A few days into the trip and we have toured our cooking facility at the Castello di Ugento. To form a bit of clarity, Ugento is the town in the province of Lecce where we are staying; Puglia is the entire region. The Castle has been around for many centuries and continues to be restored….
What is there to do here on the weekends? Watch the cat pounce around the courtyard, bike to the Saturday market, buy a pasticiotto from La Cometa in the center of town, enjoy leftovers from the week and drink tea while doing homework. Yes, although we are enjoying our stay in Italy, we…
I don’t think one could ever guess the original purpose of rice and its progression to what we know of it today. Rice was brought to Italy by Alexander the Great with the sole purpose of being used as a beauty product. In Italy, Italian women would have their slaves chew rice for them before…
The Italian persons perspective on food is of great importance. As Chef Odette say’s “you must smell everything”; you want to get a feel for the food using all of your senses. We made fish in class today and I got to make Zuppa di Pesce ai Peperoni. Chef would not let me take the…
I am so in love with pasta. I think most people feel this way about it, but if they were in my head they may have something different to say. It’s kind of like how people have obsessions with boy bands or baby goats, but instead, my enthusiasm goes towards pasta. I promise to be…
It’s been awhile since I’ve spoken about sweets, so here’s a dose of everything dolci packed into one day. The fruit here is amazing, but we can’t just eat that. And for many, fried foods are a delight, and most of the desserts made were just that, besides a few things like gelato. Gelato came…
Arriving into Napoli was a bit of a hustle. Our bus squeezed its way through the overly crowded city streets, maneuvering past people and cars double-parked on both sides. My mind was fixated on finding the best Sfogliatelle, and I did, quite a few. For dinner we ate some of the most flavorful pizza I…
I’m feeling a bit spoiled because we had a wine tasting during our class with a Sommelier from Bari. We also enjoyed a three course lunch with wine to pair (no spitting allowed). We learned that Italy is keen on producing Green Wines, those that are organic, biodynamic, and natural wines. We also reviewed the…
At the dinner table it’s common for us to say “may you please pass the cheese,” and in those exact words, it refers to a cows milk cheese. If you are eating any other type of cheese you must state the name; for instance “may you please pass the Pecorino Toscano.” As silly as it…
Carnevale is celebrated largely in Veneto on December 21st to February 13th before the no meat streak of Lent begins. It’s a necessary time to make all things fried, sweet and heavy like frittelle di zucca (fried quenelles of pumpkin and raisins) or frittelle di carnevale (fried dough with raisins and pine nuts rolled in granulated sugar). I…