Italy Cooking Courses » cuisine http://www.italycookingcourses.com Italy Puglia cooking vacations and wine tours Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:19:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Very simple recipe with farro http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/07/simple-italian-recipe-with-farro-to-keep-women-very-healthy/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/07/simple-italian-recipe-with-farro-to-keep-women-very-healthy/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:37:34 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/?p=4298 Italy cooking schools and classes


If you ever come to Puglia and Southern Italy you will certainly notice that there are many people and women in particular who live up to 100 years and in very healthy conditions.
Certainly the slow and relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle has a big influence on this: everybody goes back home for lunch, eats with the family and takes a little nap before going back to work at 5pm.

However, the Mediterranean diet is one of the main reasons why women and people in general, live so long. One of the most important features of the Mediterranean diet and cuisine is that people eat a combination of carbs, proteins, and fats at every meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner). What is extremely important is that, everything is eaten in moderation and that focus is on GOOD carbs, proteins and fats.

In Puglia extra virgin olive oil is used almost for everything, even for sweets. Lots of vegetables are eaten at every meal. Proteins come from seafood and most of all from legumes which are eaten at least twice per week. Very little meat is used, sometimes once a week and always in small servings.

Lots of students attending our cookery courses are always impressed with the fact that we eat pasta almost every day and keep asking Marika, as a cardiologist, whether this is a healthy thing to do! Don’t we eat too many carbs?

It is true that in Puglia and Southern Italy we eat lots of carbohydrates. However we mainly eat those with a low glycemic index. Pasta in Puglia is made with no eggs, but just with semolina durum wheat and water. Also, we eat lots of grains such as barley, farro and rye and lots of fruit.

A recent study led by the National Institute of Cancer in Milan, shows that there is an increased risk of heart attack caused not by a diet high in carbohydrates, but by a diet rich in rapidly absorbed carbohydrates. 

This is a very simple and delicious recipe made with farro, a very good carbohydrate (which in English should translate into emmer). 

FARRO WITH MUSSELS, TOMATOES AND EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

Italy Puglia traditional cuisine

INGREDIENTS

1 lb farro
2 lb black mussels
1 garlic clove
15 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup parsley
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
pinch black pepper

PREPARATION

Cook the farro in water for about 25 minutes. Remove it al dente.

On the side pour in a sauce pan a few drops of extra virgin olive oil with the garlic clove and chilly pepper. After one minute add the black mussels and cherry tomatoes and everything cook.

Once the mussels are open, add the farro and finish cooking everything together.

Switch off the flame and add freshly chopped parsley, extra virgin olive oil and black pepper.

Eat right away!

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/07/simple-italian-recipe-with-farro-to-keep-women-very-healthy/feed/ 0 Pizza, Focaccia and Bread cooking classes http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/pizza-focaccia-and-bread-cooking-days-in-puglia-italy/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/pizza-focaccia-and-bread-cooking-days-in-puglia-italy/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 12:38:52 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/?p=4112 Italy Puglia pizza focaccia cooking classes

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!

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/pizza-focaccia-and-bread-cooking-days-in-puglia-italy/feed/ 0 Pasta days http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/pasta-days-in-puglia/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/pasta-days-in-puglia/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 12:15:07 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/?p=4091 Italian pasta recipes and dishes

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!

 

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/pasta-days-in-puglia/feed/ 0 Easy recipe with calamari http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/easy-italian-recipe-to-impress-your-guests/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/easy-italian-recipe-to-impress-your-guests/#comments Sat, 15 May 2010 12:30:03 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/?p=4035 Italian cooking schools in Puglia

The beauty of the cuisine of Puglia is that you can prepare very delicious dishes without spending too much time in the kitchen. As always, the key is to use fresh and very high quality ingredients. So basically if you want to save time in the kitchen, you should spend a little extra time looking for the right ingredients.

Today I and Marika want to share this recipe which we guarantee will impress your guests on a dinner party! We love this recipe, first because it is very tasty and second because you can serve it cold, so you can prepare it in advance and enjoy your dinner with your guests!

As always we got inspired by what’s in season now in Puglia and Italy: the fresh green peas!

You also need very small calamari. Please note that it is very important the calamari are fresh and not frozen.

