Nonna teaching pasta |
Orecchiette con Cime di Rape
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2013 Culinary Tours |  |
2013 Tuscany week:
May 18-25
May 25-June 1- full
September 28-October 5
(4 spots left)
October 5-12
November 2-9
Taste of Tuscany mini tour:
May 12-16 (4 spots left)
Oct 15-19
Bologna & Tuscany
September 12-18
Campania /Naples tour:
September 21-27
Puglia: June 2014
Siena: The Palio - July 2014
In our culinary tours, you will get an insider's view of Tuscany and see the things most people don't see on their own in Italy. Your days will be filled with area delights - great food, wine, history and culture!
to FIND OUT MORE... |
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Vacation Villas
& Farmhouses | 
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Great accomodations for either a night, a week or month - sizes range from one bedroom apartments to large 20+ people villas. Contact Mary @ 972-342.8308
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Puglia sunset in Gallipoli
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Ciao a tutti!
As we're in the midst of winter weather -we're thinking about the beautiful region of Puglia with its warm sunshine, sea breezes, white washed villages and the wonderful foods -fresh pastas, burratta, mozzarella, fresh seafoods. We'll be taking a group next year! For now we can share some insights on their pasta and a good recipe.
Welcome to all the new readers! We've had a great time connecting with you all during Gina's stops across the U.S. so far this winter.
Buon appetito!
Gina e Mary |
Dreaming of Puglia...
Last summer I fell in love with Puglia. For a week I stayed in a house with a vaulted stone ceiling,a large kitchen, and a rooftop terrace with a view of the sea. I wanted to immerse myself in the local cuisine, but a lot of the dishes seemed to be better suited for cold weather, with braised meats, winter greens like rapini and pureed fava beans. August was too hot and sunny for such warming winter food, and my diet consisted of fresh burrata and mozzarella, local tomatoes and olives, and cold seafood salad. Along with a chilled bottle of local white wine, it was simple, fresh and perfect.
Now that it's cold, my thoughts return to the winter cuisine of Puglia's traditional dishes. My favorite pasta dish of that region is orecchiette con cime di rape, hand rolled pasta tossed with saut�ed rapini, garlic and red pepper and generously dressed with extra virgin olive oil. This recipe is on every menu in Puglia; in Bari you can still find the old quarter of the city where the women make the pasta on tables set up in the narrow streets. They sit outside the doors to their houses, chatting with each other as they spend the morning rolling the pasta into the flattened discs called orecchiette, or "little ears". A traditional cottage industry, the pasta is then dried in the open air on large screens and sold in shops and restaurants.
Rapini is a member of the mustard family and is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. Also known as rape, cimi di rape or broccoli rabe, you often see large fields of its yellow flowers that are grown for rape seed oil, better known as canola oil in the US. The leaves and broccoli-like flowers are bitter and pair well with fatty pork shoulder or roasted pork belly, but tossed with pasta and olive oil they especially shine in this dish. |
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Orecchietti con Cime di Rape ("little ears" pasta w/ rapini)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teas hot pepper flakes, or to taste
1 bunch rapini, cleaned and chopped (also
called cimi di rape or broccoli rabe)
� lb orecchietti pasta
1 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese
Bring a large pot of fresh water to the boil, salt it well with whole sea salt and add the rapini. Cook for 5 minutes until cooked through, then remove with a scoop. Meanwhile, add half the olive oil, the garlic and hot pepper to a large saut� pan and cook until the garlic is soft but not browned. Add the rapini and continue to cook to meld the flavors. Boil the pasta in the reserved water until al dente, then add the pasta to the rapini and toss with additional extra virgin olive oil, adding a generous amount of grated pecorino Romano cheese.
For a heartier dish, add Italian sausage, crumbled or sliced and browned.
There are two ways to make this dish:
Boil the rapini in a large pot of salted water
until it's cooked through, then remove to a
saut� pan with the garlic and pepper, saving
the water to boil the pasta; or saut� the raw
rapini directly with the garlic and pepper.
I like the first way best.
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Gina's Winter Tour Schedule
Gina will be in the U.S. this winter visiting several cities. We're adding more dates, so check with the website. If you'd like a private dinner class or know a good venue, please contact Mary and we'll try to work you in!
Denver: The Kitchen Table, February 26th,
(Class sign up)
Wine dinner at University of Denver, Knoebel School of Hospitality College of Business February 28. Includes four course Tuscan dinner paired with wines from Castello di Banfi. Contact: Cindy Koch, [email protected] to sign up.
Kansas City: A Thyme for Everything cooking school: March 9, 12. (Class sign up)
Jasper's Restaurant, March 11 (Tuscan dinner)
San Francisco area: Early April - winery dinner, cooking school venues in the planning!
Check our website for dates and times on classes...and new classes are being added. |
New Tours for 2013
This year we are introducing two new tours:
The 'Taste of Tuscany' 3 day, 4 nights tour for those of you that have a vacation time crunch but want a unique culinary experience is available in May and in October. If you have your own group of 6 or more, we're happy to fit you in on your time frame. Special intro price of 2,100 euros this year for this mini tour (normal price is 2400 eu).
The second tour is a 'Best of Bologna and Tuscany Tastes' - a combo of 2 days in Emilia Romagna home of Aceto Balsamico, Proscuitto di Parma, Parmesano cheese and stuffed pastas and 4 days in Tuscany with a cooking classes, wine tours and visits to area hill towns.
Check out the itineraries on our website! |
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The New Ecco La Cucina Cookbook
Gina's latest cookbook now revised and new recipes have been added. It is a collection of traditional Tuscan cooking, featuring dishes of the Siena area. 
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