Food Lover's Odyssey

Making Pasticciotto in Puglia

 

 

 

In Salento, dessert is all about the pasticciotto! The pastry from Lecce & the Salento region is as much a symbol to this part of Italy as the croissant is to France. Whether it be pastry shop, bar, or restaurant menu, you can be sure to find pasticciotto. It was the first gift I received upon arriving in Lecce. I was also able to see them being made at several of the Salento pastry shops I visited. The pastry consists of a short crust pastry filled with pastry cream. The classic pasticciotto uses your basic egg-yolky pastry cream, but once in a while the chefs get creative. Chef Luca Capilungo has two variations, the basic and one with chocolate pastry cream as the filling. And when I visited Bar Castello, they made pasticciotto with purple Olivotto flavored pastry cream. I've also had an all-chocolate, inside and out, pasticciotto.

 

 

Inside the classic Pasticciotto Leccese

 

 

The pastry was first created in Galatina in 1745 at Pasticceria Ascalone. Galatina is a small town south of Lecce, and Ascalone is still open and still making pasticciotto. In fact many say the current chef makes the best pasticciotto in Salento. Massimo, who grew up in Galatina, gave us a tour of the town and told me the legend of pasticciotto's creation. In 1745 Galatina was most widely known for the trance-like dance called the pizzica. At the time, the dance was looked down upon by those outside Galatina and its citizens weren't well regarded outside the city walls. Galatina wanted to find something to improve its reputation and make its citizens well-liked. What better to make people like you than pastry, right? Signor Ascalone created the pasticciotto to solve the problem.

At the pastry shop, Il Golosone Prato, a few minutes from Lecce in Novoli, I saw production of pasticciotto on a grand scale. The chefs even let me participate; I piped pastry cream into the molds.

 

 
A whole lot of pasticciotti just filled with pastry cream

 

Alessandro of Il Golosone forming the tops of the pasticciotti

 

I pasticciotti ready for their egg wash and then into the oven

 

Salvatore of Il Golosone with pasticciotti right out of the oven

 

The crust is traditionally made with lard, or strutto in Italian. I kind of anticipated the freak out that would happen if I posted a recipe that calls for lard, so I asked a few of the pastry chefs about substituting butter. Using butter changes the texture of the crust to one that is harder and crunchier, making the pastry harder to eat because the center is a cream. Using lard creates a moister and softer crust, so you don't have pastry cream splattering out everywhere when you bite into the pasticciotto.  However, in the recipe that follows, I've given you the option to use either lard or butter.

 

Pasticciotto
(Makes about 20)


For the Pasta Frolla (the pasta frolla recipe is adapted from Chef Luca Capilungo's recipe):

3 3/4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons (3 grams) baking powder
1 cup plus 2 tablespoon (250 g) lard (you can substitute the same amout of butter, at room temperature)
1 1/4 cups (250 g) granulated sugar
5 egg yolks

For the Pastry Cream:

3 ¼ cup (750 ml) whole milk
Rind of 1 lemon
8 egg yolks
2/3 cup (160 g) sugar
Scant ½ cup (50 g) cornstarch
3 ½ tablespoons (25 g) all-purpose flour

1 egg, beaten (for the egg wash)

20 oval molds for pasticciotto, each buttered and floured

To make the pasta frolla (short crust pastry dough):  In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix together on low speed the flour, baking powder, lard (or butter) and sugar until the mixture is the consistency of peas.  Add the egg yolks and stir together just until the mixture is combined.  Divide in half and create two round disks of pasta frolla. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours before rolling out.

To make the pastry cream:  Place the milk and the lemon rind in a nonreactive heavy bottom sauce pot and leave for 20 minutes. Then bring the milk to a scald.  Let the lemon rind steep in the milk for 10 minutes.  In the meantime, in another bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks until the mixture becomes pale.  (The whisk must be nonreactive also.) Add the cornstarch and flour and whisk to combine.

Strain the lemon rind out of the milk, and slowly pour the warmed milk into the egg yolk mixture.  Whisking together as you pour.  Once all the milk and egg yolk mixtures are combined, place back into the saucepot and over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil, whisking vigorously the entire time.  Once the mixture has become dense and just started to boil, remove from the heat and strain through a fine-mesh seive into bowl over an ice bath and let cool for 10 minutes.  Spread the pastry cream into a 9x13-inch glass dish and cover with plastic wrap.  The plastic wrap should be touching the pastry cream to keep the cream from developing a film.  Refrigerate until cold.

 

Vladimiro of Bar Castello forming the dough into the molds

To assemble the pasticciotto: On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the disks of pasta frolla into a square until the dough is about 3/8-inch thick.  Line your pasticciotto baking molds so that when you place the sheet of pastry dough over them, it will cover all molds. Run the rolling pin over the dough to "cut" the dough into the necessary oval form. With your fingertips, press the dough into the mold, so that the dough sits against the bottom of the mold and completely up the sides.

Using a pastry bag fit with a large star tip, at least 3/4-inch in diameter, pipe the pastry cream into the molds. The pastry cream should reach the top of the mold. Roll out the second disk of pasta frolla in the same way you rolled out the first, but to 1/4-inch in thickness. Lay the pastry dough over the tops of the filled molds. This time using your fingers instead of the rolling pin, press around the top edge of each mold to make a cut in the dough. Along the edges of the mold, press down with your fingers to seal the pastry and to create a little "mound" in the center of each pasticciotto.  Brush the tops of each with egg wash and bake at 375 F for 15 minutes. The tops should be golden brown. Cool and serve. Enjoy!

 

Inside a pasticciotto with Olivotto-filled pastry cream

If you'd like to fill your pasticciotto with chocolate pastry cream, you can find a recipe for it here. And if you'd like to fill them with Olivotto-flavored pastry cream, you should join me in Puglia and pick up some Olivotto while you're there.

 

Join me in Puglia - Food & Wine Lover's Culinary Tour - September 1 through 9

Book before May 30, 2012 and receive $200 off per person!

 

Related Posts:

The Pastries of Lecce with Pastry Chef Luca Capilungo

Olivotto: The Sweet Side of Olives

Zeppole di San Giuseppe

Seafood and More with Chef Lino at Ristorante Donna Lisa

Orecchiette and Salentine Breads - Cooking with Mamma Giulia in Salento

Under the Salento Sun - The Masserie of Salento

Wedding in Puglia

Cheese in Puglia - Making and Eating Fresh Cheese in Salento

Artisanal Cheese at Masseria CinqueSanti in Puglia

Lecce: The Baroque Beauty of Puglia

The Art of Making Pasta by Hand: A Pugliese Pasta Lesson with Nonna Vata

Tour of Masseria L'Astore and its Frantoio Ipogeo in Salento

Lunch Salento Style at Cantine Menhir

 

Seafood and More with Chef Lino at Ristorante Donna Lisa

 

I've written a lot about the pasta, the many vegetable dishes, and cheese of Puglia, but seafood is as big a part of Pugliese cuisine as those other dishes.  The heel of Italy's boot, the region of Puglia is a smaller peninsula of the larger peninsula that is the bel paese.  Salento is surrounded by water three sides, and the freshest fish and shellfish are only minutes away from any city. I spent an afternoon in the kitchen of, Ristorante Donna Lisa, where seafood dishes are their specialty. We watched the chef, Lino, cook up many of the restaurant's dishes, and sampled them, too.

 

Chef Lino at the stove

It's not all seafood, vegetarian and meat dishes are also on a long menu that consists of 30 primi piatti (pasta and risotto dishes), 20 secondi (main dishes), antipasti galore and a wine list that boasts over 100 wines, coming not only from Puglia but other parts of Italy and a few from France.

