Italian Cooking Holiday 2015

Just back from a wonderful Italian cookery holiday in Apulia with lovely guests. We offer this holiday every year, and each time the week just speeds by with fun activities! We shopped at markets, cooked, and feasted. We baked pizzas in a wood-fired oven, made pasta, swam in the sea, picnicked, enjoyed the local prosecco and rosado, and even got up for early morning yoga! Here are some highlights from our week.

The Palazzo

The Palazzo has an incredible hall. You could probably sit a hundred people down the length of it. At night with candles lit, good food that we have made, excellent local wines and laughter, it made for very enjoyable evenings.

The Market

Poggiado, just 5 miles from the Palazzo, has an excellent market every Wednesday. A chance to stock up with vegetables for the week, we shopped at the stalls selling produce from their gardens: punterelle chicory, cimi di rapa, green beans, chillies and an array of tomatoes. Peaches, nectarines and melons were on offer too. Shopping for pasta making tools and drinking real cappuccinos, small, rich in flavour with a little milk...bliss!

Aqua Viva Picnic

Aqua Viva is a beautiful hidden cove for swimming and sun bathing on the rocks. We enjoyed an outstanding picnic near the water. The menu included:

farinata with artichokes and rosemary
frittata with potato, courgettes, ricotta and cherry tomatoes
mint ricotta stuffed courgettes
aubergine rolls
Ottavia's Torta di Andria
a large local yellow melon

These yellow melons were local and also sold at the side of the road. They cost about 1 euro each, depending on size, and were very sweet and refreshing.

Pizza Night

We made a pizza dough with locally milled durum wheat semolina, topped them with a slick of tomato sauce, and added two different toppings:

Capers, olives, sliced peppers, tomatoes ricotta, pecorino, chilli or
Boiled sliced potatoes with garlic, black pepper, olive oil and rosemary

The wood fire pizza oven was lit in the morning to be ready for 7pm, lit with cuttings from olive trees. Tuesday night was Jenny's birthday so Helen and Ottavia made her a limoncello cake and Martino poured the prosecco.

Pasta Making

During the week we had two pasta making mornings. First we made the traditional southern Italian pasta, which is vegan and hand rolled. Then we used pasta machines to make an egg pasta. We used locally milled durum wheat semolina which is slightly coarser and is a beautiful yellow colour. The bread is all made with this flour too.