Cooking School Puglia Style 101

We were both very excited to get started at our cooking school - we were supposed to meet our driver at one of the city gates at 9am, so we packed up and walked over there to find our little group of fellow chefs. Everyone seemed very friendly right away - especially Francesco, a food blogger living in Frankfurt right now (The Saucy Chef -

check him out!) - he is Sicilian and English and hoping to move to Lecce at some point. He introduced himself right away and made everyone feel very welcomed and comfortable.

Our other students were a couple from Tasmania, Ken and Kellie, a couple from Wisconsin only there for one day, Ann and Walter, an American named Jason and another woman from Cincinnati named Pat, as well as an Australian named Siobhan. Jason, Francesco and Siobhan had done the school before and were friendly with the owner, Silvestro.

The school was held this week in a castle in Spongano, about 40km south of Lecce. We pulled into a vine covered courtyard with a few feral kitties and crates of tomatoes and onions stacked against the walls. We were led to our incredible room - bigger than Nancy's apartment.

We jumped right in and headed downstairs with the group to start making pasta!! We used two kinds of flour (that I will be scouring Minneapolis high and low for I'm sure), a semola super fine flour and a barley flour. Pasta in the south of Italy does not include egg, so you don't roll it out as fine as in the North and you don't make stuffed pastas.

As we rolled it out and were about to cut circles in it using a small glass, I happened to grab the glass I was using for water and dumped water all over my fresh pasta - so smooth!! But one of the assistants at the school was so calm and she just came over and blotted it up and patted some flour on it and it was fine. Nancy can't take me anywhere!!

We made two different shapes of pasta - one called Mexican hats where you cut a circle, then cut it in half, then make a little cone with the half circle and put the point of he cone in a bottle and smack it so that it lightly shapes against the bottle into - voila - a little sombrero looking pasta. 

For the other shape, we took a thin metal rod and cut a little piece of the pasta rolled into a long thin snake like shape, about a thick as a little finger, and then you roll the pasta against the rod so it is hollow and tubular.

We set both aside to dry and then made the sides and main dish. All of the meals include an antipasto course, a primi, or pasta course, and then a meat course - 

usually with some veggie sides. All of this is drenched pretty well in high quality raw olive oil.

For the first day, our lunch was accompanied by white wine - and the wine flows!! Silvestro keeps opening bottles, and the cool white wine was going down easy. Before we drink the wine we discuss the smells and then the taste and then Buon Appetito!!

Lunch:

Red peppers cut super fine and sautéed in olive oil, mixed with bread crumbs and parsley

Mexican hat pasta in tomato sauce that was handmade and bottled the previous year (lucky us- we would be hand making and bottling pasta the following day)

Green beans cooked with whole garlic

Chicory (a weed that is popular here - kind of like spinach crossed with broccoli raab)

Sliced cucumber melon

Whole piquito peppers

Chicken thighs browned and baked with fresh bay leaves, white wine and olives 

Almonds covered in sugar and rubbed with a lemon (I helped smash and break them apart like a brittle)

I went swimming and Nancy had a siesta and then we came back and made dinner of:

Roasted eggplant 

Fresh tube pasta cooked with onion, cured pork belly, fresh cherry tomatoes and breadcrumbs and parsley (the breadcrumbs were such an amazing addition)

Lamb roasted with whole garlic, bay leaves, olives

Our group stayed up for hours talking and drinking wine - everyone is so funny and great, it felt like summer camp - and then we can all just walk or stumble down the hall to our rooms!

One Night in Lecce

We had one down day in Lecce in a beautiful AirBNB just a few steps from the main Saint Oronso piazza. We said goodbye to our fellow bikers and carried our stuff through the streets of Lecce. I was intent on getting a massage and I found a place right around the corner from our apartment. Nancy wasn't feeling it, so She went off to paint and I went off to get scrubbed with sugar and sweat in a Turkish bath for an hour. I had a lovely massage and my masseuse told me I am the pitta chakra and she was very excited about it.

Nancy and I met back up and walked the city a bit, eating gelato and peeking in the shops. We found a place to settle in and order coffee to play Scrabble but we ordered espressini freddo which turned out to basically be an ice cream drink that I couldn't even finish. We had some bitter Rosato and I won the game. We went back to our apartment to get ready for dinner and played Scrabble again out on our little balcony overlooking a puppeteer act. We started realizing how loud it was going to be at night.