The Salento city of Maglie, as my friend Ylenia explained it, is the most chicest in all of Puglia. Both men and women are clad head to high-heeled toe in designer names, Italian designers that is. I watched fashionistas glide over the city's cobblestone and uneven walkways in, men in suits and shiny leather shoes and stiletto-heeled women in shades of black and grey. Not only a city for the stylish, Maglie is a food city, host to one of the most popular food & wine festivals in Salento, the Mercantino del Gusto every August. 

Not far from the piazza where the Mercantino del Gusto is held is the restaurant. The entrance is the 5th century courtyard of Leccese stone, that also doubles as the outdoor dining area.  The interior dining area is adorned in a contemporary palette of black, grey and white. Even the breakfast "caffetteria," a not-so traditional Italian coffee bar, has a crystal chandelier.

 

Courtyard dining at Donna Lisa

The indoor dining area at Donna Lisa

The hostess, Anna Lisa and chef Lino's daughter

 

It's a family-run restaurant that Chef Lino opened 4 years ago, after having worked at another restaurant for 20 years. His son, Vincenzo, is the main waiter and Anna Lisa, his daughter, the hostess. Chef Lino handles all orders for first and second courses and the antipasti plates that are cooked to order.  Besides his son and daughter, he had two ladies in the back that help with prep, plating, and dish washing. A small crew for the 100 cover restaurant, yet I was the only person frantic in the back of the kitchen, as I observed lunch service and scribbled down notes and between samples.

It was a live cooking demonstration of sorts, as we watched him prepare dish after dish, as the orders came in. As he cooked he explained ingredients that made up each dish and peppered in a few of his cooking tips as side notes.  One being that he liked to cook the pasta in water for only about 4 minutes, then added it to the sauce to let it finish cooking there. This allows the pasta to take on the flavor of the sauce. He made a penne pasta with radicchio and gorgonzola, explaining that the two strong flavors - the bitterness of the radicchio and the sharpness of the cheese - balance each other out. (This was the second time I'd seen radicchio paired with a strong cheese.)

 

There was antipasti galore that flew out of the kitchen - shellfish, fried sarde and other small fish, marinated anchovies, succulent salami platters, paper thin slices of grilled vegetables just to name a few. If you can't choose just one, they offer a selection of antipasti, wheeled out to your table on a fancy white cart. We tasted so many that it was impossible to get through three courses.  One of my favorites was the stuffed and fried mussels.  A cheese and herb stuffing surround the quickly fried mussels. The recipe for these will be in another post, coming soon.

 

The antipasti cart

Selection of salumi

Calamaretti Fritti (Fried miniature calamari)

 

A delicious stuffed and fried mussel

 

 

 

The menu at Donna Lisa includes 30 primi piatti, some a basic as a popular paccheri with julienned vegetables, one of the pasta dishes we tasted, and others more exotic like a risotto with saffron and gold leaf or another risotto with rose petals. Chef Lino made for us one of the seafood fish recipes that can only be found in Salento. It's made with gamberoni testa viola (a violet-headed large shrimp) from the fishing village of Gallipoli.   

 

Paccheri with sauteed  Julienne vegetables

Penne with radicchio and gorgonzola cheese

Gamberoni Testa Viola (Violet head shrimp) from Gallipoli used in our pasta dish

Spaghetti con gamberoni testa viola

 

 

We had no room for a secondo (main dish), but Donna Lisa offers 20 different secondi on their menu.  Grilled and fried fish makes up the majority of those 20. One non-fish dish that I found interesting was a fillet of steak cooked in the local Negromaro wine with onions. 

Steak in a Negromaro & onion sauce     ~     and     ~      Grilled Swordfish

 

If you're in Salento and want to taste some of the freshest fish cooked both simply and creatively, I suggest you visit Ristorante Donna Lisa.  You can see more of the restaurant and hear Anna Lisa talk about the restaurant (in Italian) in this video.

 

You can savor the seafood and other flavors of Salento like these on this dream trip:  Food and Wine Lover's Culinary Journey in Puglia!

 

Ristorante Donna Lisa
Via Ospedale
73024 Maglie
Phone: +39 0836 311 865

Open 7 days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, except Sunday for dinner.

The menu is a la carte, but a three-course meal averages 40 euros, without wine.

 

 

 

 

Related Posts:

Orecchiette and Salentine Breads - Cooking with Mamma Giulia in Salento

Under the Salento Sun - The Masserie of Salento

Wedding in Puglia

Cheese in Puglia - Making and Eating Fresh Cheese in Salento

Artisanal Cheese at Masseria CinqueSanti in Puglia

Orecchiette with Cauliflower, Sausage & Cheese - Cooking with Mamma Mariantonietta

Tradtional Salentine Dishes at Locanda Rivoli in Lecce

Lecce: The Baroque Beauty of Puglia

The Art of Making Pasta by Hand: A Pugliese Pasta Lesson with Nonna Vata

The Pastries of Lecce with Pastry Chef Luca Capilungo

Olivotto: The Sweet Side of Olives

Zeppole di San Giuseppe

Pugliese Pasta Dish: Sagne Ncannulate con Sugo Schiattariciati

Classic Salentino Cuisine Reinvented at Sette di Sette in Lecce

Tour of Masseria L'Astore and its Frantoio Ipogeo in Salento

Lunch Salento Style at Cantine Menhir

Sagne Ncannulate Schiattariciati - Pugliese Pasta with Schiattariciati Tomato Sauce

The Dish from Puglia: Ricci di Mare (sea urchins) from Porto Badisco

The Dish from Puglia: Friselle with Tomatoes

The Dish from Lecce: Rustico Leccese

Christmas Desserts in Salento

Food Finds in Aix-en-Provence with Tuula

 

One of the best things about blogging has been meeting others from all over the world, especially those who are as passionate about food, travel, Italy and France. Although much of this "meeting" is of the virtual type, I've been fortunate to meet in person many great food & travel bloggers in Italy and France. Last Fall, after much virtual "chatting," Tuula of Belle Provence Travels and I finally met in person! Tuula is as sweet and enthusiastic about France as her writing portrays. What I especially love about her blog is how she writes about the tiny tucked-away villages that many guidebooks miss. And she always seems to find the best food festivals in Provence!

Last October, Tuula and her very sweet, French, food-loving husband welcomed me into their home. It was such a treat to see Provence with these two food-loving locals.  Besides visting tiny seaside and hilltop villages, we had days filled with market visits, food fairs, long leisurely lunches, sauccison sampling, pastry nibbling, and we washed it all down with French wine.  As Tuula pointed out, this was all in the name of research, of course! We cooked toghether. At cafes under a mild Autumn sun or in cozy wine bars, we laughed together (a lot of time at my awful French pronunciation). And those Provençal views weren't bad either.

 

 

 

Aix-en-Provence is far from one of those undiscovered villages. Very well-known as Cezanne's birthplace, you can even follow in his steps, Aix is a city of art.  Thermal waters have flowed through the city since Roman times, so Aix is also a popular spa destination.  There are many reasons one might visit the city, but this a food lover's blog.  So we opted to wander through one of the many colorful markets of Aix, and enjoy a famous two-hour French lunch. Afterwards, under the guise of walking off our lunch, we found a few sweet treats of Provence. 

The Cours Mirabeau is one of the most beautiful boulevards in all of France. The trees line each side of the street and their leaves arch up and meet in the middle to create an arbor. Always bustling, the boulevard is the social center of the city. An outdoor seat at one of the restaurants along Cours Mirabeau, the Bastide du Cours, was our spot for lunch.  The menu formule, various combinations of starter/main dish/dessert or all three, is always a good value. With it you'll get good, not spectacular, bistrot and regional fare.  Of the restaurant's three menu formulas offered, we chose the "Gandolphe," a three-course meal for 19,50 euros.

