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 vacationsPuglia desserts
Category
Cakes & Desserts, Puglia
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 dessertsChristmas traditions
Category
Cakes & Desserts, traditions
Posted on
August 14, 2009 by
Stile Mediterraneo
This is the perfect recipe for figs lovers!
Puglia is a big figs producer. Everywhere in the countryside you can see fig trees full of their delicious fruit!
Of course the best figs are those that you can eat just under the tree.
However, when you have picked and eaten too many figs, it’s also a good idea to start thinking about the winter season when you cannot find them fresh anymore.
You can prepare some delicious dry figs with toasted almonds and bay leaves.
This is the recipe:
INGREDIENTS
fresh figs
almonds
bay leaves
lemon zest
PREPARATION
Cut the figs in half, without breaking them and let them dry in the sun on a wooden board for about 10 days. Turn them upside down very often.
When they are competely dry, place an almond in the middle and sprinkle some grated lemon zest. Close them up and bake in the oven at very low temperature just to dry them up completely.
Place them in a jar with bay leaves.
Tags: figs
Category
Cakes & Desserts, Recipes
Posted on
May 10, 2009 by
Stile Mediterraneo
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?
Tags: strawberriestiramisu
Category
Cakes & Desserts, Recipes