The restaurant we wanted to go to was booked until 10, so we went to a place that looked like an Appleby's but had the most amazing pizza for an appetizer/ dinner #1. Then we went to Le Zie - a cute little trattoria with the feel of eating at someone's house. It is known for its authentic local food - you have to ring a buzzer to be let inside.

We ordered orecchiette and the local

Ciceri e napi - a fava bean and pasta dish - but we were so tired and not all the hungry anymore for dinner #2, so it was a bit of a bust. We then waited over 30 minutes for our check. It is definitely interesting that the restaurant culture is very much about getting your order quickly when you first arrive somewhere. Often I haven't even read the whole menu before I have a waiter coming to take my order - then the food comes out very quickly and they want to clear your plate the second you take a breath while eating - but once you're finished eating, it takes forever to get the bill, you always have to ask for it, it never just turns up, and often you have to ask more than once! We are not big on the after dinner coffee and drink thing, so maybe we are messing up the flow by not having espresso and grappa at midnight, but it is frustrating sometimes. I guess we are learning patience.

When we got back to our room it was so loud outside, it was almost like we had a festival in our bedroom - the whole city is out at 1am!! But the design of the windows and shutters is so brilliant that it goes from hundreds of decibels to dead quiet as soon as you close everything up - no problem.

Arrividerci, bicyclette!!

Our last day of biking - wah!! It's been so much more challenging than I expected, but honestly we could keep going. This last stretch from Otranto to Lecce is again about 33 miles and supposed to be relatively flat. We are along the coast for the first half, then we go through a nature preserve called San Cesine, followed by 15km inland to Lecce.

The wind is in our face all morning along the coast - Nancy actually found it more challenging than the previous day, but I didn't think it was too bad. My seat is sore, but otherwise I think it's decently doable.

The coast is pretty quiet, one beach was pretty crowded at Torre dell'Orso - land of the bear - but we keep going to about the halfway point in the day and had lunch in San Foca. We found a little coffee shop and finally were able to try a rosticceria - this has been recommended in many towns, but we never made it in time. Basically it's just a place with rotisseries going and you can buy a half or whole rotisserie chicken to eat.  Many people get them for picnics, but we just ate ours there.

We also bought some pizza rolled up with different fillings. Nancy bought one that she thought was a Hawaiian pizza with pineapples and bacon, but the pineapples ended up being soggy French fries - not quite the taste creation she was looking for.

The town was pretty dead, so we kept going,

moving away from the coast after that. We took an unpacked road into the nature preserve - it was hot and steamy with eucalyptus plants and it felt like we were in a rain forest. We stopped to climb a watch tower so we could see out over the preserve and take in the scenery.

We went through a tiny fortified town called Acaya with a castle and one little coffee shop open - I had some ice cream and we had our final rest stop of the trip. Most of our fellow travers were also there so we chatted for a bit and then headed into Lecce!! Our hotel is on the outer ring, not in the central old town, so we dropped off our bikes and got ready for the tour we booked for 5:30. 

There was only six of us on the tour (including Franz and Iris!) so we got a little orientation on the town, we visited some churches and the Cathedrale and Duomo square. Lecce is famous for its baroque style, which is basically all about grabbing the most attention and being the most ostentatious. There is also a lot of Renaissance decoration with arched doorways and coved ceilings. There is also an amphitheater that they uncovered in the middle of town - like Gladiator style (except she said they never had Gladiator fights there) - it was pretty neat to see how the seat and aisles were set up.

After the tour, we had dinner at Cafe Joyce with the most amazing eggplant parmigiana I've ever had - no breading, just basically a piece of lasagna made of eggplant slices instead of noodles. We polished off 2 bottles of Amativo (Negroamaro/Primitivo blend) and some more cheese and salumi - we ended up not ordering anything else. Then we joined Franz and Iris for a bit and walked home through and now packed streets. We were pretty exhausted and went to bed around 11 - I finally slept through the night!! Jet lag be gone!! 

Tour de France Training Day

Day Five - Santa Maria to Otranto - another 33 mile day billed as relatively easy. We have a guide book that gives a little overview of what to expect from the ride and we read for the next day each evening. We talk about what we are going to see and where we might stop and we look at the maps. The overall description for today said there was a 1km climb out of Santa Maria and then a 2km climb after the town Santa Cesarea - so we thought we were in for a relatively flat day, free and easy like the day before. 

