There will be cooking classes, olive oil tastings, wine pairings to promote Puglia’s Mediterranean cuisine and its benefits for health and wellbeing.

BOSTON

May 21 Taste of Italy event at Harvard Business School

PORTLAND

Mediterranean Cooking events with Michelle Dietz, founder of Sea Change Cooking.

May 22  Olive oil tasting event, Falmouth

Women’s Networking Event with Echelon Circles to Benefit Dress for Success

May 23 – May 24 Mediterranean Cooking & Olive oil tasting Lincolnville

Cooking classes and wine pairings at Cellardoor vineyard

May 25-May 26 Mediterranean Cooking, South Portland

2 Day Series at Southern Maine Community College

NEW YORK

May 27-28 private events

Given the success of our Christmas cooking classes and tour in Matera last week, we are pleased to announce another SPECIAL tour in Matera on April 17-21, 2012.

Matera is a Unesco heritage town located in Basilicata, a region at the border with Puglia, just 2 hour drive from Lecce. Matera became very famous after the Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ movie. The old town is called Sassi which means stones, because the houses are carved out of the rock. Originally only the facade of these dwellings was built up to set up a door or a window which let light and air the house.

Matera is also a culinary paradise. It is very famous for its bread (an IGP product), but also for the pasta, the excellent cheese (caciocavallo, ricotta) and the Aglianico del Vulture Superiore wine, which is the first DOCG wine from Basilicata. Introduced in Basilicata by the Greeks, Aglianico is planted on the Mount Vulture, an extinct volcano, on high altitudes in the region in between 200-700 metres. Vulture has volcanic soil and is rich in mineral water, which is totally reflected in the flavors and taste. Aglianico is an acidic variety, very tannic and requires a few years of aging before you can enjoy it.

During our tour in April, you will learn how to make traditional dishes of the Matera and Puglia cuisines: from local fresh pasta, to focaccia, sauces etc. All in the beautiful setting of the Matera’s Stones-Caves. You will taste the excellent local olive oils, bread and cheese and you will have fun exploring the beautiful old town of Matera with your news friends.

Happy 2012 and hope to have you on our cooking tours in Matera and Puglia with us!

It’s the day when Marika does not have to go to the hospital (for work! of course) so she can make all her delicious Italian recipes and dishes. She usually wakes up early, goes on a bike ride and then in a couple of hours she is able to arrange a 5-course meal for the traditional Italian Sunday meal we have with the whole family.

When we were young our Grandmother used to cook the Sunday meal. Until a few months ago it was our Mother’s turn. Now it’s Marika’s (but I also help!).

Since we were very young, our family has always had meatballs with tomato sauce on Sunday. I and Marika would wake up with the smell of those fantastic meatballs slowly cooking in the tomato sauce. I think the first Italian word I learnt to say was “polpette”.

I and Marika both learned cooking with our Grandmother. However, we all agree that Marika’s dishes taste exactly what our Nonna used to make. I really don’t know how she does! But it must be due to the fact that cooking is more than a passion for her….and passion and love are two ingredients who make the difference.

So today is Sunday….and Marika made these fantastic meatballs with tomato sauce. You may say: everybody in Italy makes meatballs on a Sunday or… everybody knows how to make them. But I can tell you that they are really worth a post on our blog. They were incredibly good. And in fact they were all gone pretty soon. This is our family’s recipe.

Marika’s Sunday home-made meatballs

INGREDIENTS

1 lb minced beef meat
1 whole egg
3 1/2 oz parmigiano reggiano cheese
3 1/2 oz durum wheat breadcrumbs
milk (as necessary)
1/2 tsp sea salt
good pinch nutmeg
pinch black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
6-7 fresh mint leaves
18 fl oz fresh tomato sauce with onion and basil

Before the preparation, there are a few secrets for this meatball recipe that our Grandmother taught us and we want to share with our readers.

First, at the butcher shop, make sure the piece of meat you choose is minced in front of you. Second, do not use powder breadcrumbs but use good quality stale bread. Third, moisten the bread with milk (not water).  Fourth add fresh herbs (parsley, mint or basil) as they give much more flavor. The last and most important thing, once you make the balls, let them rest (so they absorb all the flavors) for a few hours before cooking them in the tomato sauce. The “resting” part is key.

PREPARATION

Put the minced meat in a bowl. Then add the egg and grated parmigiano cheese and start mixing with your hands.

