Advanced Cooking Day 1
Today we started classes at the Castello and we worked on producing Italian street foods. Before this, I honestly did not think much of this phrase and when I first saw it, I said to my self "Italian street food?" The main difference between street food and formal dining is street food must be able to be carried around and eaten. Also, these items should be fairly quick and easy to produce with limited equipment. A lot of street food is baked or fried, which was shown in everything that we produced today.
Our group was assigned the following three recipes: Cannoli, Pizza di Cippole, and Pittule Salentine. Pizza di cippole was basically a crust with the pizza filling on the inside and baked. It is similar to another Italian dish, the torta, which has a top and bottom crust as well. Traditionally, these crusts were there to protect the inside when traveling long distances and preserving them. Pittule salentine are small rustic balls fried in oil with different fillings like cauliflower, tomatoes, anchovies, etc. They tasted similar to a tempura batter on say fried shrimp.
The recipe myself and one other teammate worked closely on was the cannoli. This recipe was different from what I was used to, adding cocoa powder and ground coffee to the shell recipe. The filling was traditional made with ricotta, sugar, candied orange and lemon, and chocolate. Traditionally, the ricotta is made with sheeps' milk because originally cannolo is from Sicily where they did not have a lot of cows, therefore they had a larger supply of sheep. Also, chocolate was not in the very traditional recipes because they did not have access to chocolate, but overtime, chocolate was adopted into the filling. It was very interesting creating such a traditional Italian dessert, but adding a little bit to it and making it different. The shells were not sweet at all once frying. Also while frying, we used both wooden rods and metal rods to have the cannoli hold their shape. When comparing them side by side, we liked the wooden rods better because none of the cannoli shells broke open, whereas with the metal rods, multiple opened.
I decided to look further into the history of cannoli! Here is what I learned:
Cannolo is a traditional Sicilian pastry that was named for its long tubular shape. The Arabs brought sugar cane to Sicily around the 9th century, where previously the only sweetener was honey. Originally during medieval times, the shell shape was wrapped around a sugar cane stalk. In Sicily, cannoli became a springtime item because it was part of Fat Tuesday due to the sheep milk. In the spring, sheep produce more milk because of the green pastures.
When placing the filling inside the cannoli shell and dipping one end in pistachio, the flavors were amazing. The contrast of the crunch of the shell and the creamy filling was something special. The creamy filling brought out the chocolate flavor in the shell, without being overpowering. These were the best cannoli that I have ever had. This will definitely be a recipe I will produce again when I get back to the states!
Overall, this was a great day one, both as a class and our individual groups. I am excited to see what else is next! Tomorrow, we are moving onto antipasti, hot and cold appetizers.
So! Everyday in my blogs, I must address certain questions from my Instructor. They may not seem to fit into what the blog is about, but it is something I would like to share with you all and maybe you will learn something new! Let's just call them "fun facts."
Fun Facts of the Day:
~ How does street food differ from a more formal cuisine? How are they similar?
Street food is something that you should be able to eat on the go, in one or two bites where the formal meal is something with multiple courses and it is a sit down setting. They do often cross over though, like at the restaurant we saw in Lecce where they were serving street food at a sit down restaurant!
~ Identify geographical and climate influences on the cuisine of Apulia (Puglia).
Puglia is located along the Adriatic Sea and makes up the back "heel" of the boot. It stretches about 400 km and is made up of many cities. Geographically, being located along the sea has a huge influence on the cuisine here. There is a lot of fish dishes and even street food because it is located so fresh here. The climate here is very moderate; it doesn't get too cold or too hot because of the winds off the sea. This effects things like growing seasons because vegetables can be grown year round here. Both seafood and vegetables are every important to the cuisine and people of Puglia.
With love,
Baylee
Our group was assigned the following three recipes: Cannoli, Pizza di Cippole, and Pittule Salentine. Pizza di cippole was basically a crust with the pizza filling on the inside and baked. It is similar to another Italian dish, the torta, which has a top and bottom crust as well. Traditionally, these crusts were there to protect the inside when traveling long distances and preserving them. Pittule salentine are small rustic balls fried in oil with different fillings like cauliflower, tomatoes, anchovies, etc. They tasted similar to a tempura batter on say fried shrimp.
The recipe myself and one other teammate worked closely on was the cannoli. This recipe was different from what I was used to, adding cocoa powder and ground coffee to the shell recipe. The filling was traditional made with ricotta, sugar, candied orange and lemon, and chocolate. Traditionally, the ricotta is made with sheeps' milk because originally cannolo is from Sicily where they did not have a lot of cows, therefore they had a larger supply of sheep. Also, chocolate was not in the very traditional recipes because they did not have access to chocolate, but overtime, chocolate was adopted into the filling. It was very interesting creating such a traditional Italian dessert, but adding a little bit to it and making it different. The shells were not sweet at all once frying. Also while frying, we used both wooden rods and metal rods to have the cannoli hold their shape. When comparing them side by side, we liked the wooden rods better because none of the cannoli shells broke open, whereas with the metal rods, multiple opened.
I decided to look further into the history of cannoli! Here is what I learned:
Cannolo is a traditional Sicilian pastry that was named for its long tubular shape. The Arabs brought sugar cane to Sicily around the 9th century, where previously the only sweetener was honey. Originally during medieval times, the shell shape was wrapped around a sugar cane stalk. In Sicily, cannoli became a springtime item because it was part of Fat Tuesday due to the sheep milk. In the spring, sheep produce more milk because of the green pastures.
When placing the filling inside the cannoli shell and dipping one end in pistachio, the flavors were amazing. The contrast of the crunch of the shell and the creamy filling was something special. The creamy filling brought out the chocolate flavor in the shell, without being overpowering. These were the best cannoli that I have ever had. This will definitely be a recipe I will produce again when I get back to the states!
Overall, this was a great day one, both as a class and our individual groups. I am excited to see what else is next! Tomorrow, we are moving onto antipasti, hot and cold appetizers.
So! Everyday in my blogs, I must address certain questions from my Instructor. They may not seem to fit into what the blog is about, but it is something I would like to share with you all and maybe you will learn something new! Let's just call them "fun facts."
Fun Facts of the Day:
~ How does street food differ from a more formal cuisine? How are they similar?
Street food is something that you should be able to eat on the go, in one or two bites where the formal meal is something with multiple courses and it is a sit down setting. They do often cross over though, like at the restaurant we saw in Lecce where they were serving street food at a sit down restaurant!
~ Identify geographical and climate influences on the cuisine of Apulia (Puglia).
Puglia is located along the Adriatic Sea and makes up the back "heel" of the boot. It stretches about 400 km and is made up of many cities. Geographically, being located along the sea has a huge influence on the cuisine here. There is a lot of fish dishes and even street food because it is located so fresh here. The climate here is very moderate; it doesn't get too cold or too hot because of the winds off the sea. This effects things like growing seasons because vegetables can be grown year round here. Both seafood and vegetables are every important to the cuisine and people of Puglia.
With love,
Baylee
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