Instead, we were in for the most challenging day - definitely the most challenging day of biking/working out/living that I have ever had. The saving grace was that it is incredibly beautiful - if yesterday was depressed Florida, today is luxurious California - everything blooming and well maintained, gorgeous estates built into the sides of the mountain. Gems of towns with weddings going on and lots of activity. 

The difficult part was winding our way up and down the mountain roads - there was nothing flat, we were either climbing the mountain, or speeding down. If entering a town used to mean climbing a bill to get there, on the coast, you usually head downhill into the towns and then climb out straight up for kilometer after kilometer.

We were going to meet up with Fabio in the morning, but we were running late after our night of grappa with Franz and Iris - I've actually been really jet lagged and no matter how exhausted I am or what time we go to sleep, I wake up at 2:30 in the morning and can't get back to sleep, Nancy has been fine since after Alberobello, but I can't seem to shake it. We got going and started our day of mountain climbing - we made stops for photos and to admire the view, but we didn't officially stop until about 28km for lunch at the Grotto Zinzulusa. 

Grotto Zinzulusa is a natural cave you can explore, though it was closed, with a big pool on the edge of the ocean, which was also closed due to the fact the sea was high and crashing against the edge of the pool. We ate the local specialty, rustico - a pastry filled with bechemel sauce and tomatoes (a little rich for me) and some fresh fruit and caffé with ice and almond milk. The chairs were really uncomfortable (or maybe my butt is just really sore), but we didn't hang out long afterward and got back on the road.

Santa Cesarea was getting set up for some kind of festival or parade and there were tons of light being strung downtown and activity going on. As we were cruising through town, we bumped into Fabio and he started biking with us again, even though he could have left us in the dust.

About 10-12km from Otranto the landscape changes from lush mountains to a flat, dry desert landscape. This is where we would find another tip of Italy, this time the eastern most point of the whole country. We stopped at a little bar just before entering this zone, but they were so rude to us that we left without ordering anything - we would come to regret this.

The last 10km of this ride proved to be even more difficult than mountain climbing all day - the road wasn't truly flat, more like a small incline all the way, so no coasting or taking any breaks on your bike. The sun was hot and bright and the desert landscape was dry with no protection from the brutal wind in our faces. We couldn't even see Otranto, it was just nothing out there. We didn't walk out on the Eastern point as it was quite a ways from the road, but we saw it in the distance.

Finally we came around a small forest and saw Otranto - we bikes into the main square and climbed one more hill to our lovely hotel. The room was great except that it was inexplicably two levels, with the bathroom up a steep set of stairs. So after the most intense day of biking in my life, I had to climb 12 stairs just to use the bathroom 

in my own room.

I collapsed a took a 2 hour nap immediately - Nancy did some painting and we showered and got ready for dinner. Nothing ever opens until 8pm, so we always have time to get ready and go out. 

We walked into the cute old town filled with touristy shops and eateries, we took some photos by the water and ate dinner at a wine bar - even at a relatively cheap, small place, the pasta is freshly made and the cheeses and meats are all spectacular. We ate with Fabio and had three bottles of wine between us. Nancy and I had a tuna main course that was actually a little fishy (and hugely portioned) so we were stuffed and drunk and said good bye to Fabio - I think he thought we'd all be hanging out all night - not saying good bye at 9pm. Arrivederci, Fabio!! He is staying in Otranto and going to try and sell paintings to tourists and extend his vacation. We are off to Lecce in the morning.

Fabio and Franz

Day Four - Gallipoli to Santa Maria di Leuca (pronounced lay-YOU-ka / it took me all day to get it even close to correct). The headline is that we actually had lunch today!! Hallelujah!! It was the easiest day of biking and everything went our way in terms of timing. 

We headed out of Gallipoli and were basically going to be winding our way along the sea all day, so Nancy didn't have to worry so much about navigating and we had a beautiful, if somewhat deserted, view all day. The path between Gallipoli and Santa Maria is not a hugely touristy area and the season is already pretty much done anyway. A lot of the houses seem abandoned and businesses are boarded up - it kind of reminds me of a depressed Florida or Mexico area. 

