Travel Tips | Italy Puglia cooking classes and wine tours

Archive for the ‘travel tips’

What you should not miss when you come to Puglia: the pasticciotto Leccese! 0

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Stile Mediterraneo

There is one thing that you should certainly not miss when you come to Lecce in Puglia: the delicious Pasticciotto Leccese! There is no other place in Puglia or in Italy where you can have it! People from other places in Puglia come to Lecce on purpose to eat the pasticciotto.

Pasticciotto is a pasta frolla (sweet pastry) tart filled with lemon cream. Pasticciotto is the typical pastry that people in Lecce have for breakfast. If you want to do what the locals do in Lecce that’s what you should order, together with the espressino coffee, while enjoying the sun in the Santo Oronzo Square in Lecce.

In Lecce almost every coffee bar will serve the pasticciotto. However if you want to eat one of the best, you should go to Ascalone in Galatina (on the way South to Gallipoli).

I and Marika were recently interviewed by Sharon Sanders for a beautiful article she wrote about our Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School in Puglia and which was published in the Dream of Italy newsletter. In this article we share our secrets and travel recommendations for Puglia. We tell Sharon the story that when Cinzia lived in Milan, Ascalone refused to sell her a tray of pasticciotti to be taken back to the North with her. The baker wanted the pasticciotti to be enjoyed warm! Read the Dream of Italy Newsletter to find out more!

For more information about our cooking classes and gourmet tours in Puglia contact us at info.stile@gmail.com or subscribe to the Cooking School in Puglia Newsletter.

Tags: italian espresso coffee Italian pastries Italian sweets italy pasticciotto lecce things to do Puglia things to do
Category Cakes & Desserts, Favorites, Puglia, Reviews, cuisine, lifestyle in Lecce, things to do in Puglia, traditions, travel tips

Hiking in the Porto Selvaggio Natural Reserve 2

Posted on November 08, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

One of the most beautiful experiences you should not miss when you come to Puglia is going hiking in the Porto Selvaggio Natural Reserve. Today the sun was shining after two days of heavy rain. I and Marika decided to go to Porto Selvaggio. It was beautiful! And of course we took so many pictures that we are now happy to share.

Porto Selvaggio natural reserve is facing the Ionian sea, a few miles north of Gallipoli.

Lots of pirates in the 16th and 17th centuries tried to invade Puglia from this part of the coast. Therefore there are many towers that were built to defend the coast. Lots of these towers are still very well preserved!

Today, my and Marika’s objective was to hike from the “Uluzzo” Tower going South toward the “Madonna dell’Alto” Tower.

You can choose among different paths (with different levels of difficulty) to go from one tower to the other.

During our walk we could not stop taking pictures of the amazing daisy flowers and myrtle plants.

There were many other plants from clover leaf, to wild rosemary, wild sage, figs and prickly pears.

It is impossible to describe how beautiful and intense the smell of all these plants and flowers was….together with the sea salt from the Ionian sea.

After a two hour walk, we found a little hidden beach where we stopped for lunch.

Even if it is November…..it was a pity not to have our bathing suit!

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

Tags: best places to see in Puglia hiking Puglia Porto Selvaggio Sea Natural Reserve Things to do in Puglia
Category things to do in Puglia, travel tips

Enjoying coffee in Puglia Italy: espresso, espressino and nocciolino coffees 3

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

One of the things you should not miss when you come to Puglia is certainly trying all the different kinds of “coffee” we have.

In Puglia and in Lecce we have so many types of coffee:

-espresso with moka (made at home with Moka machine)

-espresso (made at the bar with the special machine)

-espresso ristretto (very short espresso)

-espresso macchiato (with a little bit of foam milk)

-espressino (typical from Lecce)

-cappuccino

-nocciolino

-granita caffè

-espressino estivo (summer espressino)

-espresso corretto (espresso with liquor)

-and many more…..

Every moment of the day requires a different coffee (i.e. Italians never have a cappuccino after lunch or in the afternoon).

Every time we meet someone we have a coffee: we may have 4, 5 coffees per day….sometimes even more. You would say, it’s a lots of caffein. However, the key is to have just one shot espresso each time. Very rarely we would have a “caffè doppio” (two shots of espresso coffee).

The first thing Pugliese people do in the morning, very soon after they wake up, is to have a coffee made with a Moka machine.

The smell of the coffee made with a moka machine and the sound of the coffee coming up are rituals that take place every morning in all Pugliese houses.
Everybody has a moka machine at home, which is supposed to make the best espresso coffee.

Then, we go to a bar for the typical breakfast in Lecce: espressino and pasticciotto.
Espressino is served in a small glass coffee cup. It is made of one shot of espresso, with a bit of foam milk, and cocoa powder both on top and in between the coffee and milk. When the barman is inspired, you get a little heart or flower drawing in your espressino!!

