Got Goats!

At last, our goats have arrived!  Firstly, let me reassure you (if you need reassuring) that they are securely (I hope) penned in at home, not on the Trullo Solari grounds.  We’ve been talking and planning and debating and re-thinking and finally waiting and waiting for our chosen goats to be sure to be pregnant.  And at last, they’re safely installed in with the chickens in the 400 square metre pen at the back of our house.  We have two females, both pregnant, with kids due at the end of February.  I think that it’s safe to say we’ve gone in at the deep end.  But we wanted to be sure to have a good milk supply, and probably a little meat.  But that’s a question to be dealt with later… 

For now our priority is to tame them a little.  They’ve been on a farmyard with “right to roam”, and are not used to much human contact on a day to day basis.  If we’re going to be assisting births and milking, that will obviously have to change.  Already within three days we have progressed from them charging away from us at first sign, to eating their luxury muesli mix (with fave beans and carob!) from the bucket in my hand this morning.

So, all being well, Trullo Solari guests will be treated to fresh goats’ milk and cheese this summer.  And in case that’s not to your taste, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy the goat’s milk and olive oil soap.  Either way, if you want to stop by and say hi to them, hopefully they’ll be brave enough to say ciao back.

 

Olive Oil Pressing

This is the seventh year that we have had the pleasure of harvesting our own olives, and still there is nothing like the taste of fresh olive oil.  Sure, part of the pleasure is derived from the fact that you have been toiling for the past two days to pick the olives, but even once the physical exhaustion has passed, the green spicey oil makes favourite everyday dishes seem like new.

Last week we did our earliest ever harvest, in twenty degree sunshine.  The oil is amazing, spicey but without the “afterburn” that you sometimes get from fresh oil in the back of the throat.  Phil and Yvette were here helping, and these photos that Yvette took tell the story better than I can…

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Nosey Aubergine

Taking a stroll after yet another excessive seaside lunch yesterday, we passed some people working at the next restaurant processing piles of aubergines.  Six years ago when we first arrived in Puglia, like most English and many other nationalities, we would have walked past, determined not to be seen looking, but dying of curiosity to know what they were doing.  Inhibited by language barriers, shyness and a cultural inhibition to make contact with strangers we would march on by.  And if our eyes did meet we would be shocked and disturbed at how casually they stared at us.

Now, thankfully, we march up to them and poke our noses.  And our curiosity is duly rewarded with warm greetings, patient explanations and recipes.

Preserved Aubergines:

• First, peel the aubergines.  (In their case, 200kg.)
• Then slice all of the aubergines lengthways into 3mm slices – best to use a mandolin.  Especially if you’re working 200kg…
• Layer the aubergines in large jars with coarse salt, slices of garlic and fresh mint leaves.  When you get to the top of the jar squeeze as much of the aubergine liquid out as possible.
• Cover the aubergines with brine, weighing them down to keep them submerged.
• After 24 hours, drain the brine off and replace with vinegar.  Weigh down again.
• After another 12 hours, drain and squeeze off the vinegar and cover with olive oil.
• Store for at least a month before eating.  They should be good for up to a year.  They assured me that there was no cooking involved, but I would be tempted to pasteurise / can them at this stage.
• 200kg will keep your restaurant in aubergine antipasta for 12 months.

As much as I was grateful for the recipe (after sampling many melanzane sott’olio, I recognise this version as my favourite) the interaction with these cooks was delightful and we’re reminded yet again how lucky we are to live amongst these warm open people.  And how lucky we are to have had our attitudes changed, so that we can now poke our noses and stop missing out on such joys.

On the way home we stopped by the roadside to buy some potatoes from a tiny “stall” at the edge of the field where they were being harvested.  The tanned, smiling old man also had jars of preserved aubergines which of course I had to buy too.  There followed a conversation about how we had all found our paradiso. Couldn’t be more true.

 

Ostuni Seafood

Having just launched our new gourmet tour  website, we felt we should up our research and go out for lunch. We’ve long known about the stretch of restaurants ‘huts’ between Torre Canne and Savelletri that were once shacks selling ricci (sea urchins) to visiting Barese during the summer months but are now more structurally sopisticated and offer comprehensive seafood menus. You can now get chips with your fish.
But this week I read a review of one particular restaurant in the area, serving lobster and linguine, which is always a winner with us. Finally we found it, off the main road and right on the beach.

