Italy cooking Courses » tomatoes

Easy and delicious summer tomato salad

Stile Mediterraneo — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:11:57 +0000

Puglia is one of the best regions to go to if you love fresh, tasty and delicious tomatoes.
From June to the end of September, at any market or any street corner in Puglia, you see all the local farmers selling their own fresh and organic tromatoes.
You can buy fresh tomatoes by the kilo or, if you plan on making the traditional tomato sauce preserved in jars for the winter (salsa di pomodoro), you can also buy the whole basket. In this case, you will certainly receive a price discount!

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If you are an early morning person, you can also go to the countryside and pick the fresh tomatoes yourself or together with the farmer.

How nice is it to eat the fresh tomatoes that you picked yourself a few hours earlier?

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This year, also I and Marika experimented with planting tomatoes at our parents’ garden. We had a small production, but it is so nice to make a salad with the fresh and organic tomatoes that we planted ourselves! And we have to say that it is so relaxing!

This is our favorite and very easy tomato salad, perfect on a hot day when you don’t feel like cooking:

INGREDIENTS

1 lb fresh and red tomatoes
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tbsp capers
1 pinch sea salt
20 leaves wild rocket (arugola)

PREPARATION
Wash the tomatoes and cut them in halves.

Cut the rocket arugola leaves in small pieces.

Put the tomatoes and rocket leaves in a salad bowl, together with the oregano, capers and sea salt. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Leave to marinate for one hour before serving.
Accompany with a bruschetta toasted bread, with a frisella from Puglia or with rice.
Enjoy!

What is your favorite tomato salad? how do you make it?

If you like this post, you may also read: how to make fresh capers and frisella dry bread with fresh tomatoes from Puglia

Frisella dry bread from Puglia

Stile Mediterraneo — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:32:34 +0000

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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

How to have fresh and juicy tomatoes before the summer

Stile Mediterraneo — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:51:16 +0000

In Puglia, to have fresh tomatoes when it is not the season we prepare the so called Pendola tomatoes. In the summer we pick the tomatoes with the vine. We hang the tomatoes with the vine on a rope and store them in a cool environment. The skin turns hard but the juice stays inside! Then in the winter, we simply roast them: the skin breaks down and the tomatoes release all the juice and the taste of the sun!

You have to try…they are unbelievable….and of course they need a very good extra virgin olive oil!

Do you have any other way to suggest to preserve vegetables and tomatoes?