Cooking classes and vacations in Puglia Italy

Summer has definetely arrived in Puglia and we have been experiencing unusual warm temperatures for the whole week.

This also means that we can also finally find all the super delicious summer fruit.

Marika has been making all sorts of fruit salads, which not only are very delicious, but also very refreshing and healthy.

Today she made a fruit salad with cantaloupe melon and pineapple.

She says this is the best fruit salad to have on a very hot day, like today!

Due to its water and mineral content, this juicy and fresh salad made of cantaloupe melon and pineapple can help rehydrate our body on such a warm day!

Pineapples and cantaloupe melons are perfect for salads, juices, fruit cocktails, snacks and also if you like decorating with fruit. We tried to make a swan using just  toothpick!

Cantaloupe melons have lots of other health benefits. They are a good source of potassium and are rich in anti-oxidants that can help prevent cancer and heart disease. They are very rich in Vitamin C, beta-carotene and Vitamin B complex.

Pineapples also have many other health benefits. They are a good source of Vitamin C (which acts a powerful anti-oxidant against free radicals) manganese, calcium, potassium, fiber and bromelain enzyme (which aids digestion and the immune system).

What is your favorite summer fruit salad? How do you make it?

For more information about our cooking tours in Puglia Italy please check out our classes calendar or contact us at info.stile@gmail.com. 

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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.

For more information about our cooking classes in Puglia Italy please write at info.stile@gmail.com.

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A few days ago, I attended a very interesting dinner my Harvard Alumni Club organized in Milan. Umberto Veronesi was our dinner guest. He is the founder of the Veronesi Foundation, which carries on very important scientific research in order to fight cancer.

At the dinner he spoke about the scientific advances in genetics and their impact on hereditary diseases and predictive medicine. He told us that doctors and scientists strongly believe certain foods can be very powerful in order to prevent cancer. Still, there is not enough evidence; however, they are doing lots of research to demonstrate the importance of food.

Among the many food products he talked about, he said strawberries may be very powerful against cancer.

We already know about the many health benefits strawberries have. They are rich in phenols (anthocyanins) which make up the red colour and serve as potent antioxidants. Also a research from Harvard Medical School showed that strawberries may offer heart disease protection. 

In addition to that, strawberries are an important source of ellagic acid. Veronesi’s team are studying the ellagic acid’s possible benefits against cancer.

After listening to this speech, I and Marika have been eating strawberries every day, in many different ways: at breakfast with cereals, at lunch and dinner with salad.

Pietro, the farmer from whom we buy all the ingredients for our cooking classes, grows organic and super tasty strawberries.

We like making a salad with a few drops of red wine or the very old balsamic vinegar. This is to enhance the phenols (anthocyanins) benefits. Then we decorate with a few mint leaves or basil.

Good healthy strawberries!

It has been several months now since we started our “What’s special at the market in Puglia” section, where we write about seasonal and special products we find at the market in Puglia.

We have to admit that we were never happier to host our market section than today! This morning we finally found some fresh fava beans at the market and this means that the Spring has finally arrived!

The fava beans are still a bit small and so we have to wait a few days more, before we can make our delicious pasta with fresh fava beans, onions and mint.

However, when the fava beans are so small and tender they are perfect to be eaten raw in a salad, with the fresh pecorino sheep cheese, some Pugliese bread topped with good quality extra virgin olive oil!

It’s a fantastic starter!

What’s your favorite recipe with fresh fava beans?

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

It has been raining for all the past week in Puglia. This is not very exciting, since in Puglia we are sun-dependent, being able to enjoy a sunny weather most of the year!

Yesterday I, Marika, our Mom and our two cuisines went to visit our Nonna.
Of course the whole conversation was about the rainy weather.

It was getting a bit depressing! We were the 6 of us sitting around the kitchen table and by the big fireplace, complaining about the fact we never had such a rainy Carnival in Italy before.

Suddendly, our Mom stood up and said: “dai su! è Carnevale, facciamo le chiacchiere!” (it’s Carnival time, let’s make the chiacchiere pastries!”). 
She did not have to say twice. I and Marika started assembling the ingredients. Our Grandmother (who is usually a bit deaf) got really excited (she loves sweets!).
It was the most wonderful day! 

The chiacchiere never tasted like this before!  Of course the secret ingredient was the fun we had hand-making those pastries all together!

