.
Slice the 10 strawberries and use them to garnish. Finish with some mint leaves.

How do you celebrate today’s Mother day?

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

I and Marika are back from our cooking and wine tour in Puglia.
It was a memorable week: we cooked, ate, drank and … laughed a lot! Some guests even complained that the food was TOO GOOD and the wines too delicious!
After sharing so many memorable experiences, it is very sad when our guests (now new friends) go back to their homes…even though they left with the promise to be back in Puglia again (but only after following a strict diet!!).
The best part of a culinary tour is to meet so many interesting people who enjoy traveling and getting to know a place through its food, culture and the local people they meet.
These are just a few highlights of our week.
A good start of the day with one of the best Italian ice creams at the local seller:

Visit of a village which was ready for the Saint Patron celebration:

Lots of poppies and olive trees in the countryside:

We meet our fishermen friends in Gallipoli:

One of the fishermen invited us to his house to show us his collections. This was an experience that all our guests enjoyed a lot, since it was totally unexpected…and since no tourist guide books even mention it!
Collection of big shells caught in the sea and old nets used to fish:

Collection of other ancient instruments used in the house:

Collection of 12 little characters (below the Saint frame). Each character represents an old profession in the village. Starting from the left, we have: the fisherman, the carpenter, the builder, the shoemaker, the taylor etc. Every year, on the Holy Friday, local people wander around the village wearing the colored gouns and hoods.

We think this sort of little unexpected surprises makes our tours unique! Click here for more pictures about sea and beach in Puglia.

What was your favorite unexpected adventure in Italy?

Contact us at: info@stilemediterraneo.it

Ingredients for 5 people:
-250 grams flour
-1 yeast
-½ tsp sugar
-1 tsp salt
-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-200 grams of fresh pecorino cheese
-5 tomatoes
-3 basil leaves
-Pinch of oregano
-1 tbsp capers
-3 anchovies

For the dough: melt in a cup the yeast with some warm water and the sugar. Pour the water with the yeast in a bowl with the flour and salt. Knead with your hands and let it rise for about 1 hour. Then, knead again the dough on a wooden board and cut it in small pieces, of 50 grams each.
For the inside: cut the tomatoes, cheese, basil leaves and anchovies in small pieces and dress in a bowl with oregano, olive oil and capers.
Roll out each piece of dough and place a spoon of tomatoes and cheese in the middle.

Fold the dough and close it very well.
Prepare a baking pan with some olive oil. Place each piece of dough one next to the other and let them rise for other 30 minutes.

Bake in the oven at 180° C for 35 minutes (350F).
Let us know if you make this recipe. It’s perfect to be used on the table instead of the regular bread.

For more information, please contact us at: info.stile@gmail.com

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We are very proud of the article Susan Semenak wrote in the Montreal Gazette, on February 3rd, 2009.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Puglia+rustica/1249202/story.html

The tradition for the New Year’s Eve dinner in Puglia and Italy is certainly to eat “cotechino with lentils”!
In Italy we think that lentils bring good luck in general…but hopefully lots of money in the year to come….
My advice is to accompany this “poor” dish with an elegant wine…and of course since it is the New Year’s Eve dinner I advise you to accompany the lentils with the Italian Spumante or…the French Champagne!
For more info contact me at: info.stile@gmail.com

WE WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY AND A NEW YEAR FILLED WITH LOTS OF HAPPINESS AND… DELICIOUS MOMENTS!