Italy cooking courses and Italy wine tasting tour vacations

Zeppole pastries on Saint Joseph day 0

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Stile Mediterraneo

Zeppole are pastries that in Puglia we traditionally eat on March 19th to celebrate Saint Joseph day. You can only find these delicious zeppole patries in March. Therefore if you are in Puglia and you miss them….you’ll have to come back next year!

I and Marika have always loved Saint Joseph day. March 19th is our father’s anniversary (whose name is Giuseppe or Joseph) and is also Father’s day in Italy. So lots of things to celebrate on this day. Since we were young, every year on March 19th our father’s friends have given him big trays with huge zeppole pastries. And when we say huge….we mean it!

Because of their size, it is always very tricky to eat zeppole without getting some lemon cream all over the face!

Zeppole are made of a baked or deep fried dough, topped with lemon pastry cream and chocolate cream. Usually they are 2.1 inches in diameter! You can also find a smaller version, but given that they are only made once per year, you’d rather have the huge ones!

Do you celebrate Saint Joseph day? what do you do?

Tags: culinary vacations Puglia desserts
Category Cakes & Desserts, Puglia

2010 cooking classes and wine tours 0

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Stile Mediterraneo

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 tours 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

Tags: cooking schools Italy Cooking classes
Category things to do in Puglia

Caprese salad or mozzarella and tomato panini? 0

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Stile Mediterraneo

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?

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?

————————————–

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.

Tags: caprese salad panini
Category cuisine

Almond Fish: traditional Christmas sweet 0

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

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

However, we love the traditional Christmas sweets, just because they are really specific to this festivity and so we make them in Puglia only once per year. And this has been the same since always.
Our favorite Christmas sweet is a fish made of almond. In many families and countries it is a tradition to eat fish at Christmas time. In Puglia we also have fish as a dessert!

This sweet is very simple to prepare. We make the dough with sugar, almond and chocolate. Then we stuff the fish with Marika’s pear jam, biscuits and liquor. We decorate the fish eye with a coffee bean.
However, as for many other almond sweets we prepare during our cooking classes in Puglia, the almonds we use are what make the difference.

The fish we made for our family’s Christmas lunch weighed 1 kg. We understood that everybody liked it since there was none left.

And you, what are your favorite Christmas culinary traditions?

Tags: Christmas desserts Christmas traditions
Category Cakes & Desserts, traditions

Delicious dorade in sea salt crust 2

Posted on December 19, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

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.

Tags: dorade fish sea bream
Category cuisine, Fish & Meat

Best aperitif in Lecce: the famous Rustico 0

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

If you want to look very local in Lecce, you need to have an aperitif, before lunch, in the Sant’Oronzo square, like all the Leccese people!

Every day, at 12:0′clock an opera singer announces it is noon….and so aperitif time for the true Leccese people! we go to the Sant’Oronzo square to meet our friends, enjoy the sun and ….of course our aperitif before lunch.

The typical aperitif in Lecce is based on a “Rustico” and a drink, which is known as “bitter Campari”.

Rustico is a savory pastry made of pasta sfoglia (puff pastry) stuffed with mozzarella, tomato sauce, bechamel, black pepper and nutmeg and then baked in the oven.

It has a round shape with a diameter of 12 cm.

Rustico is something you can only find in Lecce and in the Salento area. In no other parts of Puglia or Italy you will find a Rustico.

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

Tags: aperitif Lecce Lecce rustico
Category Focaccia & Bread, lifestyle in Lecce

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

Traditional Italian Sunday lunch 0

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

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.

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.

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

Tags: traditional meal
Category cuisine

Traditional meat 0

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

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!

Tags: Cisternino meat
Category cuisine, Puglia

Aperitif time: raw sea urchins 4

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

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!

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.