INGREDIENTS
500 gr flour
80 gr sugar
2 whole eggs
pinch of sea salt
3 tbsp liquor
1 grated orange zest
40 gr extra virgin olive oil
icing sugar (to decorate)

PREPARATION
Mix all the ingredients together with your hands as if you were making fresh pasta.
Let the dough rest for at least 1/2 hour. Make several rectangular sheets of dough. Use a pasta machine to make the sheets very thin.
Cut them into strips or small rectangular using pasta cutters (or a knife).

Deep fry in extra virgin olive oil (or bake in pre-heated oven at 350°F for about 15-20 min).
Sprinkle icing sugar on top.

There are many different recipes to make the Chiacchiere. Do you have any to share?

Enjoy the Carnival in Puglia!

One of the most typical fish from the Mediterranean sea is the Dorade.

INGREDIENTS
2 servings
1 lb 3 oz dorade
coarse rock salt (as necessary)

It’s unbelievable! We are in December and we are still enjoying a fantastic mild weather in Puglia. Even at the market we can still find summer vegetables, which are not imported but produced by the local farmers.

INGREDIENTS:

4 servings

4 bell peppers (a combination of red, yellow and green) seeded and cut into strips

1 tbsp (15 ml) extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp (15 ml) sugar

1 tbsp (15 ml) wine vinegar

1 tbsp (15 ml) capers

1 tbsp (15 ml) black olives, pitted

1 tbsp (15 ml) bread crumbs

parsley

salt, to taste

For more information about our Mediterranean cooking classes in Puglia please contact us at info.stile@gmail.com or subscribe to the Cooking School newsletter

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.

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

Everybody knows the many different types of bread from Puglia: bread from Altamura, Matera, bread made with durum wheat, barley, rye, semolina etc. All these types of bread are made with different flours and in different shapes and size.

There is a very typical bread from Puglia that is a bit less famous, but that all the locals would have in their homes and eat regularly: the frisella dry bread!

Frisella is made with exactly the same ingredients used to make bread. However, frisella bread is baked twice in the oven, instead of just once. Because it is dry, you have to soak it in the water just for one or two minutes before eating it. The frisella can last for many months.

The best frisellas are made of rye flour, but you can also find made of durum wheat semolina.

To prepare the frisella, just soak the dry bread in water for one or two minutes. Dress it with cherry tomatoes, wild rocket, oregano a pinch of sea salt and a very intense extra virgin olive oil!

You need to eat right away and using your hands.

Please let us know if you ever try it! The best is the one you can have on the beach with a glass of good Negroamaro wine!

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

One of the many things we love about the summer in Italy is that, because of the hot weather, we have more excuses to eat lots of ice cream.
We love trying different ice cream artisans and for sure there are many we will be happy to recommend in Lecce.
Lemon granita is what we use as our benchmark to understand how good an ice cream artisan!
Many people think that Lemon Granita is similar to a Lemon sorbet.
There is a main difference which is the fact that Lemon Granita has no eggs, no milk and no cream in it. Just lemon juice, lemon zest, water and sugar!
On a very hot day, (today we are expecting 40° C!), I and Marika like going around Lecce and have a granita for breakfast, aperitif, lunch and as an after siesta drink.
Our favorite Lemon Granita is the one made with little sugar and a grated lemon zest in it!
For breakfast we would have a Coffee Granita with a croissant (the Sicilian way); for aperitif the Lemon Granita; after the siesta the almond granita.
There are many flavors you can choose: lemon, mint, coffee, strawberry, almond, kiwi, mandarin, prickly pears.

This is the recipe to make the Lemon Granita:

Ingredients:
300 grams of sugar
1/2 Litre of water
2 glasses of lemon juice
1 grated lemon zest

Preparation:
Boil the sugar and water for 5 minutes. Then cool it and add the lemon juice and grated lemon zest. Boil everything again for 2 minutes. Let it cool down again and put it in the freezer in a metallic container. Turn the mixture while it is freezing every 20 minutes. The Granita will be ready after 3-4 hours.

Don’t forget to try if you come to Puglia!

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

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

4– 8 servings
- 1000 grams mussels
- 1 carrot
- 1 garlic clove
- pinch red chili
- 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
- leaves of parsley, chopped
- 2 tbs white wine
- 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 500 grams of hand made tagliatelle

Do you have any other recipe with mussels? Please share it.

To contact us write at info.stile@gmail.com