Cooking classes and vacations in Puglia Italy

Having lived in so many different countries, I am lucky enough to have local friends almost everywhere. Whenever I take holidays from my cooking classes in Puglia and I travel, I always make sure I go and visit them. So I am very spoiled, because I get to visit the world with local people who take me to the most authentic places and best restaurants and order for me the most local and delicious food.

Whenever, it happened to me not to have such help I always been a bit disappointed with the food I ordered.

Loving food and wine so much, I can never have enough. Even when I am on holiday I am always interested in trying different foods and wines. I believe cuisine and wine are such a wonderful way to learn about the local culture and traditions.

Because Puglia is still an undiscovered place and because not many people speak English in best local restaurants, I thought it would be good to give some little tips and insights on what to expect in restaurants in Puglia and on how to order a meal in Puglia. So that you don’t run the risk of missing any of the wonderful culinary experience Puglia has to offer.

1. First, you need to know about Puglia and Southern Italy is that once you book a table, nobody is going to rush you! You can enjoy your food as slowly as you like. You can stay at the table 2, 3, 4 hours. Nobody will complain.  This is because food in Puglia is more a social thing than a way to feed us. We stay at the table for many hours but we eat very slowly. After a 3-hour meal, it may look like we have been eating a lot; but the talking has certainly been much more than the eating. This is a land of slow eating!
2. Second, in Puglia we take the idea of “local” food very seriously. This is not a new trendy concept for us. It has been the same way for thousands of years. This means that we only eat what is locally produced. Locally means: within 5 miles. To give you an example: Lecce is 6 miles from the sea. So nobody would order seafood in a restaurant in Lecce. We would only go and eat seafood and fish in Gallipoli or Otranto (which are by the sea and where it would be impossible to find any meat!). In Lecce the cuisine is based on durum wheat pasta, lots of vegetables, cheese and meat, but very little seafood (may be calamari).
3. Third, Puglia is not a place of famous chefs or fancy restaurants. Puglia is a place where most of the cooking is done by women in homes. It’s hard to have the authentic cuisine unless you go to someone’s home for a meal.  All the local recipes have never been written down and handed down by mother to daughter for generation. You now find lots of traditional restaurants who have become famous and mentioned in all travel guide books. However, you will certainaly find lots of tourists and a few locals in these places. If you cannot get invited to someone’s home for a meal, then ask to the locals, at the market, at the fish shop, in the street. Even if local people don’t speak English everybody will try to help!
4. Fourth, Puglia is very famous for the house starters (antipasti della casa). 

   

   House starters in Puglia may include from 5 to 20 different dishes, mostly made with vegetables, cheese, focaccia. They are all small servings to be shared (so 1 house starter can be for 4 people) but they can be a lot! If you want only ONE small starter, may be prosciutto crudo and melon, then make sure you ask for it. Otherwise the waiter will arrive with the many different house starters. After the house starters, we would only have either one pasta course or one seafood/meat course. We would always end a meal with fruit or dessert.
5. Fifth, salad in Puglia is a side course to our main course (meat or seafood). A waiter would be very suprised if you order a salad as a starter or with your pasta course. Alternative side courses would be other vegetables (but different from the house starters) or potatoes.
6. Sixth, every meal ends with a coffee, after which we also have the famous “amaro“, which is a digestive liquor (same concept of the limoncello or grappa). You can order it plain, or with ice cubes…..or the best way would be to have it on top of the spumone ice cream, which is the local ice cream in Puglia.
7. Seventh, servings are small in Puglia. House starters would be very small because they are supposed to be shared. Also pasta courses or main courses can be smaller than what you find in restaurants abroad.
8. Eight, traditional pasta in Puglia is made with durum wheat or barley or emmer. The local pasta is not made with eggs (even tagliatelle are not made with eggs). All local pasta include: cavatelli, orecchiette, sagne incannulate. However, we also eat egg pasta, such as ravioli, tortellini, lasagne, gnocchi.
9. Ninth, Puglia is not a region of big steaks. If you like steaks you have to go to Tuscany or the North of Italy. In Puglia we do eat meat but it would be lamb, veal and a bit of beef. Meat is always accompanied by vegetables (for examples: eggplants stuffed with ground meat). Therefore meat is more a complement to vegetables than a main dish. Local people in general eat very little meat and more seafood and legumes.
10. Tenth, we come to paying the bill! In Puglia (and in Italy) service is included in your bill. So there is no obligation to tip. However if you are happy with your food, then it would be very nice to leave a little tip: from 3 euro to 10 euro, depending on how happy you are.