Our starter was a religeuse of tomatoes and mozzarella. As it was the end of tomato season, this twist on the French pastry, was pretty but a bit bland.  Howerver, the braised jarret de porc (pork shank) with lentils from Puy was flavorful, falling-off-the-bone tender and belly warming.  We ended with a simple and classic, crème brûlée. The large dish of custard with a vane of burnt sugar on top gave the perfect textual contrast to the creamy custard.  Quite the opposite of a light lunch, we savored it slowly along with the surroundings and much girl-talk. The two-hour lunch, one of the best treats when traveling to France, actually flew by.

 

 

 

Our "foodie" day didn't end with the meal, either.  Walking through the streets that splinter off from Cours Mirabeau, we did a little wandering and found more!  Three sweets that popped up all day in Aix, and during my stay in Provece were calissons, navettes, and Tartes Tropéziennes.  So popular are they, that each has at least one interesting legend of its birth.

 

 

Calissons d'Aix - Made with equal parts blanched & ground almonds, sugar and candied fruit of orange peel & melons, they have a paper thin wafer at the bottom and are topped with royal icing. Legend has it that these almond shaped sweets were first introduced in 1454 at King Rene's second wedding in order to sweeten up his much younger, and possibly reluctant, bride Jeanne for their marriage. They are the specialty of the city and in every pastry window, candy shop, street market, everywhere. 

 

 

 

Navettes - A crunchy, barely sweet cookie, they are shaped like a boat to commemorate the arrival by boat of St. Lazarus, Mary Magdalene and Saint Martha to Provence over 2000 years ago.  A specialty of Marseille, they come in three traditional forms.  The navette traditionnel uses fleur d'oranger; the navette Marseillaise leaves out the orange flower water, and the navette Provençale has the fleur d'oranger and is also a little softer.  Nowadays you can find them with a variety of additions, like cinnamon, lavender, figs, etc.

 

 

 

 

Tarte Tropézienne - Actually a dessert of St. Tropez along the Côte d'Azur.  I think I saw more of this pastry in Provence than anywhere else outside of St. Tropez. As the story goes, the first Tarte Tropézienne was created by a Polish man, Alexandre Micka, who had a shop in St. Tropez.  He made this dessert along with pizzas and sandwiches for the crew filming, "And God Created Woman," starring Bridgitte Bardot. Bridgitte liked the dessert so much that she urged Alexandre to name it.  He did, the film was a success and is credited for making St. Tropez the popular resort town.

The tart is not really a tart but a big brioche bun. As Alexandre Micka's filling is a big secret, each pastry shop varies its version in an attempt to recreate his. Pastry cream and Kirsch liqueur are at the base of the filling. Some combination of butter, butter cream, meringue or whipped cream is added to the pastry cream and Kirsch. The top can vary, too.  I saw a dusting of powdered sugar with berries, a crumble, and also a pearl sugar on top.

Tartes Tropéziennes from Patisserie Bechard

 

 

 

There was also chocolate!  Puyricard chocolates, named after the village in Provence where a Belgian couple began their French chocolate making. Known as the chocolate company of Provence, Puyricard has 17 swanky shops - 13 in southern France and 4 in Paris.  Believe me it's hard to resist spending all your euros in the store. We got out of there quite cheaply, a 250-gram box of assorted (we picked them) chocolates were a mere 23 euros.  Along with delicious chocolates and calissons, they offer guided visits to their chocolate making facility in Puyricard and chocolate classes.

 

 

 

An MOF Patissier in Aix!  For those of you who've seen Kings of Pastry, you know the MOF, short for Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Worker in France) for pastry award isn't given out lightly.  Riederer's pastry chef, Phillipe Segond has the MOF title, and his pristine pastries are evidence of it.  The pastry shop is right on the Cours Mirabeau and full of so many pretty sweet things, I need to go back to try them all.

 

 

 

The oldest pastry shop in Aix. Patisserie Bechard, opened since 1870, was our first and last stop in Aix. Both times, it was packed with locals ordering their daily dose of French pastries. They had a huge selection of classic French and regional pastries and the place had a homey vibe. I could have spent all day in the shop. Their Tarte Tropézienne, a house specialty, was very good.

 

Yes, Tuula knew how to show this food lover a sweet side of Aix-en-Provence. Aix and all our outings together in Provence were fun and just as packed with delicacies.  A big merci to Tuula!  I had so much fun that I'm thinking of showing up on their doorstep again this year. There's more research to do, no?!

 

 

 

Bastide du Cours
43/45/47 Cours Mirabeau
13100 Aix-en-Provence
Phone: +33 (0)4 42 26 10 06
Email: info@bastideducours.com

Riederer
67 Cours Mirabeau
13100, Aix-en-Provence
Phone: +33 (0)4 42 38 19 69

Puyricard
7-9, rue Rifle-Rafle
13100, Aix-en-Provence
Phone: +33 (0)4 42 21 13 26

Bechard
12 Cours Mirabeau
13100, Aix-en-Provence,
Phone: +33 (0)4 42 26 06 78

 

For information on dates and times of all the markets in Aix: Markets in Aix-en-Provence

 

 

Related Posts:

Christmas in France: Aix-en-Provence Christmas Market

Ten Places for Romantic Vacations in France

Food Lover's Walk in Paris Along Rue de Seine and Bonaparte

French Pastries and 10 Top Patisseries in Paris

Cours Saleya Market and a Picnic in Nice

Market Day in Sarlat

Frasier recipe

Meyer Lemon Tart inspired by Patisserie Gerard Mulot

Chocolate Eclairs

Four-Spice Palmiers

Paris Pastry Binge - Pierre Herme

Paris Pastry Binge - Some of the Best Pastry Shops in Paris

The Sweet Life in Aix-en-Provence (Belle Provence Travels)

 

Orecchiette and Salentine Breads - Cooking with Mamma Giulia

 

Mamma Giulia is in charge of all kitchen goings-on at Masseria Provenzani.  She starts early each morning preparing breakfast for the masseria's guests.  Guests wake to scents of bread, brioche and sometimes a crostata, or two.  The communal breakfast table is full of  Mamma Giulia's baked goods and homemade jams.  And the beverages add to the intoxicating aromas wafting through the air; there's espresso, cappucino or hot chocolate to wash down the delicious breads.

We met up with Mamma Giulia as she was clearing the breakfast table, just in time to taste some of the leftovers - a creamy ricotta crostata and a cherry one.  Small in stature with a soft voice to match, she teaches Pugliese homecooking in the masseria's rustic kitchen.  She gathered us around the marble island in the center of the kitchen.  We were surrounded by pans, utensils and peperoncini hanging from three walls.  The fourth wall consisted of ceiling-to-floor glass windows that looked out onto the masseria's lush gardens.  Breads of Salento and orecchiette pasta were on the menu for our day's cooking lesson.

 

Making Salentine Breads

Mamma Giulia speaks only Italian. Although Ylenia was there to translate, the way Mamma Giulia spoke slowly and carefully demonstrated each step, made her easy to understand, even for the non-Italian speaker.  Missteps on our part were treated with gentle corrections. She would come next to us and correct us by quietly showing the correct way to do it. We combined flour, yeast, water and salt to make bread dough.  She had quantities for flour, yeast and salt, but insisted that there was no exact measurement for the water. "The amount of water needed depends on the temperature, humidity and the flour itself.  You know how much water you need by the feel of the dough." She told us.