RECIPE

4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

- 500 grams fresh green peas (small size)
- very small onion
- 8 small calamari (fresh and small)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (medium fruity)
- 2 slices of artisan durum wheat bread
- 1 tsp sea salt
- pinch black pepper

PREPARATION:

In a pan, soften the onion with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Clean the green peas and cook them at very low flame and with the lid. Add the sea salt. After 20-30 minutes, remove them from the flame and let them cool down before reducing into a purea with the food processor.

On the side, wash the calamari and cut them in small strips, lengthwise.  Sautée the calamari just for a few minutes at very low flame.

Cut the artisan bread in small strips and bake in the oven for a few minutes, until it gets crunchy. Once it is ready, drizzle with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil on top.

Pour the green peas purea on a plate. Place the calamari strips on top and drizzle with a little more extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle a pinch of black pepper on top. Serve with toasted bread.

Enjoy!

What’s your favorite recipe with fresh geen peas?

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/05/easy-italian-recipe-to-impress-your-guests/feed/ 0 Caprese salad or mozzarella and tomato panini? http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/01/take-a-personality-test-with-food/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/01/take-a-personality-test-with-food/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:20:02 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/?p=2519 QUESTION:
What is your favorite food at lunch on your work days?

A) a caprese salad with tomato, mozzarella cheese, basil, extra virgin olive oil….accompanied by two slices of bread?

caprese tomato and mozzarella

OR:

B) a delicious sandwich, with a super yummy mozzarella…some juicy tomatoes with fresh basil and… that warm bread, crunchy outside and soft inside?

sandwich with tomato and mozzarella

————————————–
RESULTS
If your answer is A):
You are a calm person and enjoy every moment of your life. Work is good…but that’s not the most important thing in your life! You are also very social and  you enjoy taking a good break at lunch with colleagues and people you like.
You understand how important it is not just to eat well and healthy…..but also HOW you eat….(see below).

If your answer is B):
You are a very dynamic person and very successful at work. You are a multi-task person. Your typical day looks more or less like this:
-gym very early in the morning
-meetings at work in the morning
-shopping at lunch…while having a quick sandwich panino standing in the coffee bar
-meetings at work in the afternoon
-aperitif and then dinner with friends
————————————-

Many times already, you may have heard that we are WHAT we eat!
Lots of medical reaserch demonstrates that what we eat can have a huge impact on our health in the long run.

I and Marika believe that what we eat is really important….but that’s not enough! Also, HOW we eat can have a huge impact on our health and well being.
There is a BIG difference between a sandwich with tomato, mozzarella and basil; and a caprese salad with tomato, mozzarella, basil and bread…..even though they are made exactly with the same ingredients and quantities.
The difference is that the caprese salad is eaten at the table. May be you are chewing slowly and may be you are relaxing while talking to someone.
The sandwich is very likely eaten in a couple of minutes, standing in a coffee bar.

We strongly believe that the Mediterranean diet is good….but to be more powerful, it needs to be accompanied by a slower lifestyle.
 
What do you think? we would love to hear about your experience and thoughts.


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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2010/01/take-a-personality-test-with-food/feed/ 0 Delicious dorade in sea salt crust http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/12/recipes-from-puglia/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/12/recipes-from-puglia/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:50:12 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/?p=2210 cooking sea bass in salt crust from Puglia

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

If you come to Puglia, this is something you should not miss. Our favorite place where to eat is in Otranto, just by the Adriatic sea.
A dorade can be prepared in so many different ways.
I and Marika love the dorade baked in sea salt crust: this recipe allows us to appreciate the freshness of this fish and its particular taste.
We don’t add any flavor, herbs, lemon or olive oil.
The only ingredients we use are: dorade and coarse sea salt.
As always the most important thing is the quality of the ingredients we are using.
It is extremely important that the dorade is freshly caught and most of all that it is coming from the sea (and not farmed).
During our cooking classes in Puglia we will teach how to recognize whether the dorade comes from the sea or is farmed.

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

PREPARATION
Preheat the oven at 200 °C.
Clean the fish.
Place a layer of sea salt on the bottom of a large baking pan.
Lay the fish on top of the salt and cover it with sea salt.
Cook for about 25 minutes.

sea bass in salt crust from Puglia



 

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/12/recipes-from-puglia/feed/ 2 Traditional durum wheat orecchiette pasta http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/11/italy-puglia-cooking-schools/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/11/italy-puglia-cooking-schools/#comments Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:50:00 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/11/hand-made-orecchiette-from-puglia/

cinzia_marika_nonna_mamma

 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).

making orecchiette

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.

orecchiette_with_tomato_sauce

 

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!