Please

We wish  a very Happy Easter and Pasquetta day to all our readers!

What are your plans for the Pasquetta day? Weather forecast in Lecce and Puglia predicts we are going to have a very beautiful and warm Easter Monday. So very likely we will have our traditional picnic on the beach this year!

For those of you who don’t know about it, the “Pasquetta” Day is one the most exciting days in Southern Italy. Pasquetta is the Easter Monday and literally means the “little Easter”  ….basically it’s another excuse to keep eating, drinking and meeting friends!

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

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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

One of the good things about living in Puglia, apart from the weather, is that you can get the freshet handmade mozzarella at any small little “bottega” or artisan shops.

For Pugliese people, mozzarella is not just another example of cheese, but it belongs to the specific “mozzarella” category. When you go to a restaurant and you ask for some cheese, they will bring you to the table all the most amazing cheese you can think of: Pecorino, Parmigiano etc. But if you want a mozzarella, you need to specifically ask for: a “mozzarella”.

In Puglia there is a big tradition and culture around the mozzarella.

If you try the mozzarella in Puglia, you understand why. It has a high moisture content and is very tender and tasty. And it doesn’t matter if it is a buffalo mozzarella or a cow milk mozzarella (though, the one from Puglia is traditionally the cow milk mozzarella and we call it fior di latte). When you cut a piece of mozzarella with your fork and you have all the milk coming out….you start mouthwatering and you are just in paradise!
I believe the main reason why mozzarella is so good in Puglia is because lots of artisans still hand make the mozzarella, as opposed to using a machine. One of the best food experiences you can have is to eat a mozzarella a few minutes after it was handmade. Can it be any fresher than this?
Mozzarella belongs to the “pasta filata” cheese.

This means that after the milk is curdled, the mozzarella is stretched and kneaded until it gets very soft. The interesting thing is that the artisan stretches the mozzarella dough with his hands and a wooden spoon. However, this is not as painless as when you make a pizza or bread: the mozzarella dough is submerged in VERY HOT water (which can go up to 90°C). So for sure it’s not something for those who have delicate hands and skin!

Mozzarella in Puglia is made from cow milk, whereas in the Naples region, it is made from buffalo milk. When I was little I was told that cow is lighter than buffalo milk. I am not completely sure this is true, but it has always given me a good excuse to eat double portion of mozzarella.
Many times I pointed out that Puglia has many different culinary traditions. The size of the handmade pasta, the way we make the focaccia, the flour we use for bread and pasta, the way we name dishes, may all change from town to town, even if they are just a few miles apart.
Of course this also applies to the mozzarella. When you are talking about mozzarella in the Bari area (the Northern part of Puglia) you are certainly referring to the burrata. Burrata is a mozzarella which has inside a mix of cream and mozzarella.
In the Lecce area (Southern part of Puglia), instead, it is very rare to find the burrata and it is not very common for the local people to eat it. In Lecce, locals would eat the simplest and tasty fior di latte mozzarella made from cow milk. The fior di latte comes in many different shapes: the small nodini (knods), the beautiful trecce (braids) and the wonderful and huge “bombe” (YES! It means bombs!..because of their size).

All artisans say that handmade mozzarella can last up to one week. I never succeeded with this sort of experiment because I always finished my mozzarella in the same day it was made. However, if you want to keep the mozzarella for more days, put it in a bowl and cover it with milk! That’s the secret!

Have you ever tried a mozzarella from Puglia? How much mozzarella were you able to eat? (including the one you stole from your friend’s plate!)

Contact us at info.stile@gmail.com

My friends traveling to Puglia to visit Lecce, often ask me what things they should see, which travel guide book they should buy, from where they should start visiting… and so on. My answer is always: non ti preoccupare (don’t worry!). You don’t need any planning….just come here soon (arriva presto)!

This is our recipe:

- 1/2 glass freshly squeezed orange juice;

- 500 grams of flour;
- 250 whole grain flour;
- baking yeast (natural is better);

- 6 eggs;
- 1 yolk;
- 1 tsp sugar;
- 2 tsp sea salt;
- 1 lemon zest;
- 1/2 glass extra virgin olive oil;

For more information, please contact us at: info@stilemediterraneo.it

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!

Don’t miss the amazing live nativity chrèche in Tricase (Puglia/Apulia) from December 25 to January 6th, 2008. This is a unique event which takes place since 1976, on top of a small hill (monte Orco). All the people living in Tricase take part to the nativity crib.