Learning to Prepare Southern Italian Cuisine

 As promised by the title of my latest Road Scholar adventure, “Cooking in Sicily,” I have learned to prepare many typical Sicilian dishes.  In addition, last week I completed a Road Scholar adventure in Puglia, the boot heel of Italy, which included one cooking class.  I share here some highlights of what we have prepared (and eaten, of course) with three different Italian chefs.

Chef Maya at Cooking Experience in Lecce

In Puglia, we made simple pasta (orecchiette and macaroni) using only flour (two kinds), a little olive oil, water, and salt.  In Sicily, the chef had us add eggs and more oil to all of our pastas—tagliatelle, macaroni, and ravioli.  All were delicious, but I will more likely make the simple Puglian version at home.  

Orecchiette and Macaroni

The tagliatelle and ravioli we made using a pasta machine to work and flatten the dough, the orecchiette and macaroni were made entirely by hand.  Our ravioli were stuffed with pureed pumpkin and our tagliatelle was tossed with a sun-dried tomato pesto.

Chef Massimo in Taormina and three of our group of ravioli makers

We made two versions of pasta alla Norma one day, using the macaroni we had prepared for one and packaged spaghetti for the other.  You may recall from an earlier post that pasta alla Norma is named for the opera by Bellini and features eggplant and a shape reminiscent of the local volcano, Mount Etna.

Tomato sauce simmering and eggplant ready for assembly

Trish twirling pasta for Mt. Etna

Pasta alla Norma, on left macaroni with eggplant cubes, 
on right, "mountain" of spaghetti topped with slice of fried eggplant

In Sicily we have eaten many dishes with eggplant, thanks to the Middle Eastern influence on Sicilian cooking.  Eggplant caponata is often served as an appetizer or salad.  We’ve eaten, but not cooked, eggplant parmigiana and pureed eggplant fried in breadcrumbs.  In addition to eggplant, staples in Sicilian cooking are capers (which grow wild everywhere), olives, almonds, and, of course, olive oil.

Caponeta ingredients

Finished product

We made rice balls (arancini) one day.  Left-over rice is combined with ingredients of choice—meat sauce, mushrooms, zucchini, olives, etc.—rolled in beaten egg and bread crumbs and deep fried to a golden brown. 

Rice ball ingredients

We stuffed fresh sardines with a paste blended of oranges, almonds, olives, capers, fresh basil and mint leaves, and raisins, patted them with bread crumbs and deep fried them.

Chef Alessa in Siracusa ready to demonstrate sardine preparation

Sardines, stuffed, breaded, and ready for the fryer

One of my favorite salads was made with slices of raw fennel and oranges, tossed with a few capers, olives, and almonds, and seasoned with olive oil, garlic, and wine vinegar.

In two different classes, we fixed artichokes—one as artichoke parmigiana and the other artichokes stuffed with cheese and topped with bread crumbs.

There was an abundance of delicious breads served at each meal, but the only one I learned to make was focaccia.  T0 the basic bread dough (flour, yeast, water, salt) we added a riced potato and kneaded it in.  The dough was pulled into place in a well-greased round pan and topped with halved cherry tomatoes and oregano.

Mary Ellen, Me, and Cathi preparing the focaccia for the oven

We made cannoli one afternoon by whipping ricotta cheese with honey, stuffing it into pre-made cannoli shells, and dipping the ends in crushed pistachios and chocolate chips.

Perhaps my favorite dessert was called chocolate salami.  Bland, blonde cookies were crumbled in a bowl.  Cocoa powder, toasted almonds, and powdered sugar were added along with a generous portion of soft butter.  The mixture was shaped into a log, rolled in parchment paper, and put in the refrigerator for about a half hour.  The paper was removed and the log sliced into rounds.  Crunchy, chocolatey, and delicious.

Chef Massimo ran his knife through an orange before each slice
of the chocolate log to add a hint of orange flavor.

Italian cooking focuses on fresh ingredients, using vegetables and fruits that are in season and available at the market.  We made a couple of visits to local markets, including this one in Catania.

Even though it seems like we ate constantly on these trips and had lots of things I try to limit at home (pasta, bread, olive oil), there are very few overweight Italians, and they seem generally to be healthy, perhaps because they walk a lot.  Maybe there is something to the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and the nightly passeggiata (stroll).