Before lunch, it’s time for the nocciolino, wich is made of one shot of warm espresso with a small ball of hazelnut icecream. The combination of warm coffee and cold icecream is fantastic.
After lunch, it is time for an espresso or for an espresso macchiato (with a little bit of foam milk on top).
For more information about Puglia cuisine, our cooking classes and wine tours in Puglia Italy please write at info.stile@gmail.com

Tags: espresso coffee italian cappuccino italian coffee Italian traditions puglia lifestyle
Category Favorites, Puglia, cuisine, things to do in Puglia, travel tips

All the good meat from Puglia! 0

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

What we find really funny or may be 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 restauants 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!

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

Tags: bombette Cisternino martina franca meat Puglia cuisine saucesages
Category Cooking tip, Puglia, Reviews, cuisine, things to do in Puglia, travel tips

Slow Food events in Puglia: the “Mercatino del Gusto” 0

Posted on August 03, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

We are just back from the first two days at the Mercatino del Gusto organized by Slow Food in Maglie Puglia and we have already so much to tell about this year event, which celebrates the 10th anniversary!

The Mercatino del Gusto (literally: the Market of Good Taste) brings together only the best and carefully selected producers from Puglia.

All the producers attending this event are selected and invited to partecipate because they answer the Slow Food’s quality requirements.

We are just impressed by the fact that the number of producers attending this event has grown so much, meaning that during the past 10 years more and more producers in Puglia have been focusing on high quality standards! This is particularly evident with the wine producers occupying the whole main square!!

The Mercatino del Gusto is much more than a fair: for four days, the whole town of Maglie becomes the setting of this event. All streets and squares in the historical center change their names into: Piazza del Vino (Wine Square), Via dell’olio (olive oil stree), Via dell’Ortofrutta (Fruit street), Via del Pesce (Fish street), etc.

There are a few streets that turn into outdoor restaurants where you can sit down and dine with new friends. There are certain streets that turn into ourdoor movie theatres or stages for jazz concerts!

My and Marika’s highlights for the past two days were the Puglia Slow Food Presidia, among the Slow Food activities we strongly support!

Slow Food Presidia are local projects aimed to protect small-scale producers and to recover traditional methods of producing high quality products that would otherwise disappear because their production is not very profitable anymore.

These projects help the local communities to promote their products and to become economically viable. There are about 300 presidia around the world and about 10 in Puglia.

These are just some of the Pugliese products Slow Food is helping promoting.

Oranges and lemons from Gargano. Gargano is a beautiful area of Puglia. Here lemons and oranges grow throughout the year! Oranges are picked in December, April/May until September! Delicious marmalades and liquors are made with these citrus fruit.

The local small producers were not able to compete with the big international producers and the production of these oranges and lemons is at risk! A group of producers has recently created a Consortium to promote these wonderful fruit!

We must admit that our favorite presidium is the Vacca Podolica (Podolica Cow)!
This cow, because very strong and rustic, has always been considered more suitable as pets work, to be used in the land by the farmers. Over the past 20 years, the number of podolica cows has been gradually reducing. This is because they are not very profitable: they produce small quantity of milk and only in certain months. Also the meat is very savory but hard.

However, the meat of the Podolica cow is very special from a nutritional point of view, even though the taste is completely different from what we are used to. This is due to the fact that these animals are fed only with grass and not with cattle feed! Also cheese made of the podolico milk is incredibly rich of flavor and taste!

The Fiaschetto tomato is another very interesting product, which is is the latest addition to the Puglia Slow Food Presidia. The fiaschetto tomato is what all the Pugliese families have traditionally been using to make their winter tomato sauce (instead of the more famous plum San Marzano tomatoes!).

The fiaschetto tomato was at risk of disappearing because the production was again not very profitable: too expensive to produce and the yield very low…compared to the modern tomatoes!

However, a group of farmers recently decided to experiment the biological production of these tomatoes, without any chimical product! These fiaschetto tomatoes are now produced in the beautiful land around the WWF Torre Guaceto sea natural reserve.

For more information please write at info.stile@gmail.com

Tags: Italian cheese Jams & Marmalades Puglia cuisine Puglia events Puglia market Slow Food tomatoes
Category Cheese & Mozzarella, Food markets, Mediterranean Healthy food, cuisine, traditions, travel tips

Puglia food festivals: the bread sagra! 6

Posted on August 01, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

My and Marika’s favorite way to celebrate the Pugliese food and wine is to attend one of the many local sagre (festivals) taking place in the small towns, year round everywhere around Puglia.

