Italy Puglia cooking vacations and wine tours

Lots of people have asked us for the Ciceri and Tria recipe. This is one of the most typical and traditional dish you can eat in Lecce, where the cuisine is based on lots of fresh pasta, legumes, vegetables. Legumes are rich in proteins and so all the legumes are at the core of this paesant cuisine. The main ingredients to prepare this recipe are: durum wheat semolina to make the pasta and the chick peas. The best herb for this plate is the bay leaf.

Next day, drain the chick peas and place them in a deep pan. Cover with two liters fresh water and add the garlic clove, the red onion, the chopped carrot, the bay leaves, the cherry tomatoes and celery. Then, add the salt, cover the pan and lower the flame to the minimum. Cook for about three hours until the chick peas become very tender.

While the chick peas cook, make the handmade pasta. The best pasta for this recipe are the tagliatelle. You can make them with the machine or by hand. Let the tagliatelle dry for a few hours.

In Puglia we have many culinary traditions associated to a day of the week or a holiday. Minestrone is on Saturday; orecchiette hand-made pasta with tomato sauce and ricotta cheese is rigorously on Sunday; fava beans or lentils on Monday …..and so on. Every day of the week has a traditional menu that all the local families respect!
Of course we have traditional menu per the special holidays: we have some special fried pastries (called pittule) on Dec. 8th (the Virgo day) and for Christmas; Ciceri and tria (sort of tagliatelle with chick peas) on March 19th (Saint Joseph); fried cod fish during Passover; lamb on the Easter day.
I think the funniest thing is that we also have culinary traditions depending on whether months have a “R” in their name.
Therefore, we don’t eat mussels in months such as: FebRuary, MaRch, ApRil etc. because mussels are likely to be empty. We only eat them in May, June, July, etc.
Well, Puglia is a big producer of mussels: the economy of the area around Taranto or nearby Lecce, by the Ionian sea, is based on the mussel farming. This means that we have so many recipes with mussels in our traditional cuisine of Puglia.
In general I just love mussels! It’s like with cherries: when I have a big plate of mussels in front of me, I start with one and then I can’t stop anymore! I love them cooked in all the possible ways: pepata di cozze (just with garlic, white wine, pepper and parsley); tiella (baked in the oven with rice, potato, cheese, wine and tomatoes); stuffed (with breadcrumbs, eggs, pecorino cheese, pepper)….and of course with PASTA! I love pasta with mussels!
So after all the past months with a “R”, today ApRil 22nd….. a local fisherman told me that a “true gourmand” appreciates mussels in months with a R! He did not need to tell it twice. I was craving for some hand made tagliatelle with mussels. Now, I am the happiest person in the world.

Warm a large pot, pour in a few drops of olive oil, then add garlic and chili. Cook for a few seconds, then add the mussels, the sliced carrot and the cherry tomatoes. Pour in the wine and cover with a lid.
Cook for 2 minutes or until the shells are open. Remove some of the shells (keeping the inside!).
In the meanwhile cook the pasta al dente, drain it and add it to the mussels. Add the parsley, mix everything and cook all together for 2 minute. Serve immediately.