Il Principe del Mare, The Prince of the Sea, remains true to its roots with disposable cutlery and plates, and cheap cheap prices.  The service was perfect, and the fish generous and delicious. We started with carpaccio of tuna, octopus salad and preserved aubergines, and we both followed with lobster on linguine.  And somehow managed to share a tiramisu afterwards.  The bread served in a brown paper bag, the breeze coming off the sea and the sun beating on the water outside made the experience authentic and unforgettable.  The food was Puglia at its best, simple, fresh and delicious.
A genial Italian gentleman on the next table told us (repeatedly) that he first frequented the restaurant 35 years ago, when it was the only eatery in the area, and they only served ricci. When he had asked for salad, the proprieter went across the road and purchased some tomatoes from the farm, then washed them in seawater. The most delicious thing he had ever eaten…
Including a litre of local, slightly sparkling, white wine the bill was under 60 euros. I don’t think its going to hit the Gourmet Puglia itinerary, but we’ll definitely be going back.

 

Zero Food Miles

Inspired by Hugh FW’s Fish Fight, I just spent 5 euro on a jar of locally caught, artisan-preserved tuna in olive oil.  Tuna will no longer be a standby, but a luxury item.  But it got me reflecting, once again, how great it is hear to have access to this kind of food in Puglia, to be able to make those choices.

Local fruit and veg are abundant at Trullo Solari

We try to grow our own fruit and veg, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  (We’re still learning!)  But when it doesn’t, or when we fancy something different, the Saturday market in Ostuni is full of fresh, beautiful, seasonal produce.  There is a 400 metre stretch of stalls, from the “muddy” end, which are little guys selling what they’ve grown, to the more “shiny” end which sell imported bananas and have carrots wrapped in plastic.  Sure, there are supermarkets, but we also have the choice to go and buy raw milk from the farm, or today’s ricotta, or the mozzerella that you can watch them making.  We go to the coast to buy fish from the little port market.  We go to the mill in Ceglie to buy flour.  One day we’ll grow our own wheat and take it for them to mill, but that day hasn’t yet come!  And of course we have the gift of our own olive harvest and traditionally pressed olive oil.  Those concerned with how the demise of fossil fuels will impact the food supply predict everyone will have to move back to this way of life.  But for now we are loving and appreciating what we have.

Guests at Trullo Solari can obviously join our appreciation for this quality of food while you’re here.  Our sat-nav is loaded with all of our favourite delis and food producers, and is yours for your stay.  And if the short drive to get there spoils your envionmental conscience, you can of course be content picking the fruit from the garden!

 

Extra fresh, extra virgin

How is it that you can take a truck full of purple olives to be pressed, and return with a container of green oil?  One of life’s wonderful mysteries.  And who ever imagined squashing the bitter, nasty fruit of the olive tree would produce anything so fabulous; delicious, health-giving and versatile.  Even more, that you could take the same fruit, drop it in caustic soda for a while, then soak in fresh water for a couple of weeks, salt it and store it for a month and – wow, a tasty olive.  If you’ve never tasted an olive fresh from the tree you may not appreciate the miracle metamorphis that takes place to achieve the olive on your table.  Trust me, if you’ve never tasted a fresh, uncured olive, you don’t want to.

Many years ago olive oil was used as lamp oil, and it is said that the olive oil industry was as important as the petrochemical industry is today.  Hard to imagine, but there are many example of old wealth here in Puglia that indicate a successful industry.  Sadly for the locals, most of the wealth was controlled by landowners who lived Up North, or the church.  Today the focus is on producing the freshest, most virgin (least acidic) oil, to be enjoyed as a culinary delight.  Happily many of the olive producting masserie are now locally owned by people passionate about the area and their oil.

Research shows that extra virgin olive oil is the most digestible of the edible fats.  Olive oil also helps the body to assimilate vitamins A, D and K.  Benefits of consuming olive oil include slowing down the aging process and helping liver, bile, and intestinal functions.  It is, of course, comprised of mono-saturates which are the healthy fats.  Cold pressed olive oil is a pressing process requiring no heat or chemicals, which destroy vital nutrients.