From the dough, we made three types of bread.  Focaccia Salentina is Salento's version of a calzone.  Thin layers of focaccia bread sandwich a filling.  While the dough was rising, we sauteed onions and tomatoes for our filling, but Mamma Giulia pointed out that we could fill the focaccia with anything we'd like.  Rollng the dough out fairly thinly, we placed it in a round pan, added the filling and folded over the other half of the dough to cover.

We also made puccie (plural for puccia). Puccie are round bread rolls that come in two sizes; rounds that are about six inches in diameter or small golfball-sized rounds.  Whole unpitted olives are kneaded into the dough, and usually so are tomatoes giving the bread an orange hue.  Lastly, we made a traditional focaccia topped with tomatoes and oregano. 

 

 



Focaccia Salentina stuffed with onions & tomatoes and traditional focaccia with tomatoes & oregano

Le Puccie - Ready for the oven

 

 

Making Orecchiette

Orecchiette (meaning little ears) is the quintessential pasta of Puglia.  I think it's a requirement of all Pugliese mamme to master the art of making orecchiette by hand because every Pugliese mamma who I've seen make these, makes it look easy.  Flipping the curled pasta over your thumb to create the little ears is no easy task.  Mamma Giulia rolled the dough out into a long snake-like strip.  With what seemed like one continuous motion, she cut a piece from the dough, rolled a knife over the dough, and turned the curled piece of dough over her thumb to form the orecchiette.  One after the other, she quickly turned out at least 10 little ears to my one, but we eventually had enough for our lunch.

Mamma Giulia made a simple tomato sauce to dress the orecchiette.  She slowly heated garlic in olive oil, Neapolitan style, then added the tomatoes.  The orecchiette held the tomatoe sauce nicely.

Our "small" afternoon meal included an antipasti of the various cheeses we had picked up earlier at Masseria CinqueSanti, and the food we had made with Mamma Giulia; the orecchiette with a garlic tomato sauce and our three types of bread. For dessert, we had a few more pieces of the crostata left from earlier that morning.  Mamma Giulia's recipe for the orecchiette and the sauce is below.  I'll be back next week with the recipe for Focaccia Salentino.

   

 

 

 

 

Mamma Giulia's Handmade Orecchiette with Garlic Tomato Sauce
 
Serves 4


For the Pasta:

1 pound (450 grams) semolina flour
About ½ cup tepid water*

*Mamma Giulia would not give an exact measurement on the water, but this is a good starting point

For the Sauce:

6 to 8 cloves garlic with skins left on
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Two 28 ounce cans San Marzano tomatoes
Salt, to taste

Grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for the garnish

 

To make the pasta:

With the flour, make a well.  Add half of the water to the center of the well, and slowly mix the flour into the center of the well with your hands.  Add more water as necessary until the dough comes together.  It should not be sticky but moist and soft.  Knead for a few minutes until all the flour and water combine to make a smooth dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

To make the orecchiette, roll the dough out into a long snake-like strip about 1/4 inch in diameter.  Cut a strip about 1/2 inches long.  With a butter knife (one that has teeth, but dull teeth), roll the tooth side of the knife down and over the cut strip of pasta.  This will form a rolled piece of dough, also known as cavatelli.  Turn the curved piece of dough over your thumb to form the little ear.  Set aside and repeat until you've used all the dough.

To make the sauce: On low heat, slowly heat the garlic and olive oil in a sauce pot.  Once the garlic is toasted, a golden color, add the tomatoes and salt.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower to a simmer.  Cook for about 20 minutes, until the sauce is a consistency you want.  Taste and adjust for seasoning. You can remove the garlic cloves, which will have remained whole, from the sauce before serving.

Cook the orecchiette in well salted boiling water until the pasta is al dente.  Dress with the tomato sauce and top with grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Buon Appetito!

 

 

 

This week and next week is dedicated to a "Taste Puglia." Almost daily I'll have a post for you from Puglia. Like this post, the others will include little tastes of Puglia and some of the things we'll see, do and taste on this Food & Wine Lover's Culinary Tour in Puglia.  The trip includes an 8-night stay at the gorgeous Masseria Provenzani and cooking lessions with Mamma Giulia. 

 

This post is part of Wanderfood Wednesdays  - Travelers and food lovers share their culinary travels from around the world.

 

Related Posts:

The Art of Making Pasta by Hand: A Pugliese Pasta Lesson with Nonna Vata

Cheese in Puglia - Making and Eating Fresh Cheese in Salento

The Pastries of Lecce with Pastry Chef Luca Capilungo

Wedding in Puglia

Traditional Salentine Dishes at Locanda Rivoli in Lecce

Lecce: The Baroque Beauty of Puglia

Pugliese Pasta Dish: Sagne Ncannulate con Sugo Schiattariciati

Classic Salentino Cuisine Reinvented at Sette di Sette in Lecce

Tour of Masseria L'Astore and its Frantoio Ipogeo in Salento

Lunch Salento Style at Cantine Menhir

Shopping and Eating Local in Italy - Farmers' Market in Lecce

Sagne Ncannulate Schiattariciati - Pugliese Pasta with Schiattariciati Tomato Sauce

The Dish from Lecce: Rustico Leccese

The Dish from Puglia: Ricci di Mare (sea urchins) from Porto Badisco

This Dish from Puglia: Friselle

Christmas Around Italy - Christmas Desserts in Salento

Olivotto - The Sweet Side of Olives

 

Olives, and especially olive oil, play a huge part in Italian cuisine.  That's on the savory side.  I have to admit that except for making cakes with olive oil, olives and pastries were a combination I had never thought of before.  That was until my friends from Salento introduced me to Massimo and Andrea who have invented a sweet product using the ubiquitous Pugliese olives. The product is Olivotto, made with the black cellina olives that grow in the Salento region.

Like most great culinary inventions or recipes, Olivotto came about by accident.  Massimo's young son had stained his hands from the olive's juice. His son mistook the purple stain as one from amarena (dark sour cherries, usually preserved in a sugar syrup).  That's when a light went on in Massimo.  Surrounded in Salento by almost endless groves of olive trees (Puglia produces over 40% of Italy's olive oil), yet no one had ever thought of using this fruit for pastry making.  Massimo and his friend Andrea, who was then the chef for the restaurant at the swanky Patria Palace Hotel in Lecce, put there heads together to create Olivotto.   

 

Andrea Serravezza and Massimo Gaetani - The creators of Olivotto

Olivotto comes in three variations. The crema dolce, meaning sweet cream, can be used as a base flavor in pastry making.  Similarly to how one uses other fruits, nuts and chocolate, one would use it to flavor creams (pastry, Bavarian, Anglese, Chantilly, etc), doughs, cakes, sauces, candies and gelato, just to name a few.  The dressing could be a finishing touch to dress desserts, used like a marmelade in a crostata or cookie, in chocolate making, and even paired with cheese.  Finally there is the Perle Noire (black pearl). The black pearls are whole, pitted olives in a sweet syrup.  They could dress the top of any Olivotto dessert beautifully, or stud the inside of breads, brioche and cakes. 

Make no mistake, all three variations are sweet, not overly, but they are sweet and produced with natural ingredients.  The dressing is the sweetest of the three. The dark purple color is also natural and brings an interesting color to all pastries Olivotto touches.  In fact, the Cellina olive is the only olive that is black naturally; the others turn black due to chemical oxidation.  Each of the desserts we tried had light olive notes throughout. You taste the savory side of the olive at the finish; something that balances things nicely.

