Taverna Garibaldi

Logan and I were provided with the opportunity to travel to three different restaurants this week around Winery Tormaresca. Our first stop was Taverna Garibaldi, in the nearby village of Minervino Murge. This restaurant has a B&B attached to it and is where we stayed for the time we were not at the restaurant. 

The chef and owner here is Michela Barletta, who welcomed us with open arms. In Italy, children begin learning English in Kindergarten and her son, who is just 13 years old, was our translator. Logan and I are a good team when speaking Italian as I often understand it, but he is better at answering. This village is about a 20-minute drive from any other village, therefore they have their own dialect and accent, so much so that Logan and I had major difficulties understanding and speaking to them. Thank goodness for her son!

We worked here for 2 days, but Friday was more of an introduction to the kitchen, cooking different things for family meal. Here are a few of the things we made:

Pettole: These are a simple leavened, wet dough that is fried, like a fried dough ball. They can be flavored with different herbs and spices, but they are traditionally served here plain. Ingredients needed: Flour, water, yeast, olive oil

Pizza Rustica: This is very simple to a frittata, as it is a puff pastry crust filled with something, and a crust on top. We filled it with: Chicory (dandelion green), ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and an egg. This was such a simple preparation, but was absolutely delicious.

Mushrooms: We made a simple side dish with mushrooms, tomatoes, parsley, cheese, olive oil, and breadcrumbs that was baked. It was very simple but really showcased the freshness of Puglia’s vegetables.

We had a great first day here, and day two was very similar. For the second day, they were open. We went through service with them, plating different dishes and they even allowed us to add our own flair to it. On this day, it was evident that they used a lot of outside products. It truly showed me how difficult it is to prepare everything on site for your guests. Sometimes shortcuts need to be made, like buying fresh pasta instead of making it, to be successful. 

Overall, this was a good experience. We saw how a family run restaurant works and operates. They told us that during the week, they do about 70 covers for lunch (as they are only open for lunch), but on the weekends they struggle getting people in the door. This is very different from the US, but I believe it is because here, they have their siesta from 1-4 every day during the week. During this time, people don’t want to cook at home because they just left work, but on the weekends, they would rather cook.

If ever in the small village of Minervino Murge, stop and say hello to Michela and her team!

With love,
Baylee