In another plate, moisten the durum wheat bread with milk. Slowly add the moisten bread to the meat while mixing. Finally, add the chopped parsley, sea salt, black pepper, a good pinch of nutmeg and the mint leaves in small pieces.

The mint leaves add freshness and make the difference!

After you mix all the ingredients together, make some little balls with your hands. Put them on a tray and let them rest for at least one hour.

As always, Marika adds her healthy twist to all our family recipes. Therefore, she does not fry her meatballs before cooking them in the tomato sauce.

On the side prepare a fresh tomato sauce with basil. Slowly add the meatballs to the tomato sauce and cook them for about 40 minute-1 hour at low flame with the lid. Do not forget to stir them if necessary.

As always, enjoy them with your friends and family.

Do you have any traditional food your family makes on Sunday? What is your meatball recipe?

However, the Mediterranean-style 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

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!

We are happy to share an itinerary that could be helpful to travellers coming for a one week / 10-day vacation in Puglia.

First of all, please note that we think the most important reason why you should come to Puglia is its food, olive oil and wines. For sure you will love Puglia, if you love simple, fresh and delicious Italian food and wines. In addition to that, the beauty of Puglia is the fact that in one place you also find beautiful sandy beaches, cleanest sea water, relaxing countryside with millenary olive trees and vineyards, old historic towns with many influences from the Greek, Roman, to the Turkish and Spanish.

We chose our TOP 10 favorite places based on a combination of: local cuisine, wines, beauty of the place, location.

This itinerary may change according to the season you come.

Day 1: Our number one top location in Puglia is Lecce. We think you should make Lecce as your base for at least four days. Closest airport is Brindisi. Lecce has an elegant old town, with beautiful old palazzos and baroque churches. Please read our previous post about Best things to do in Lecce.

Food in Lecce: restaurants in Lecce serve mainly freshly made pasta, vegetables, meat (little seafood as Lecce is not by the sea). Don’t miss the pasticciotto and rustico. Also the famous orecchiette with tomato sauce and cacioricotta cheese. 

Things to do near Lecce include: playing golf, scuba diving, sailing, shopping…enjoying the Dolce Vita!. Don’t forget about the siesta time in Lecce.

Day 2: Lecce is also a very good base if you want to visit and taste some of the best wines and extra virgin olive oils in Puglia. You should consider another whole day for the winery tours and olive oil tastings in the Salento area.

Lecce is an excellent base if you love white sandy beaches and seafood. From Lecce you can easily go to Gallipoli (our second Top favorite place in Puglia) and Otranto (our third Top favorite place in Puglia). If you do not want to run around Puglia, we recommend you just spend your holiday between Lecce, Otranto and Gallipoli. 

Day 3: In addition to its beautiful old town, Gallipoli has beautiful beaches and green water. If you love seafood, sea urchins, mussels, shirmps, octopus and any kind of fish, Gallipoli is definetely the place where to go.

The seafood market is small but you can find the freshest seafood sold by the fishermen.

If you arrive in Gallipoli early in the morning you can also see fishermen cleaning their fish nets.

Food in Gallipoli: includes freshly made pasta, vegetables, sea urchins and only seafood (it will be hard to find any meat). Don’t miss the red shrimps in sea salt crust. Also this is the place for sea urchins, which locals eat by the sea.

Gallipoli is the must see place if you love sunsets. Don’t miss an aperitif there. It’s one of the most romantic places if you come in a couple. You should consider spending at least one day in Gallipoli.

Things to do near Gallipoli include: swimming, watching the sunset, sailing and scuba diving…..relaxing on the beautiful beaches.

Day 4: Otranto (our fourth Top place) is another beautiful town, Unesco heritage, with a marvellous blue water. The white sandy beaches are also very nice but a little bit hidden. You need to know where to go. 

The old town is very special with the very interesting cathedral (don’t miss the mosaic) and the castle. What is really special about this area, is the coast going from Otranto all the way South. Driving along this coast will be an unforgettable experience.

Food in Otranto is mainly freshly made pasta, vegetables and seafood (no meat in Otranto). Don’t miss the sea bass in sea salt crust. You should consider spending at least one day in Otranto including the drive along its Southern coast.

Things to do near Otranto include: swimming, sailing, shopping.

