A fun, immersive cooking class in Lecce, Puglia

Collaborating in a cooking training course in the course of my travels is anything I generally really like to do. It’s a excellent way to learn about the neighborhood lifestyle and delicacies, and to pick up a new recipe or two. In the course of my pay a visit to to Lecce (map), a historic town in southern Puglia, I experienced the chance to be a part of a cooking class at the Awaiting Desk, the most proven cooking college in Lecce (launched in 2003). The college features week-very long classes, as well as working day classes, which I opted for as I was only in Lecce for a number of days. I understood I was in for a address but it turned out to be just one of the most entertaining, educative and immersive factors to do in Lecce!

There were being four of us at the daytime cooking course that working day. We fulfilled Silvestro, the founder of the Awaiting Desk, at Lecce’s principal square, next to the city’s legendary amphitheatre.

Silvestro welcomed us and gave us a quick introduction to Puglian foods and wines prior to taking us to the fish sector. At the market place, he informed us about the various styles of fish and their origins, and the ideal methods to prepare dinner them. For our lunch study course, he selected some fish and squid, which we would later learn to prepare and cook dinner.

From the fish current market, Silvestro led us throughout the historic city centre, with its gorgeous Baroque façades, to the vegetable market. The clean rocket leaves, artichokes, tomatoes and mushrooms ended up a mouthwatering sight! We gleefully crammed our baskets – I wasn’t the only vegetable lover in the group – and continued on our way to Silvestro’s cooking college in the city centre.

Located in a historic creating, the Awaiting Table college, is equally cosy and colourful. Crammed to the brim with cooking books, pots and pans and all kinds of kitchen utensils, it absolutely sure was a cheery sight!

Producing pasta

We donned our aprons and obtained completely ready for our initial lesson: pasta! Silvestro stated the unique types of flour employed, and that barley flour is frequently used in Puglia. As we kneaded the dough, Silvestro gave us the alternative of various pastas we could make. We voted for cappalletti (a pasta condition reminiscent of Mexican sombreros).

It was a fun work out, utilizing a glass to slash out designs from the flattened dough, then folding them prior to utilising a bottle to make the ‘sombreros’.

Getting ready seafood and veggies

Following up, Silvestro introduced the distinctive sorts of seafood and greens we had been heading to try to eat. He then gave us a masterclass in how to get ready artichokes and squid. Gosh, I experienced no notion how quite a few actions were being included in cleaning and preparing these! Cleansing the squid was specifically difficult. It sure made me enjoy the function completed by fishmongers just about every day to supply them all set-to-prepare dinner.

A crash class in Puglia wines

Silvestro invited us into the dining space when we have been finished. He proceeded to tell us about wines in Puglia – one point I figured out is that, contrary to well-known perception, Primitivo is not the most widespread grape assortment in Puglia the most greatly-developed grape selection in Puglia is Negroamaro. We then appreciated a wine-tasting of three diverse rosés. Puglia is well-known for its crimson wines so it’s no speculate that the most common chilled wines are rosé and not white (however Puglia also provides, among other folks, a beautiful white assortment referred to as Verdeca).

Cooking our lunch

After the wine-tasting, we ended up invited, just one by one, again into the kitchen area to cook the dishes. I volunteered for the pasta dish: cappalletti, cherry tomatoes and squid.

When everybody had cooked their dishes, lunch was served. It seemed totally mouthwatering! My favourites were the grilled fish, which was contemporary and super tasty, and the artichokes and sautéed wild rocket. So mouth watering!

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I looked all-around and all people had seems of pleasure and wonder on their faces ‘wonder’ due to the fact we could not really believe that we’d just geared up and cooked almost everything on the table!

The Awaiting Desk cooking study course confident is a single of the ideal things to do in Lecce! Impressed by what I acquired at this Lecce cooking course, I passed on the lessons to my young children at property just a 7 days later on. We invested an afternoon creating pasta and experienced a fantastic time!

In addition to cooking courses in Lecce, the Awaiting desk also organises week-prolonged cooking classes (some with yoga and cycling) at a close by castle. For much more details, verify out the Awaiting Table courses.

Observe: I was invited by the Awaiting Table to participate in this course. As normally, all sights stated over are mine.