Food is at the the heart of every Italian family. So, if you’re trying to find a really authentic Italian experience, where better to start than with a traditional family cooking class. While on a recent trip to Puglia, I had the pleasure of joining Angela and her family to learn some of these well mastered techniques, which have been passed from generation to generation. I booked this experience through our well trusted partner, Get Your Guide.
Just a few minutes outside Ostuni, I was welcomed into Angela’s family home. Her daughter Agnese kindly provided a transfer from our central Ostuni B&B.
On arrival, Angela (with the help of Agnese, who served as an excellent translator!) explained that we would be preparing a traditional three course Italian meal: a selection of antipasti, ravioli and chocolate fondant.
We spent the morning working together in Angela’s rustic family kitchen, using ingredients from her garden to prepare lunch. We began with the chocolate fondant, which was all about timing! We had to work efficiently to ensure that the rich chocolate mixture remained warm before the baking began. Next, with Angela’s careful guidance, we prepared the pasta: making the dough and then rolling and shaping the ravioli. This was quite a therapeutic process; watching the pasta increase in elasticity with each trip through the roller. The filling was a remarkably simple combination of crushed potato, speck and pecorino cheese – a fine example of how Italian food is all about simple, high quality ingredients.
Bruschetta was the centrepiece of the antipasti. As we chopped the tomatoes and basil, the kitchen filled with these iconic italian aromas. It’s almost unbelievable how different these simple ingredients can be when they have just been picked from the garden, where they have enjoyed a summer soaking in Puglian sunshine. We served these with some Puglian cheese, olives, pomegranate jam and fresh fennel – something of a local speciality which I can highly recommend!
After briefly blanching the ravioli in boiling water, we added them to a pan of butter and fresh sage before serving with a dusting of pecorino cheese and black pepper. Needless to say, it was delicious.
This is a truly authentic Italian cooking experience. Don’t expect to be cooking in a designer kitchen nor to be using all the mod cons. We cooked using traditional ‘by hand’ methods which have been passed through Angela’s family for many generations.
Of course, learning from Angela and enjoying the fruits of our labour for lunch were a great benefit of this experience. However, what I found particularly special was the way in which the family welcomed me into their rustic Puglian home. We enjoyed some wonderful chats over lunch and I was then treated to a tour of the family’s workshop and studio, where they work as artists, jewellers and carpenters. Their home is furnished with gloriously authentic pieces of art created by Angela and her daughters with Angela’s husband Memo taking charge of the carpentry.
You can book this experience through our partner Get Your Guide, who also offer many other authentic Puglian experiences and tours in the Ostuni region. At Bookings For You we always recommend booking activities in advance for your Puglia villa holiday and we can’t recommend this one enough!