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/11/italy-puglia-cooking-schools/feed/ 2 Traditional Italian Sunday lunch http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/10/puglia-gourmet-food-tours/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/10/puglia-gourmet-food-tours/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:26:00 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/10/delicious-pastries-for-the-sunday-lunch/

pastries on a tray

There is no Sunday lunch in Puglia and in Lecce without the most beautiful and delicious pastries which include: babà with rum, cannoli with ricotta, bignè with lemon pastry cream.
Pastry shops start making fresh cannoli and pasticciotti very early in the morning and you can smell the savory lemon cream and pasticciotto from the street.
All the pastry shops get very busy around 12am, just before lunch, when everybody rushes to get the best pastries.

pastries in the window

Even if you may choose among tons of different pastries, you have always the impression you are missing the best. Therefore all trays (in Italian “guantiera”) end up being very big.

rapping the pastries

The Sunday pastries are something not to be missed if you come to Puglia. Make sure you order yours before 12am.

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/10/puglia-gourmet-food-tours/feed/ 0 Traditional meat http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/08/gourmet-holidays-puglia-italy/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/08/gourmet-holidays-puglia-italy/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:55:00 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/08/all-the-good-meat-from-puglia/

man_grilling_the_meat

What we find really find interesting about the cuisine of our region, Puglia, is that wherever you go, you eat what´s produced in that specific place.
Therefore, you can have the best seafood and fish only when you go to a town which is literally by the sea (such as Gallipoli, Otranto, Santa Maria di Leuca).
In such places it will be very hard to find anyone serving you meat courses.
Viceversa when you go to a town which is not by the sea (even just 5 miles from the sea!!) the cuisine will be mainly based on meat…and it will be hard to find a big variety of seafood on the restaurants menus.
Puglia is certainly not a place for big beef steaks. The local meat is mainly lamb, veal and pork. When you come to Puglia you have to try the fantastic sausages and salami.

Also, our favorite meat is the bombetta,which is a sort of roll made of pork meat, stuffed with sea salt, back pepper, parsley and cheese. Bombette and sausages are delicious when grilled.

The best place where to eat good meat is all the Murgia area, which includes: Cisternino, Martina Franca, Alberobello, Locorotondo.
If you ever go to Martina Franca don’t miss the butcher Macelleria Michele Cito.
If you go to Cisternino don’t miss the “Fornello” experience at night. Cisternino is small hilltop town with a spectacular panorama of the countryside. At night all butchers are open until very late. At the butcher shop you can choose your favorite lamb, bombette or sausages. Then you get your meat grilled just at the trattoria next door. An unforgettable and delicious experience that you can only have in Cisternino!

salami_with_negroamaro_wine

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]]> http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/08/gourmet-holidays-puglia-italy/feed/ 0 Aperitif time: raw sea urchins http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/06/aperitif-time-the-pugliese-way-fresh-sea-urchins/ http://www.italycookingcourses.com/2009/06/aperitif-time-the-pugliese-way-fresh-sea-urchins/#comments Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:45:00 +0000 Stile Mediterraneo http://www.vollanprojects.co.uk/wordpress/2009/06/aperitif-time-the-pugliese-way-fresh-sea-urchins/ Sea urchins Puglia
One of the things I and Marika love about the summer in Puglia is the chance to enjoy our favorite aperitif, may be on the beach while watching a beautiful sunset!
There are many things that Pugliese people have during the aperitif.
What I and Marika love the most are the sea urchins. Both accompanied by a good glass of Italian Prosecco wine, the Valdobbiadene Doc is one of our favorites.
Aperitif is a very special moment of the day in Puglia. It can take place at around 12…after breakfast, before going to the beach; or at 8pm after a day spent on the beach before getting ready to have dinner. In Puglia we have a sort of Latin culture therefore dinner is never before 10.30pm, even in winter.
Many people say they will never try sea urchins ….never, never in their life! We have seen lots of people who started with just one….and who are now coming back to Puglia just to eat the sea urchins! Of course there are many ways to eat sea urchins: you can have them on top of the linguine, very simply cooked with just some parsley.
However, the most unforgettable way is to have them raw, by the sea while the fisherman opens them for you a few minutes after he catches them!
Fishermen opening fresh sea urchins
Bread is allowed to get all the juice. Fishermen have their special or hidden places where they stop to open sea urchins. Usually you will find them in any village by the sea.

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