Holy Cannoli! The Adventures of the Sweet Couple

Today was chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate! It was a busy day with a LOT of chaos happening. The first thing we spoke about with our guest chef, Chef Ugo, was the difference between chocolate made with cocoa butter and chocolate made with vegetable fat. We tried the different types before we were told anything. The chocolate with the vegetable fat was very soft and had no snap or crunch at all. It also coated your mouth a little too much, leaving behind a film of fat. Chocolate made with this is considered very low quality. The other chocolate made with the cocoa butter had a nice crunch and snap. This is considered a high quality chocolate when it is made with cocoa butter, but of course, it is more expensive. After class I felt I needed to further look into the history of chocolate. Here is what I discovered: The history of chocolate dates back to Mesoamerica where they made a fermented chocolate beverage that was very bitter, spicy (they added spices to it), and they be...

In Italy, there are many cakes or even desserts during meals. For different festivals, though, there are specific pastries/sweets. For Christmas, a lot of the traditional desserts are baked, while for carnival, they are fried desserts. While it is cold, the pigs are slaughtered, then at carnival time (end of January into February) the pork fat is used for frying. I found this very interesting because of the cross connection it has been the slaughtered houses and pastries, but it does make a lot of sense. In Italy, there is ultimately no waste, therefore they want to use the pork fat while it is the best. Over the years, desserts have become more popular because they are easier to produce and they are part of the "trend." Although each region of Italy is known for certain pastries and desserts, there are often overlaps as well. This is due to the fact that years ago, there was little to no traveling out of their region, therefore you did not see what else was out there. Now,...

On Thursday, we traveled to the Benedetto Cavalieri pasta factory which is about 50 minutes from Ugento. This factory has been around since 1918 and there has been 4 generations of Cavalieri to run it. We met the current owner, Andrea Cavalieri, who brought us around for a tour of his factory. In 1918, his great grandfather decided to turn the wheat grain into pasta. This factory is a traditional one, not an industrial producer. They ship their pasta worldwide, but stick to their roots of production. An industrial producer focuses on producing high quantities everyday and they are less worried about the quality. They take 2-3 hours to produce a pasta from start to packaging because they heat the pasta at a very high temperature. Although this is cheaper, it does not produce a high quality pasta. A traditional producer may take 36-44 hours to dry out the pasta because the temperature is half of what the industrial producers use. This allows them to control the protein structure in the p...

Italy is the second largest producer of olive oil, led by Spain. In terms of consumption though, Italy consumes the most, followed by Spain, then the United States. During the Roman time, they used a lot of olive oil in Italy. Then when the barbaric population came, they brought with them the use of more meat, pork, and a large use of pork fat in cooking and frying. Not only did they fry and cook with it, they also used it to preserved food in it as well. Butter is a later invention because it was very difficult to maintain, going rancid very quickly. Around the late 1200 and 1300, butter was mainly used by farmers because they were the ones making it. The people in cities had a difficult time obtaining it because by the time the butter got from the farm to the cities, it was often rancid. This made butter very expensive, therefore no one really used it. I decided to do some further research into butter on my own to see what else I could find! The first reference to butter was found ...

Formaggi (cheese) In the Middle Ages, cheese was produced as a by-product from sheep and the wool was actually the desired product. During this time, they used sheep instead of cows because they were used for working, not milking. In the Ministry, they eat a lot of cheese as a substitute for meat on observance days. Cheese is classified according to the following difference: 1. The milk that is used (cow, sheep, goat, buffala) 2. The fat content (fatty, semi fatty, light, lean) 3. The consistency of the paste (raw paste, semi cooked paste, cooked paste) 4. The type of crust the cheese has (Crosta fiorita washed rind, smoked) 5. The process of aging the cheese (fresh, medium aged, slow aged) 6. Temperature treatment of milk (pasteurized milk or raw milk) 7. The consistency of the cheese (soft, semi soft, hard) 8. Working method of the paste (Erborinata, Pressata, Fusa, Filata) Yesterday in class, we tasted mozzarella di buffala and regular mozzarella next to each other. The...

In Southern Italy especially, being a vegetarian would be pretty easy. A lot of the dishes that are traditional in the South have a basis of vegetables or legumes, while in the North, there is a stronger meat influence. Most of the appetizers in Southern Italy are vegetables, while in the North, they are mainly made up of local salumi. The first cookbook was  Liber de Coquina, written anonymously in Naples from 1295 to 1309. The first chapter is about vegetables, but this is not  book for poor people because when veggies are cooked with different ingredient, they become more of a noble food. In Italian cuisine, there is a huge selection of aromatic herbs. The most prominent type is macchia mediterranea  that grows along the Mediterranean coast and they include alloro (bay leave) , cappero  (capers) , rosmarino (rosemary) , ginepro (juniper) , origano (oregano) , timo (thyme) , and a few others. For many centuries, herbs are used for seasoning different dishes, bu...

Risotto Day! Italy is often known for its risotto, but it is ironic because Italians had very little interest in rice and even today, risotto is mainly only eaten in the North. Rice was brought to Italy by Alexander the Great, but very few people used it because it was very expensive due to the distance it had to travel from India. During the Roman empire, it was used as medicine and makeup for the wealthy people. The gladiators also would use it before battle because they believed it gave them ample energy. After the Roman empire, rice was forgotten until the Arabs brought it back to Sicily around year 800.  The first ever rice recipe to date is from the 1300, where rice was placed in milk and sugar was added. Around the 1400, rice became important to poor people because during the famine, each person was given 4 ounces of rice for free each day, but after the famine it faded away again.  Today ossobucco  and served it at family meal. It is traditionally serve...

Day 4: Pesce (fish)      Fish is very important in Italy due to the Mediterranean Sea and the rivers that are within Italy. During Roman times, there were fights on the sea because everyone wanted the fish in it, therefore it became dangerous and limited to get. The people of Italy decided to turn to the rivers within their nation for their fish. In Roman paintings and mosaics, you can see fish depicted in them. In recipe books dating back to the 1300 and 1400s, you can see the expansion of fish within their diet because of the diversity of the fish and cooking techniques they used.  Eels were often looked upon as pets or gods during Roman times as well. The male eels are called amguilla and can be as big as 500 grams. The female eels are called capitone  and they can get as large as 5- 6 kilograms in size. The common way to cook them are by grilling or pickling.  Back in the day, they had a dish called spaghetti alla scoguo  (rock) which wa...

The Formal Meal - Antipasti  In Italy, the government uses classifications for certain foods to show tradition or signify the quality of something. I am going to explain each to you! DOP: Denominazione di origine protteta; the ingredients must be Italian and the making must happen in the specific region, place, or village Some products classified as DOP:  Aceto balsamico tradinxionale di Modena Basilico Ligure Carciofo spinoso di sardegna  Pecorino Romano  Proscuitto crudo di Parma  IGP: Indicazione geografica garantita, the production transformation and or elaboration happen in a specific area (but the ingredients could come from another country) Some products classified as IGP: Aceto Balsamico di Modena  Mortadella di Bologna  Pane di Matera  Carciofo Brindisino  STG: Specialita tradizionale grantita, the production happens with traditional methods from the specific region or place   Slow Food: A global, grassroo...

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 ...