I stopped to get a caffé and watch the locals spear fish while Nancy bikes back to get a picture of some houses she liked. We then bikes into Torre San Giovanni, roughly the midpoint of our day, and had lunch!! We were actually early!! Nancy painted and I wrote a bit and had some wine as we waited for lunch service to start at 12:30. 

We had the best little fried mozzarella balls for starters, they still had some of the fresh mozzarella water inside when we bit in. I had a tagliolini with fresh seafood - the octopus bits are my favorite - and Nancy had a plate of fried seafood. It was great to get some down time in the middle of the day.

We biked on (total for the day would be 33 miles) and ended up on a bike path through a reedy, isolated area. We got a tiny bit lost, but we're getting back on track when a man on a bike came out of the beach on his bike and kind of ended up in the middle of us biking back to the main road. It was a little awkward at first, but then he started making conversation and we found out he had been biking for 25 days across Italy. His name was Fabio - a painter originally from Milan. We chatted and biked along - he was also headed to Santa Maria - and he ended up coming to the beach with us. 

I wanted to get in the water and it was the perfect day since it was getting overcast and there were very few people out and the sun wasn't so bright. Fabio was telling us it wasn't really a beach day, but we said we prefer it with our untanned-ness. I went in the water for quite a while and chatted with some other people from our group that had also stopped there. Nancy did a painting of the seaside waiting for me.

There was a huge space of beach chairs sitting empty and I convinced her to go sit on them, even though it was clear the area was closed. We can always play the Americans don't understand card. It worked out just fine - Nancy got reprimanded 

once, but they let her stay.

While I was out in the clean, clear Ionian Sea - I could see a little hut down the beach. 

I figured it was a little changing area, so when I got out of the water, I walked over there to change into my biking clothes and dry off. When I got there, I realized it actually wasn't a changing room, but actually a Gypsy wagon that someone was 

living in! Oops! So, I just changed on my little towel on the beach while a family kept glancing over at me - eyes on the water, people!!

We got back on the road and it started to rain a bit harder - we stopped a great little gelato place and had tiramisu gelato with little spoons made out of cookies!  Joy!! Three treats in one day!! Fabio was interesting to talk to about the Italian language and stops on his trip. We peppered him with questions and for the most part he was able to answer.

We came around a beautiful cliff as we neared the tip of the boot heel and parked our bikes to walk out on Punta Ristola overlooking the ocean - we did it!! Very cool to see in the rain and gray - we were giddy - the rain was warm and light and we were just drenched by this time. We found. our hotel only a few minutes away.

This was definitely the most lux of our accommodations with a huge stone driveway and gorgeous lobby. We said good-bye to Fabio and he went off to his hostel - we agreed to meet up with him the next day to bike to Otranto. The rain started picking up, so we decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant, as did most of the people from our biking group.

Seafood was the main focus and they brought around a basket of fresh fish with a giant lobster - the lobster on the menu said €12 per kg, so I ordered the lobster. The waiter came back with a little pad of paper to let me know it was an 1,100 gram lobster. So €132 for a lobster dinner. I decided to go with the shrimp.

Just as an example of the kind of travel partner Nancy is, I commented that I MIGHT pay €132 for a lobster if I could split it and she said that I should do it then and she would split it with me. And I asked if she would really spend €70 on lobster, and she said she actually doesn't like lobster, but she would get it if I really wanted it. So sweet. I didn't take her up on it though.

After dinner, we were going to play scrabble and drink wine and sit n the patio - it was pouring rain on the roof and music was playing at it was just sort of perfect, but as we were setting up a couple from our group asked to join us. A German couple, Franz and Iris, though Franz said we can call him Francesco while in Italy, both in the aeronautics industry, sat down and we all started chatting about the trip and life in Europe. They were so funny and interesting, so we asked how this whole siesta for 5 hours in the middle of the day could possible be making Italians any money and Franz said that they aren't so worried about making money, but more concerned with having a good life. It really floored us - we've been so focused on our lack of lunch that we forgot that people are really just enjoying their lives and their families and they aren't so worried about the €12 we were going to spend. 

Awesome fun night - there was some grappa and more prosecco involved - and then we went back to our room. Nancy went to sleep but I couldn't figure out how to turn off the lights so I had to wake her back up and we searched the room - I was ready to unscrew the light bulbs, but she called down to the front desk and they pointed out the lightswitches - behind the bed frame! Of course!!