 

We met Massimo and Andrea at Bar Castello in the Grecia Salentina (a part of Salento where a Greek dialect is still spoken and street and store signs are in both Greek and Italian).  Angelo, the chef and owner of Bar Castello was the first person in Salento to offer Olivotto products and use the products in his pastries.  In the bar's kitchen the talented pastry cooks, Vladimiro & Carmin, wowed us by making one delicious dessert after another with Olivotto.

 

 

Angelo Anchora of Bar Castello

 

They made the region's famous pasticciotto pastry with pastry cream flavored with Olivotto - giving it a bright purple color.  Instead of chocolate covered cherries, we tasted chocolate covered olives; the dressing and a black pearl were covered in chocolate.  There was purple pandolivotto - panettone made with the crema dolce and studded with the black pearl olives.  I don't normally like panettone.  I find it too dry, but the Olivotto cream gave the cake a moister texture that changed my mind about the Italian Christmas bread.  They flavored marzipan and cream chantilly with Olivotto. And of course, there was gelato flavored with Olivotto. 

 

Pastries and chocolates with Olivotto

 

Pasticciotti filled with Olivotto flavored pastry cream

 

Olivotto gelato

 

Fruit Crostata - one of the fruit toppings is the Olivotto Perle Noire

 

Crostata filled with Olivotto dressing and topped with the Perle Noire

 

Marzipan biscotti (known as quaresimali) filled with Olivotto dressing and Perle Noire

 

Pastry cooks at Bar Castello - Vladimiro and Carmin - working with Olivotto, pastries & chocolate

 

 

In Salento, Olivotto is already a popular name, and you can find it in many pastry shops, food shops, and at Lecce's Farmers' Market.  Chef Heinz Beck is using Olivotto at the three-Michelin starred Restaurant La Pergola in Rome.  You can find Olivotto in London, at Harrod's, and at some stores in France.  Rumor has it that Pierre Herme in Paris might be baking up something with Olivotto - maybe a macaron/Olivotto combination. Massimo and Andrea are still looking for distribution in the U.S., where I think the Pandolivotto would be a huge hit, especially around Christmas.  One thing is certain, Olivotto makes my must-buy list for foodie souvenirs from Salento.

Join me for a Food & Wine Lover's Culinary Journey in Puglia where we'll taste Olivotto and many more local specialties!

 

Pandiolivotto - Olivotto flavored panettone (photo courtesy Olivotto)

 

 

Olivotto
Email: info@olivottocreme.it
Phone:  +39 0836 572304

Bar Castello
4 V. Ferrovia
73222 Corigliano d’Otranto
Phone: +39 0836 471098

 

 

Related Posts:

The Pastries of Lecce with Pastry Chef Luca Capilungo

The Art of Making Pasta by Hand: A Pugliese Pasta Lesson with Nonna Vata

Cheese in Puglia - Making and Eating Fresh Cheese in Salento

Wedding in Puglia

Traditional Salentine Dishes at Locanda Rivoli in Lecce

Lecce: The Baroque Beauty of Puglia

Pugliese Pasta Dish: Sagne Ncannulate con Sugo Schiattariciati

Classic Salentino Cuisine Reinvented at Sette di Sette in Lecce

Tour of Masseria L'Astore and its Frantoio Ipogeo in Salento

Lunch Salento Style at Cantine Menhir

Artisinal Cheese at Masseria CinqueSanti in Puglia

Shopping and Eating Local in Italy - Farmers' Market in Lecce

Sagne Ncannulate Schiattariciati - Pugliese Pasta with Schiattariciati Tomato Sauce

The Dish from Lecce: Rustico Leccese

Christmas Around Italy - Christmas Desserts in Salento

Artisanal Cheese from Masseria CinqueSanti in Puglia

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In the Salento countryside, a few kilometers from the city of Lecce and along a stretch of road filled with olive trees (common landscape for this region) my friend Ylenia brought me to the sprawling farmhouse of Masseria CinqueSanti. We were greeted with hugs and cheek kisses from Lina; she's the third generation of female cheesemakers on this farm.  We were there for a special ricotta making demonstration.  It was special not only because we got to taste samples of the freshly made ricotta minutes after it was made - a must for every cheese lover before they die - but the ricotta from the demonstration was ours to take with us!

Using some of the whey that remained from the morning's cheesemaking, they added salt, a small cupful more of milk, and reheated the whey. (This is how ricotta gets its name; ricotta means recooked in Italian).  With the heat and gentle stirring motion of the cheesemaker, the whey curdled ever so slightly to make the oh so creamy ricotta.  As the ricotta drained in baskets, we could hardly wait for it to cool down enough to taste it. It was worth the wait, the four of us dipped our little spoons in again and again in the little tasting bowls Lina gave us. 

 

 

 

 

After the ricotta tasting, I met Nonna Anna, Lina's mother. She had stayed quiet and in the background while Lina explained the stages of ricotta making, and we hadn't even noticed her petite frame watching over the demonstration. After the demo, she gently ushered us to her case of special cheeses.  This is where Nonna's craft of cheesemaking borders on art.  What had originally started as the same white rounds of cheese, now varied in colors, textures and flavor based on her imangination and whimsy. To some she added nuts, to others peppercorns, to others herbs, to others fruit, to others a combination of these, and to one, with a most notable burgandy color, the grape skins from the famous Negramaro grape - THE wine of the region.

 

 

Some of the variations are always available, like the cheese covered in Negramaro grape skins, or those covered in ashes of olive leaves, but many of the rest change daily based on the flavor combinations Nonna Anna wants to experiment with that day.  The combinations that are big hits make it into the regular rotation while the others make guest appearances every now and then. (I'm hoping the lemon-thyme combination that I tried makes it into the regular rotation for my next visit.) 

 

Masseria CinqueSanti makes many of the traditional cheeses of Puglia and an assortment of aged cheeses. The aged cheeses can be just a few hours old "di filiera corta," 20 days old and even older.  Some of the stagionato (aged) cheeses were over 6 months old.  They combine sheep's, goat's and cow's milk from the animals on the farm to make the aged cheeses.   

 

Masseria CinqueSanti's Cheeses - The very young cheese at the bottom and more aged at the top

 

Formaggio Stagionato - Aged cheeses

 

Lina holding a round of Cenerino - Cheese covered in olive leaf ashes

 

 

A bit of information on the Masserie in Puglia.  They are ancient fortified farmhouses. Most of them were built between the 14^th and 18^th centuries.  Many had high stone walls to protect against invasions by pirates and the Turks.  They were living communities that housed families of the peasant farmers who worked for the masseria. Of the masserie that were abandoned in the early 20^th century, many have been restored into luxurious hotels, boutique bed and breakfasts, or grand spaces for special events and weddings.  Others have been restored to working order.  In those, you’ll find working vineyards, animals whose milk make creamy Salento cheese like at Masseria CinqueSanti, fields full of vegetables and fruit, and of course, olive groves. 

 

Masseria CinqueSanti is part of the Campagna Amica group of farmers working together to keep the food chain in Italy as local as possible.  We not only took the freshly-made ricotta with us, but also some freshly-made mozzarella and a few selections from Nonna Anna's special case. All were exceptional and made up our antipasti for our lunch with Mamma Giulia (more about cooking with Mamma Giulia next week).

 

You can see cheesemaking demonstrations and taste fresh cheeses like these and more - Join me on this Food & Wine Lover's Culinary Tour in Puglia!

