On a sunny afternoon we found ourselves cooking – not only eating ;). On the last restaurant day in August we visited a restaurant called Apulia. We had an amazing lunch there! Lots of good Apulian(Puglian) food. We were really happy to hear that the top chef of Apulia was going to arrange cooking lessons later this autumn. Although we usually write about eating we both like cooking as well.
Domenico and Karolina welcomed us warmly! They had made delicious appetizers for us: Caprese, bread gratinated with truffle cheese, olives and italian sausages and of course red wine from Apulia.
It's really important to use fresh and good quality ingredients while cooking. That's the basis of any cooking, expecially Italian cooking. We started the course by preparing Pasta al forno. We had already tasted it on Restaurant Day and now we were really glad that we had a possibility to learn how to cook it.
Cooking of Pasta al forno was easy and simple – at least it looked simple ;) - we had a good teacher! For Pasta al forno you need minced meat, onion, pasta, mozzarella, ham, chili, tomato sauce, parmesan, olive oil and white wine. We also learned about soffritto and how to make it ;). So, what is soffritto? The word was new for us. Soffritto comes from the Italian verb soffriggere, which means to brown or fry slightly. All our recipes began with a soffritto, a lightly fried mixture of oil and herbs and vegetables. We made two different kinds of soffritto: Soffritto with garlic, anchovies and chili and Soffritto with onion and chili. Soffritto is the base for many delicious pasta sauces and other dishes.
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| Tomato sauce |
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| Pasta, cheese and ham |
Pasta al forno was so good! We will cook it soon again!
Next dish was Orecchiette con broccoli. The recipe wasn't very difficult. In this pasta it's recommended to use a certain type of pasta called Orecchiette, fresh Orecchiette if possible, otherwise any short of pasta goes. Using bread cram was a new thing for us and we also tasted delicious cheese called Provolone dolce / Caciocavallo while cooking Orecchiette con broccoli.
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| Broccoli |
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| a little bit oil of course |
But our favourite dish was Melanzane al forno - absolutely.
2 eggplants
1 mozzarella
2 pcs of garlic
1 small chili
1 can of tuna (200gr)
Capers
2 fillet of anchovies
Cherry tomatoes can (ca 200 gr)
Grated pecorino
Bread crams
Olive oil
Rosemary
And here comes Domenico’s recipe: Cut the eggplants in halves and take out the inner part with tablespoon.
Prepare a soffritto with the garlic, anchovies and chili. Add the inner part of the eggplant and cook for 10 minutes at medium fire. When ready put the cooked inner part in a bowl, with the tuna, the finely cut mozzarella, the tomatoes, a tablespoon of capers and a spoon of rosemary.
Mix properly and start filling the empty eggplants. Cover with the pecorino and after with bread crams. Add some olive oil and put in the preheated oven 200C for 15min.
These eggplants were so good. We truly recommend everyone to try these at home.
For dessert we made Tiramisu. I have made quite often Tiramisu but never without alcohol. This recipe was without alcohol but tasted like there were some liquer in it ;). The good ingredients are very important; you should use good coffee, the best cookies, cacao powder, fresh eggs, good mascarpone.....
Tiramisu
250 gr Mascarpone
2 eggs
2 tablespoon sugar
1 package of savoiardi vincenzi
Coffee
Cacao powder
What a nice ending for our wonderful Sunday lunch! We had a great time in Apulia: Thank you Domenico&Karolina :). We really enjoyed the experience!