Day 4/or 5: Our fourth top favorite place is Castro, another beautiful seaside town just south of Otranto and Lecce. There are no sandy beaches here, only rocks, but it is another beautiful and romantic place. If you are in hurry, you can visit Castro on the same day you visit Otranto, otherwise you should continue along the coast and visit the beautiful Santa Cesarea Terme, Novaglie (where there is out favorite restaurant in Puglia). Again food will be freshly made pasta, vegetables and seafood. Castro is considered a VIP place among locals.

Things to do near Castro include swimming, sailing and scuba diving…..admiring the beautiful sea view.

Day 6: Our fifth Top favorite place is Porto Selvaggio, another seaside place south of Gallipoli and Lecce. Porto Selvaggio is a WWF sea natural reserve. Before the sea water there is a wonderful forest easy to access.

The water has natural springs. We have lots of guests who say that hiking, riding a bike or just enjoying the water and sun in Porto Selvaggio was their best experience in Puglia. Because it is a natural reserve, you will have to bring your own food. Close by there is Nardò, where you can find fantastic bread and focaccia. You should consider spending at least one day in Porto Selvaggio.

Things to do in Porto Selvaggio include: hiking, biking, swimming.

Day 7 and 8: Moving up in the Northern part of Puglia, our sixth Top favorite places are Locorotondo and Cisternino. We suggest you use them as a base to visit the whole area (also known as Valle Itria).

You may spend two or three days in this area, where you find all the famous trulli houses. Locorotondo and Cisternino have beautiful old towns all whitewashed, with narrow streets and a very nice countryside.

They are certainly much more authentic and less touristy than Alberobello, where you find other trulli…..but be prepared for lots of tourists. Cisternino and Locorotondo are places to go to if you love meat (you don’t find Tuscan steaks though). 

Food in Cisternino and Locorotondo: don’t miss the famous bombette meat, the capocollo pancetta, the burrata cheese and the orecchiette with cime di rape (broccoli).

Day 9: From here you can visit our seventh Top favorite place in Puglia, Ostuni, also known as the white town, because of its whitewashed houses built on top of a hill. After you visit the very nice old town in Ostuni, you should go to have lunch or dinner in Ceglie Messapica, where you find very good restaurants and for sure less tourists.

Food in the Ostuni and Martina Franca area is based on freshly made pasta, vegetables, legumes, meat, cheese.

Things to do near Ostuni  and Fasano include: playing golf.

Depending on how much time you have left you should consider visiting either Matera or Trani (or both!).

Day 10: Matera is a very beautiful place. Even though it is in Basilicata it is very close to Puglia. Matera is famous for its stones and in fact it has often been used as a set for movies.

You should consider spending at least one day here and staying in a hotel or B&B in the caves. Especially at night it can be very romantic with all the lights from the caves.

Food in Matera and Altamura: in this area you should miss the freshly made pasta and also the famous bread, taralli and focaccia. Also this is the area of the excellent Aglianico wine.

Other less famous but still very beautiful places are Ginosa, Laterza and Mottola.

Day 10 or 11: Trani is our ninth Top favorite place. It is by the Adriatic sea and has a beautiful and elegant cathedral, all made with a white stone.

Food is based on lots of fresh pasta and all kinds of seafood. This area is famous for its fruity extra virgin olive oil from Andria and for the Nero di Troia wine. From Trani don’t miss Giovinazzo, less touristy but very nice. You should spend at least one day in Trani.

We left the Gargano area as our tenth Top favorite place. This is not because it is less beautiful than the other places we mentioned, but only because this area is so big and so far from the rest of the region, that if you decide to go there you should consider spending at least 5 or 6 days.

Closest airport is Bari. There are only small and slow roads in this area so don’t think of rushing to all places in one day. Our favorite places are: Peschici, Vieste, Mattinata. Here you find a combination of beautiful white sandy beaches, very nice sea nature and very good food, mainly from the sea.

What I and Marika like the most about making our own bread at home is all the nice memories that it brings back.

There is nothing better than the flavors all around our house when we bake the bread in the oven. It reminds us of our childhood when our Grandmother would make the bread for all her grandchildren. She would call us when the bread was still in the oven and bring us together around her kitchen table: we would eat that delicious and warm bread with just extra virgin olive oil and fresh tomatoes. Nothing else. It was the best bread ever, made with lots of love.

Nowadays, once a week I and Marika make our own bread. The nice smell of the bread baking in the oven reminds us of those moments.