 

Cenerino - cheese covered in olive leaf ashes

 

Formaggio Negamaro - cheese covered in Negramaro grape skins

 

Antipasti plate of mozzarella and ricotta

 

Nonna Anna's cheeses - covered with lemon-thyme, Negramaro, and pulp from Pugliese olives

 

Masseria CinqueSanti
Via Prov.le per Lecce
73029 Vernole
Phone: +39 0832 89 11 78
Email: info@sicacarni.it
The cheese store is open 7 days a week: 8am-2pm and 4pm-8pm

 

 

Related Posts:

Cheese in Puglia - Making and Eating Fresh Cheese in Salento

Wedding in Puglia

Traditional Salentine Dishes at Locanda Rivoli in Lecce

The Art of Making Pasta by Hand: A Pugliese Pasta Lesson with Nonna Vata

The Pastries of Lecce with Pastry Chef Luca Capilungo

Olivotto - The Sweet Side of Olives

Lecce: The Baroque Beauty of Puglia

Pugliese Pasta Dish: Sagne Ncannulate con Sugo Schiattariciati

Classic Salentino Cuisine Reinvented at Sette di Sette in Lecce

Tour of Masseria L'Astore and its Frantoio Ipogeo in Salento

Lunch Salento Style at Cantine Menhir

Shopping and Eating Local in Italy - Farmers' Market in Lecce

Sagne Ncannulate Schiattariciati - Pugliese Pasta with Schiattariciati Tomato Sauce

The Dish from Puglia: Ricci di Mare (sea urchins) from Porto Badisco

The Dish from Puglia: Friselle with Tomatoes

The Dish from Lecce: Rustico Leccese

Christmas Around Italy - Christmas Desserts in Salento

 

Join me on a Food Lover's Trip to Puglia

 

I'm thrilled to announce the first of what I hope will be many food-focused tours with Food Lover's Odyssey.  The first invitation is to join me in Puglia to cook, eat, drink and discover this amazing "off-the-tourist-track" region in Southern Italy!

 

With the help of my friend and Lecce native, Ylenia of YL Tours, we've specially designed a delicious 9-day/8-night food and wine lover's journey in Puglia. One in which you'll not only taste the many delicacies of the region, but you'll also cook them! You'll be immersed in the culture, lifestyle and traditions of the people of the region.  With Ylenia by our side the entire way, and she has been in the tourism business in Salento for over 10 years, it will be so much more than a culinary journey. It will be a truly local and memorable experience.  Each tour is limited to 12 participants, and we have two tours scheduled for 2012: one running May 26 through June 3 and the other September 1 through 9.

 

 

 

Where we'll be.  Puglia is the region at the "heel" of Italy's "boot."  We'll be staying in the southernmost province, Salento.  It's surrounded on three sides by the deep blue sea - the Ionian to the west & the Adriatic to the east. Often called the "California of Italy" and referred to as "Tuscany without the crowds," Salento boasts a cuisine based on cucina povera (poor kitchen), vegetables, local olive oil & seafood. The countryside is an endless stretch of olive trees and blue skies.  Salento's capital is the baroque beauty of Lecce, and we'll stay in the gorgeous and spacious Masseria Provenzani located just minutes from the sea and the city of Lecce.

 

Masseria Provenzani

Poolside at Masseria Provenzani

On the first day, you'll be welcomed to the masseria by your local guide and me with a private wine & olive oil tasting, followed by a welcome dinner where we'll break bread and bond over a typical Salentine meal.  The masseria has a large kitchen where mamma Giulia will prepare our daily breakfasts. It's also where three of our cooking classes will be held.  And there will be plenty of time for relaxing poolside and/or beachside.

 

 

 

 

Imagine preparing local seasonal dishes at a winery and then dining on these dishes with the local wines.  Making hand made Pugliese pasta and traditional meals with an Italian mamma. Watching fresh cheese being made and digging into the still-warm freshly-made, creamy ricotta.  Sampling seafood right out of its shell just minutes after it's been caught. Visiting a pastry shop to learn about the sweet side of Salento, with samples, of course.  Walking tours of Baroque Lecce, the fisherman's village of Gallipoli, the seaside resort town of Otranto, the Trulli of the Itria Valley and the "white city" of Ostuni.  These are just a few of the highlights of this trip, and there's so much more...

 

What's included in the tour:

• 9 days/8 nights stay at the gorgeous Masseria Provenzani (less than 1 mile from the beach and a 10-minute drive to Lecce)
• Experience Puglia like a local - We will have a local guide with us the entire trip
• All breakfasts, lunches and dinners
• Local wines included with all lunches and dinners
• Private shuttle to and from the Brindisi Airport and to all destinations during the trip
• Welcome private wine & olive oil tasting
• Guided walking tours of Lecce, Otranto, Gallipoli and the Itria Valley - Alberobello, Ostuni & Locorotondo
• Four cooking classes (two hands-on and two demonstration)
• Two cheese making demonstrations with tastings
• Gelato making demonstration & tasting with Luca, who has been making gelato for more than 20 years
• Guided visit to a Lecce pastry shop with tastings
• Guided Local market tour
• Cortili Aperti Festival (during the May 26th trip)
• Two winery visits and tastings
• Liqueur tasting
• Beach time to enjoy the gorgeous Puglia coastline and lapis-lazuli sea
• All recipes to take home
• Cook in Puglia apron and welcome gift bag
• Assitance with making your travel arrangements to the Brindisi airport and any pre- and post-tour travel arrangements

 

*Airfare, transportation to Brindisi and travel insurance is not included.

 

Dates:  Two tour dates are available for 2012

• May 26 to June 3, 2012
• Sept 1 to Sept 9, 2012

 

Price: $3,200 per person based on double occupancy
             Single supplement: $300

Deposit: A nonrefundable deposit of $1,000 per person is required to confirm enrollment.

Final Payment: The  final payment is due no later than 90 days prior to the start of the tour.

 

Travel Insurance:

We recommend travel insurance to protect against loss of enrollment fees for late cancellations.

The following website has been recommended:

http://www.insuremytrip.com/

Please note that we make this information available for your convenience. We have no financial interest in the web site or the services it offers, and any contract you make is your right and responsibility.

 

 

For more information and a detailed itinerary, go to the page: Food & Wine Lover's Journey in Puglia.  For an idea of what we'll see, do & taste, check out my posts of Puglia & Pugliese cuisine.

 

To make a reservation or for additional questions, contact me at chefkathyayer [at] yahoo.com.

 

Paris Pastries Binge - Some of the Best Pastry Shops in Paris

 

 

I know, I've made you wait much too long for the second part of my Paris Pastry Binge, but it's finally here.  Besides the binge at Pierre Herme, I sampled sweets at some of the best pastry shops in Paris.  Major flavor players in this binge were chocolate, caramel & pralinè, but there were also a few citrus and pistachio notes included in my sweet selection.

 

Cafe Pouchkine

 

Foret Noire

Eclair Pur Caramel

Noir d'Or

Silver serving plates & tea pots, a pastry case with gilded ornamention, fine china, marble columns, and a glass-topped bar; its opulence was enough to bring you back to the 19th century and a salon de the of nobility.  I adored this place! If I were ever have a patisserie of my own, I would want it to look like this one.  The pastries, mostly French with a Russian twist, are as fancy as the salon.  Each and every pastry was exquisite and finished with a dusting of gold.  The teeny tiny shop is on the ground floor of the Printemps Mode store. The pastry window looks onto the street and beckons even the most anti-carb person to indulge inside.  We sampled only three patisseries, and it took at least 20 minutes to decide which three.

The Forêt Noire (black forest) had all the elements of a classic black forest cake, chocolate, creme chantilly and Kirsch-soaked cherries. All set inside a chocolate cup.  This was my friend's favorite, and because of that, I think I had only some of the chocolate topping and a cherry.  It's ok though, as I didn't share much of the Caramel Pur Caramel with her.  The eclair, generously filled with a light caramel pasty cream, had an extra suprise inside, thick & gooey vanilla bean caramel.  The choux croustillante, seems to be the trend as we saw the crumbly covering on almost all choux pastries in Paris, added a bit of texture to the creamy eclair; perfect for caramel lovers. (I'll certainly be recreating this one at home!).  Also very good was the Noir d'Or (black gold).  Honey-scented chocolate mousse, vanilla cream, and a very thin layer of crostillante on top of an almond biscuit cake.

