Welcome to a delicious culinary and cultural event hosted by Marilì Mustilli.  Together with her husband Leonardo and their two daughters, Anna Chiara and Paola, her family runs the prestigious Mustilli Winery, set in the medieval town of S. Agata dei Goti and perched on a spectacular tufa outcrop. Under Marilì’s expert supervision you will learn traditional dishes of Campania, including hand-made pasta and vegetable pasta sauce, a meat or cheese dish and a dessert. All the ingredients and herbs used are seasonal and are grown locally.

Program
10:30am - Arrival at S. Agata dei Goti
Cooking Menu:
Home-made pasta (cavatielli) and a pasta sauce using seasonal and locally-grown vegetables.
Involtino (stuffed escalope) or Cotoletta di Provola (Provola Cheese Cutlet if you prefer vegetarian)
Torta di Nocciola (Hazelnut Cake)

Lunch will include all the food you have cooked in addition to the renowned Falanghina and Aglianico wines produced by the Mustilli family.

After lunch you will visit the ancient underground wine cellars that were hewn into tufa rock in the 16th century and your guide will take you on a walking tour of the ancient town.

Price: 100,00 euro per person (4 people or more)
150,00 euro per person (2-3 people)

includes: cooking course, wine tasting, visit to the wine cellars, tour of the town and your own personal guide and interpreter.

To view this article at Italian Notebook with fotos click here

Without a doubt, grain is the characteristic ingredient of this recipe.  If you have the time and feel up to the challenge, here’s how you cook the grain from scratch: soak 250 gr of dried grain in cold water for three days, changing it regularly.  Rinse it well and fill a pot with enough water to cover the grain by about four inches.  Bring the water to a boil and add the grain, cover and cook for one hour.  Add enough water to cover the grain the again and cook on a low flame for another 3 to 4 hours.  During this time check to make sure that the grain is covered and if necessary add boiling water to cover. When tender, drain the grain and then reweigh the correct amount for the recipe.
If you’re like 95% of the pastiera-makers on the planet, buy the pre-cooked grain in jars.
Note that Stella does not use the “Secret Agent of Spring”, but prefers fresh orange and lemon zest. Cinnamon is optional. She also avoids using candied fruits, but incorporates the local tradition of the Sannio,  using Strega and Rum.

(recipe for 2 pies)

Short pastry or pasta frolla used to line the pie pan (to be made the evening before)
On a pastry board or in a mixer blend:
500 gr low-gluten flour
250 gr sugar
250 gr cold butter
3 eggs
one packet of vanilla powder

Lightly knead ingredients together into an elastic dough and wrap in plastic and place in refrigerator overnight.

Pastiera pie filling:
500 gr fresh ricotta (preferably mixture of cow and sheep)
275 gr cooked grain
200 gr milk
1/2 tablespoon butter
5  eggs
250 gr sugar
½ tablespoon lemon zest
½ tablespoon orange zest
25 gr Strega
25 gr. Rum
2    9” x 1 1/2 “ or  23 x 4 cm round baking tins

Pour the cooked grain into a pot, add the butter and lemon zest and cover with milk.  Bring to a slow boil over a low flame, stirring until the mixture becomes a dense cream. Cool.

Beat together the ricotta, sugar, eggs, orange zest, rum and Strega and add to the cooled cream mixture.

Roll the short pastry into a fine crust and line the pie tins.  Make sure you have enough extra dough to make the strips that will criss-cross on top.

Add the pastiera mixture to about 1 cm below the edge of the pie crust

Cut 6 strips of dough approximately 1.5 wide and 23cm long. Starting from the middle of the pie, place the first strip across the center and the other two equidistantly between it and the rim of the baking tin.  Then turn the pan and place the other three strips at a diagonal to form a diamond pattern in diamond.

Bake at 200° C for one hour.

My mother has always prided herself on her huge american-style salads which are a combination of everything available at the market-place including lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers bell peppers, fennel, sprouts, onions and radishes.  And if it happens to be taking the place of a meal, she’ll add some form of protein such as cheese, tuna or hard-boiled eggs to boot.  But it doesn’t stop here.  On top of this goes a generous quantity of her favorite salad dressing made of oil, vinegar (or lemon), garlic, mustard powder, Worcestershire sauce, dill, salt and pepper.

This type of salad goes against the grain of most Italians who believe that salad should be eaten after the second course in order to clean the palate in preparation for fruit and dessert. Thus the simpler the dressing the better, ie: oil and salt.  Furthermore, this provides an excellent opportunity to appreciate the prescious extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil many have combed the Ligurian, Tuscan, Umbrian, Campanian or Puglian countrysides to find.

I have come to appreciate both types of salads, but I have an italian friend who told me the Neapolitan proverb on salads and it seemed to me the perfect balance between the two.  First the lettuce is mixed in an earthenware pot that has been rubbed with garlic.  Then, she said, it takes 3 people to make the dressing: 

“Un prodigo per l’olio, un’avaro per l’aceto e un saggio per il sale”…

“A spendthrift for the oil, a miser for the vinegar and a sage for salt.”

After our visit to the Amalfi Coast, and with two bags full of luscious organic lemons, I wanted to make risotto al limone.  But as I rummaged around the internet for a recipe, I was dismayed at the amount of butter that was called for and butter is something we don’t even keep’ in out refrigerator! As we already eat out quite a bit with clients, at home we try to cook as lightly as possible. So I decided to experiment using olive oil instead of butter, which will make a delicious and dietetic dish. Then I rummaged in my kitchen cupboards to see if I had all the other ingredients. Hmm, no rice.  So, refusing to be daunted, I invented my very own pasta al limone like this:

Sauce ingredients for 2 people:
1 stem of fresh garlic, chopped
1 leek, sliced
Pinch of saffron
Parsley
Extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ a lemon
Grated rind of ½ an organic lemon
¼ cup of water
½ cup of white or rosé wine
200 gr. of long pasta

The cooking time is so quick, start by heating the water for the pasta in a pot (and remember to salt it when it boils).

Wash the lemon. Heat the water in a non-stick frying pan, add the garlic and allow the flavor to sweat into the liquid. Then add the leek, and salt to taste.  When all the water has evaporated, add the wine.  When the wine evaporates, add the lemon juice and saffron.  Then add the grated lemon rind and parsley and put aside until the pasta is ready.

In the meantime, you’re water has boiled and you’ve cooked 200 grams of long pasta.  When it’s still very al dente, put the pan back on the stove and transfer the pasta (together with a little of it’s water) and stir over a high flame until the water has evaporated. Douse with olive oil and serve.

Festa di Vico at Vico Equense is where the great chefs gather to cook, compare recipes and compete in a relaxed and festive atmosphere.   

In its 4th year, this is an unrivaled culinary event organized by Gennaro Esposito, the Pavarotti of chefs and owner of the restaurant Torre del Saracino on the Amalfi Coast.
If you love good food, wine and chef-talk, this is one occasion you won’t want to miss!

This year’s objective is to raise money to outfit an emergency syncope unit at the Santobono Hospital in Naples. This year’s principle sponsor is the Pastificio dei Campi, historical pasta-makers of Gragnano. Visit their website at http://www.pastificiodeicampi.it/