This is the recipes of the bread we made this week. We usually use durum wheat flour to make bread in Puglia, but for this specific recipe we used Kamut flour (asa Triticum turgidum and Khorasan). Kamut flour is an ancient type of wheat related to the durum variety. It is richer in protein, minerals (magnesium and zinc), Vitamin Bs and Vitamin E, than common wheat. It is easy to digest and, being not refined, it retains all nutritional qualities.

INGREDIENTS

2 lb 8oz kamut flour
3 cups water
5 1/2 oz sourdough starter (or natural leaven /mother dough)
2tsp sea salt

PREPARATION
First have to make your own sourdough starter (we will make a post about it).

Put 2lb 2oz of kamut flour in a bowl. Add the water and the sourdough starter. Stir the ingredients together with a wooden spoon. Add the sea salt. Cover the bowl with a moisten napkin and let the dough rise for 24 hours.

Move to a marble table and knead the dough with your hands after adding the remaining 6oz kamut flour. Make a round or rectangular shape. Prepare a baking pan with some olive oil and flour. Place the dough on the baking pan and let it rise for another hour.

Pre-heat the oven and bake it at 400 F° for the first 10 minutes and at 350°F for the last 20 minutes.

What memories does home-made bread bring you back?

It is obviously spring on our terrace, which is almost becoming as big as a garden. Marika planted even more herbs than last year (in addition to the many flowers, geranium and….the big lemon tree which already has one big lemon!). I think we now have them all.

Just name one and we have it: from bay laurel, sage, rosemary, parsley, LOTS of mint, to thyme and basil. At our parents’ garden we have: capers, chilly peppers, oregano, wild fennel and rucola (rocket).

Our guests who already attended our cooking classes in Puglia know how I and Marika love adding all the different herbs to our dishes…..even to cakes! This is something that we learned from our Nonna/Grandmother, who used to plant so many herbs and knew all the health benefits of each single herb: from treating a flu, a cold, to liver or stomach problems.

Cooking with herbs belongs to the Mediterranean culinary tradition: it is very common in all regions in Southern Italy. The first time I cooked for my friends in Milan (many years ago!) they were really impressed with all the spices and herbs I used: not just onion, celery and parsley; but also lots of oregano, sage, rosemary and wild fennel. All herbs that grow wild in our countryside.

Cooking with herbs is a very healthy way of preparing our food and eating. First of all, by using herbs and spices you add lots of flavors to your dishes, which allows you to reduce the amount of salt. This is something that Marika, as a Cardiologist, loves telling to our cooking students: adding herbs (and cutting salt!) helps lowering blood pressure and heart diseases.

Moreover, many herbs have lots of antioxidants, which are very good for our health but also to better preserve the food we are preparing.

Food and wine from Puglia and Southern Italy will always be our focus: during our programs our guests will have a chance to study the beautiful Italian language while learning about the Italian food and wines. Programs include: conversations, lots of practice with local people, visits to best markets, wineries and producers, a cooking class…and lots of eating! You will meet new friends, learn about Italian culture, food and wine.

We will have a special tour from June 25 to July 2 in a villa castle. For all other dates and more information contact us or visit the Italian Language tours page.

In Puglia we don’t define ourserselves as vegetarian people, but we certainly eat lots of vegetables, legumes and dishes which would be perfect for vegetarians.

This may be due to the fact that in Puglia we produce lots of vegetables (in fact we are also known as the garden of Italy); or to the fact that, having a sunny and warm weather for most of the year, we prefer eating simple and fresh dishes, not rich in proteins and fats.

Lots of our dishes do not include any meat at all, but just cheese, eggs and vegetables: from eggplant balls (similar to meat balls, but made with eggplants instead of meat), to eggplant parmigiana, to fava broad beans and chicories.

When we do have meat, we would never have a steak (Puglia is definetely not the region where to go to if you like steaks!). Meat will always be a sort of side dish to all the vegetables we have at any meal: from zucchini, to eggplants and bell peppers prepared in all the possible ways.

One of the most interesting things about the cuisine of Puglia, is that even at the end of a meal we would have a plate of vegetables. If the French end up their meal with a plate of that delicious cheese, in Puglia we finish our meal with a plate of crudité: from cucumbers, to carrots and fennels (when in season). These are all vegetables that facilitate digestion. However, I would say that the main reason why we do that is to spend more time at the table!

If you come to Puglia, you find cucumbers at any market from June to October. They are very sweet and very different from the more bitter cucumbers you may find in other regions.

They are very delicious, dressed with just a bit of fruity extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. They are also very nice when added to a tomato salad.