 

 

Carl Marletti

 

 

 

  
Aveline

 

Desir

 

Carl Marletti Patisserie is a little pastry shop situated at the south end of rue Mouffetard in the 5^th arrondissement.  A sleek long and narrow shop with the pastries laid out in a case that stretches the length of the shop. I love his choux pastries and must admit that we sampled one not photographed.  Oops, forgetting to take a photo of the Regligeuse Pistache, we devoured the little "nun" filled full with pistachio cream.  The Aveline is a symphony of hazelnuts and praline, with another choux croustillante. It's sliced and filled with two types of pralinè cream, caramel and candied hazelnuts.  The Desir is a chocolholics' dream, chocolate mousse on a chocolate biscuit with a sliver of chocolate croquant adding just a bit of crunch. All of it is coated in a chocolate glaze and topped with cacao nibs.

 

 

 

La Patisserie des Reves

 

 

 

 
Selection of Italian pastries from Patisserie des Reves

 

Viennoiserie and the Limonata

 

Paris Brest from Patisserie des Reves

 

Pastry chef Phillipe Contacini adds much playfulness to his pastry shop of dreams and to his pastries, recreating classics in avant-garde and childlike twists.  We sampled his flower-shaped Paris Brest, named the best Paris-Brest in Paris by Le Figaro. It lived up to its billing. A pralinè coulant oozes out of the center of each ball of pralinè pastry cream.  We also tried the Limonata.  It was better in theory than execution.  A combination of lemon cream and meringue muddled together in the shape of a lemon, it was too sweet and had little lemon flavor.

 

 

 

Hugo & Victor

 

 
Kaffir Lime Tart (combawa) with a white chocolate "cover"

 

Hugo Chocolat pastry

 

Hugo & Victor Chocolates

 

 

Their website states: "Welcome to Haute Patisserie," and the pastry shop is just as haughty at Hugo & Victor.  Pastries sit on stands behind glass casings like jewels in a jewelry shop and the chocolates come in Moleskin-like boxes.  Although you feel as if you must speak in hushed tones in the store, the staff was very jovial and helpful.  The Kaffir Lime Tart (combawa) is a brillant burst of citron in a crunchy, albeit strangely colored, short crust. The Hugo Chocolat  blends tonka bean and lime together with chocolate mousse.  Diced candied lime dot the lime-syrup infused chocolate torte.  I also tried a few of the financiers the size of a 2 euro piece.  My friend laughed at me as I paid 1.50 euros for each.  Except for the little bit of combawa creme on the lemon financier, they were a dry disappointment.

Sadly for me, but not for my wallet or waistline, the Paris pastry binge of 2011 has come to and end.  I'm sure I'll have more pastries to share with you on my next visit.

 

Addresses of patisseries visited:

Café Pouchkine
64 Boulevard Haussmann (8th arr.)
in the Printemps Mode store
+33 (0)1 42 82 43 31

Carl Marletti
51 rue Censier (5th arr.)
+33 (0)1 43 31 68 12

Patisserie des Reves
93 rue du Bac (7th arr.)
+33 (0)1 42 84 00 82

Hugo & Victor
40 Boulevard Rasp ail (7th arr.)
+33 (0)1 44 39 97 73

 

 

Related Posts:

Paris Pastry Binge - Pierre Herme

French Pastries and Ten Top Patisseries in Paris

Paris Walks for Food Lover's - Rue de Seine and Bonaparte

Journey Through the Pastries of Paris - Part One

Journey Through the Pastries of Paris - Part Two

The Dish from France: Viennoiserie

Cooking Classes for the Culinary Traveler in Paris

L'Epicuriste - Dining in Paris

Fraisier

Chocolate Eclairs with Chocolate Pastry Cream

Meyer Lemon Tart Topped with a Lightened Lemon Cream

Four-Spice Palmiers

Croustade aux Pommes - Flaky Apple Tart Inspired by Lunch at Pavillion Margaux

 

Da Danilo - Delicious Dining in Rome

 

Cucina Romana is one of my favorite regional cuisines of Italy.  When I'm in Rome, I look for no other type of food, well it and pizza al taglio.  I do love the cuisine, some of those rough Romans can make it difficult for the straniera (foreigner).  I'm certainly not the only one to say that Rome isn't always the friendliest to its visitors, especially when it comes to dining.  Although I do speak Italian, albeit with an obvious foreign accent, and follow Italy's stringent dining & food rules, I have had my share of dining issues in Rome.  My reservations have been "lost;" I've had double billings & other "errors" on my bill. One restaurant (Felice a Testaccio) wouldn't give me a reservation after several attempts that spanned weeks. I finally asked an Italian friend to make the reservations for me, and eccolo, a table was miraculously available.

Even though Trattoria Da Danilo came highly recommended by Katie Parla, (as in if you only had 4 meals to eat in Rome, eat there) it was still with much anxiety that I left a reservation request via voicemail.  My fears of lost reservations and "not-so-special" service to foreigners disappeared as soon as we walked into the door.  Two welcoming waiters with smiling faces led us to our table.  Their kind and attentive service continued throughout our meal.  Even with a full dining room, it seemed as if one, and sometimes both, of them was by our table waiting to answer a question, help with a wine suggestion, and even call a taxi for us at the end of the meal.  Three fellow food lovers (Frank, Jessica & Larry) whom I had met earlier in the day on the Testaccio food walk joined me for one of most delicious and delightful dining experiences I've had in Rome.

A family-run trattoria outside of Rome's center.  Danilo runs the front of the house, with his wife and two waiters, while his mother runs the kitchen.  There are two dining areas, one on the main floor and one above.  We ate on the main floor. The small rectangular dining room has a cozy feel, with red & white plaid tablecloths, wooden chairs, and photos, wine bottles and other knicknacks filling most of the wall space. 

For me, the Spaghetti alla Carbonara was the star of our classic Roman meal, one that included other traditional dishes and house specialties.

 

Strozzapreti al Lardo di Colonata e Pecorino di Fossa

Tortellini in a Mushroom Sauce (photo courtesy Jessica & Larry)

 

Spaghetti alla Carbonara (photo courtesy Jessica & Larry)

 

For the first course, we shared three plates of pasta, two house specialties and one seasonal dish.  The carbonara was divine, with guanciale (cured pork jowl) cubes, crisp outside and chewy inside, poking out of a mound of twirled spaghetti. The rendered guanciale fat gave the spaghetti a silky coating to hold onto the creamy and yolky sauce.  The perfectly crisped slice of pancetta on top only heightened the dish's divine status. 

The other two dishes were both good, but not standouts like the carbonara.  The strozzapreti (priest stranglers) was toothsome in a tasty tomato sauce cooked with lard from Colonata and topped with pecorino di Fossa (a crumbly sharp goat cheese from Fossa).  Being mushroom season, the tortellini with thinly sliced porcini and a brothy and earthy sauce nicely complimented the heavier pasta dishes. Their cacio e pepe is also a specialty.  While we didn't order it, we saw the waiters serve it tableside, mixing the cheese with the pasta in a huge hollowed out round of pecorino. I made a note to self to order it on the next visit.