Every town organizes a different festival: from the fig, bread, pasta, meatball, eggaplant, fish, to the watermelon and icecream! The sagra celebrates what’s in season and each town’s main traditional production.

The best sagre are of course in July and August.
Last night I and Marika went to the Bread fair held in a sea town, nearby Lecce. It was so much fun!

Everytime we go to a sagra, we must start trying the Almond Cupeta. That’s something we have always done, since we were very young.

Almond cupeta is a Torrone, made only with sugar and toasted almonds!

Then we headed to the bread area. Thousands of people were waiting for the warm “Pittule”: deep fried focaccia bread…..and of course for the “Pizzini bread“: bread made with onion, tomatoes, black pepper and olives.

The best part of a sagra is of course to buy the many different and colorful candies.

It would not be a true festival without candies! Nobody can resist!

For more information on our culinary tours please write at info.stile@gmail.com

Tags: bread Italy focaccia food markets Italy Italian sweets Italy fairs Puglia events
Category Food markets, Puglia, things to do in Puglia, traditions, travel tips

Living the Dolce Vita in Lecce…..yes life is too hard! 5

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Stile Mediterraneo

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)!

Southern Italians, we are famous for not planning enough! We say we enjoy life (non-Southern Italians say…we are lazy!). Of course I support the first interpretation…..

I think it’s great to take it easy when you come to Lecce and Puglia. Where else can you have such a wonderful opportunity to walk around an historical center which is just an outdoor museum?!

The historical center is just amazing with all his baroque style and architecture. You enter into a very narrow street, you think you are about to get lost……and suddenly you have this beautifully decorated Santa Croce Cathedral. You can only stare at it. You try to take pictures, but the street is too narrow, you just can’t take a full size picture!

You walk along the main Vittorio Emanuele street and you are just astonished by all the beautiful palaces with their handcrafted balconies, reproducing angels, lions, horses etc.

At night, you cross the main Sant’Oronzo square and suddenly you find a Roman amphitheatre (a much smaller version of the Colosseum in Rome!) where a dance ballet company is performing.

However, the best thing I usually suggest to my friends, is to mingle with the locals and live like the local Leccese people do……at least for one day! I promise you start with one day and then… you get addicted! (it’s worst than chocolate!). I have some friends who moved to Puglia from the US and the UK and are now so well accustomed to the Leccese way of life……!!

So how do people from Lecce spend their regular day?

The day starts at about 9:00am (in Lecce when we say 9, we actually mean 9:30). Of course we first need to read the news (i.e. weather forecast, horoscope, Lecce soccer team, night events). So we go to the bar in the main Santo Oronzo square for an “Espressino” and “Pasticciotto”: nobody who is a true Leccese would order anything different than this….I think it’s a breakfast written in our DNA. Espressino, which literally means little espresso, is actually a sort of espresso macchiato, served in a small glass coffee cup: 1 shot of coffee, with milk foam and bitter cocoa powder on top. Pasticciotto is a pastry filled with lemon cream that is one of the most typical pastries from Lecce (you don’t find it anywhere else in Puglia!).

Then, it’s time to work!! You ride your bike or vespa to the office, check you emails, Facebook and Twitter and then ….serious and hard work. After about two hours, the clock tower announces it’s already Mezzogiorno (Midday), time for the pre-lunch aperitif!
So you take your vespa or bike again and go to another bar (Raphael bar, near Mazzini Square) where you have an aperitif based on: rustico and crodino. Rustico is a salty pastry filled with mozzarella, béchamel and tomato sauce. You can only eat it in Lecce!
You meet your friends, check what they are doing at night and then back home for lunch with your family.

You may stop for some food shopping first or may be to buy some spring flowers at the beautiful market behind the big Castle.

Lunch time is from 1 to 4-5pm (it depends!), which of course includes the siesta. Yes, it depends because some shops open at 5.30 pm. Going back home for lunch and having a siesta is a religion which is respected more than anything else. If you walk in the streets at that time of the day you don’t find one single person. If you don’t know about the siesta, you may think Lecce is a desert town….but then at 5 (I mean ….at 5.30) life goes back again. People fill the streets, walking in a hurry to go back to work!

Well, in the afternoon a typical Leccese works until 8.30pm (yes, we do work long hours!)….then gym, shower and ready for the Leccese movida: pizza at 10.30pm and then a drink at the piazzetta behind the Duomo Cathedral. The night life goes on until 2am!….
I know life is too hard!

Please contact us at: info@stilemediterraneo.it

Tags: espresso coffee Lecce pasticciotto Puglia rustico Santa Croce church Things to do in Puglia vespa motorbike
Category Favorites, Puglia, cuisine, lifestyle in Lecce, things to do in Puglia, traditions, travel tips