 

Coda alla Vaccinara

Trippa alla Romana

Puntarelle (photo courtesy Jessica & Larry)

 

As we had just spent the afternoon in Testaccio, home to Rome's offal treats, it felt only right to order a few offal classics - Coda alla Vaccinara (Oxtail stew) and Trippa alla Romana (Tripe stewed in tomato sauce with mint).  The coda was rich and tender.  I loved the big saucepot they served it in and the soupy sauce.  The tripe was tender and took on the flavor of the tomato sauce well.   Julienned puntarelle (long cylindrical chicory) and anchovies were coated in a tangy dressing and livened up the hearty protein dishes.

The entire dining experience was a treat, both the meal and the staff, and I'm still dreaming of the carbonara.

 

Da Danilo
Via Petrarca 13
00185 Roma
Phone: +39 06 77 200 111

 

Related Posts:

Taste of Testaccio - Food Tour with Eating Italy in Rome

Food in Rome - The Taste of Testaccio is Offal

Roman Pasta Dishes and Ten Places to Eat Them in Rome

Best Picnic Spots and Picnic Fare in Rome

Rome at Night in Photos

Villa d'Este in Photos - A Day Trip from Rome

Rome with a View - Five Spots for Photo Ops in Rome

Pizza al Taglio at Pizzarium in Rome

Pasta all' Amatriciana - A Roman Treat

Cacio e Pepe in a Parmigiano Bowl Inspired by Roma Sparita

Potato Gnocchi for Gnocchi Giovedi

Fettuccine ai Funghi and Autumn in Rome

Coda alla Vaccinara - Roman Style Oxtail Stew

Taste of Testaccio - Food Tour with Eating Italy in Rome

 

 

During my recent trip to Rome, Kenny from Eating Italy Food Tours in Rome invited me to join him on his food tour of the Testaccio neighborhood.  Testaccio, the working-class, residential neighborhood south of Trastevere, was once home to the Roman slaughterhouses and is still the culinary heart of Rome's offal cuisine. There's more to Testaccio than offal, and many eateries serve up classic Roman dishes and delicacies, and traditional Italian ones. 

On our walk, which included frequent stops at both culinary and historical landmarks in the area, Kenny filled our bellies with a variety of delicious tastings, guiding us through the details of each.  Like a leisurely Italian lunch, he perfectly paced his servings of information, slowly dishing out anecdotes about the neighborhood, Roman cuisine, and Testaccio's culinary history.  He also gave glimpses into the life and personalities of the people who run the eateries we visited.

 

Kenny, our tour guide

 

 

The Testaccio Market

 

Cesare the butcher chopping oxtail   ~   Tomatoes from the Tomato Poet Carmello

 

 

Kenny, has been in Rome for 4 years and living in Testaccio for over a year.  It's obvious that he's cracked the hard shell and found a soft center in many of the rough Roman vendors at the market.  We were welcomed with smiles, ciao Kennys, and two tastings. 

A tennis ball-sized round of soft & creamy mozzarella di bufala awaited each of us from the salami & cheese stand of Enzo & Lina, a couple married for over 40 years. Even more amazing, they've been working side-by-side at the market for 25 years.  We also enjoyed a sampling of tomatoes from Carmelo, known as the tomato poet of the market.  He knows all of his tomatoes inside and out and which is best for every kind of dish.  He's also been known to give recipes for many, if not all, of his 45 different types of tomatoes. 

 

Volpetti 

 

The high-end gourmet shop is "ottimo," both is quality and price.  The Volpetti family knows this, too.  After sampling some of their salumi, prosciutto, cheese, pizza and oils, it's virtually impossible not to buy all of it.  They're generous with the samples, too.  Our formal tasting included percorino cheese with truffles and paper-thin slices of culatello (the much prized cured meat made from the hind of the pig).  And, if someone gazed a little too longingly at anything else in the store, one of the men in white coats were quick to provide a sampling of it.

 

 

Tiramisu in a chocolate cup

For a little bit of sweet in between savory bites, we tasted a mini chocolate cup of tiramisu from the pastry shop that's been on via Marmorata for 50 years. Kenny also gave an impromptu course on ordering coffee in Italy.

 

 

Classic Roman Pasta Dishes at Flavio Velavevodetto

Rigatoni alla Carbonara & all' Amatriciana

Tonarelli Cacio e Pepe

Part of the Amphorae-Made Monte Testaccio from inside Flavio Velavevodetto

 

We tasted three classic Roman pasta dishes at the restaurant that's on every blogger in Rome's list of Top 10.  The restaurant is built into Monte Testaccio, a 35-meter high hill built up by tossed away amphorae from Roman Empire times.  You can see part of the hill and shards of the broken ceramics from the dining room.

 

Our pasta dishes, with wine, were enough to be lunch, so we took a bit of an eating break to visit the old Rome slaughterhouse and  Monte Testaccio (in the first photo collage above). Kenny explained how the name quinto quarto came about and the Vatican's Canonical calendar which determined what foods were eaten when, and to some extent is still in effect today.  Meatless Fridays and gnocchi Thursdays along with other day-of-the week meals were based on this calendar.

 

All that food and there were still two more tastings to go!

Suppli at Pizzeria 00100

Suppli Genovese & the Chalkboard Menu at Pizzeria 00100

 
Trapizzini with Coda alla Vaccinara

 

We stopped at another much-loved by Romans food shrine, Pizzeria 00100.  Our tasting included suppli (fried rice balls) flavored with the Neapolitan Genovese sauce. 

After the tour and since I was already in the area, I went back over to Pizzeria 00100 for one of their famous trapizzini.  It's a blend of pizza and the little tramezzini sandwiches.  They have several saucy filling options or you can order one vuoto (empty).  Mine was filled with coda alla vaccinara (oxtail).  The pizza had a thin crispy outer crust and was light and airy inside.

 

Gelato at Giolitti a Testaccio -

You gotta love a food tour that ends with gelato!

 

Along with the tour and tastings, Kenny provided all guests with a booklet listing his favorite restaurants, and pizza, gelato & food shops throughout Rome.  Another added bonus to the tour was that I met a great bunch of fellow food lovers. A few of us met later that evening for another delicious Roman dining experience.

For Roman food lovers, culinary geeks, and offal afficianados like me, Testaccio is our first stop on any trip to Rome.  For other visitors, who spend the bulk of their research and time on those other trivial aspects of Rome; you know, those things like historical sights, its ruins, churches, or its art, Testaccio and its culinary delights could easily be missed.  With this tour, one doesn't have to miss out nor have to do any research to get a good overview of Testaccio, and visit many of its culinary treasures.  Thanks Kenny for inviting me along!

A big thank you also to new friends, Larry and Jessica, whom I met on Kenny's tour, for allowing me to use their photos.  All the photos from Flavio al Velavevodetto and the one of the suppli are courtesy of Larry and Jessica.

 

Eating Italy Food Tours in Rome

Email: info@eatingitalyfoodtours.com
Phone (from the U.S & Canada): 800-838-3006
Phone (from Europe): 0800-411-8881

 

*This post is part of Wanderfood Wednesdays.  Head on over there to read about food and travel from around the world.

 

Related Posts:

Food in Rome - The Taste of Testaccio is Offal

Roman Pasta Dishes and Ten Places to Eat Them in Rome

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Villa d'Este in Photos - A Day Trip from Rome

Rome with a View - Five Spots for Photo Ops in Rome

Pasta all' Amatriciana - A Roman Treat

Cacio e Pepe in a Parmigiano Bowl Inspired by Roma Sparita

Potato Gnocchi for Gnocchi Giovedi

Coda alla Vaccinara - Roman Style Oxtail Stew

Pasta alla Genovese and Other Classic Neapolitan Sauces at Citta del Gusto

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