But none of this is that important when you collect your fresh oil from the press.  It is the wonder of how and why, and the utterly delicious taste.

 

Olive Harvest

Early November and it is the start of the olive harvest.  We like to pick our olives early; the result is a peppery, grassy, more virgin oil – and the weather is generally better!  This year our olive harvest has been pretty lean.  Olive trees tend to have a two year cycle of being rampant and then being lazy.  Factor into that the need to prune the trees every three years or so, which significantly reduces the harvest for the following year.  Needless to say we haven’t yet perfected the art of getting all these elements lined up!

Olives waiting to be picked.

Still, we picked 160kg of olives over the last 3 days.  We hand pick the olives; spread a huge net under the trees then take it in turns to stand at the bottom and serenely pull the olives down onto the net, or stand on a ladder thrashing wildly at the upper olives with a big stick to whack them down.  Again, picking the olives produces a greener and better oil than letting them fall naturally.  The other important factor is to get them pressed as soon as possible.  Olives are like any fruit and start to deteriorate once they’re off the tree, or if they’re bruised or damaged, so you want your oil made immediately.  Luckily our preferred frantoio (oil press) was on schedule and our olives were pressed last night.  We’ll pick the oil up later this morning…

 

Fave – king of the comfort food

Although the lovely weather is continuing here in Puglia, the evenings are cooler and providing a great excuse for some comfort food.  We even lit the fire the other night, but that really had more to do with somebody’s pyrotechnic tendencies rather than the cold.

With a diet rich in pasta and pulses, comfort food is not hard to come by here.  But a speciality of the area, and a favourite of nearly every visitor I know is Puree di Fave. Fave are broad beans and here you can buy them dried and shelled throughout the year.  If you can find them locally, they need to be without the brown coat and will probably therefore have split into their two halves; they are a very pale, creamy colour.

Making puree di fave is simple.  Soak the fave beans for at least 6 hours, then put the pan on the stove (you can use the top of your woodburner if it’s lit!) and simmer the beans with a sliced potato, for about an hour.  Don’t add salt at this stage.  Plan on about 100g of dried fave per person.  When the beans are soft and breaking up, and the water is almost gone, add about a tablespoon of olive oil per 100g of beans and starting beating with a wooden spoon.  This is when you need to get a friend with a strong arm to help!  Or if you’re not feeling tied to tradition, a handheld electric beater would probably be a good help too.  Also add a teaspoon or two of salt at this stage.

When the puree is smooth, serve with another drizzle of olive oil on top, with a green vegetable – usually chicory here, or grilled peppers.  Twists also include adding cooked prawns, fried croutons or chopped raw onion.

As with many customs in Puglia, the way Fave is served differs from town to town.  One evening a couple of years ago we were out with a group of friends who were discussing the different ways that people from Martina Franca and Ostuni served leftover Fave.  Keith and I looked at each other – What’s leftover fave?!  It doesn’t make it past the first meal in our house!

 

Puglia: the foodie guide | Italy – Times Online

This article from the Times is great, it sums up the essence of the cuisine here in Puglia.  There is so much that is wonderful about the food that it’s hard to know where to start – and even more, where to stop!  I’m always amazed at how many ways the locals can cook the same ingredients to produce dishes that are always interesting and varied.  Take the aubergine; for a start they grow the beautiful dark purple ones here which we are used to seeing, but also bright violet and white ones.  And when there is a glut of them through the summer the local housewives and chefs will pickle them, preserve them under oil, make pasta sauces, stuff them, all manners of antipasta dishes, Parmigiana of course (although this is really a Northern Italian dish) and aubergine polpette.  Polpette is the name used for meatballs, but being Puglia they are often made with just breadcrumbs, egg and seasoning and of course fried in olive oil.  Last weekend I was taught the following recipe by my good friend Paula.  Here you can’t just be given a recipe, you have to witness it being made.  I used to think that people were being obtuse when they couldn’t tell me how many grammes of this or that – but actually they really don’t know.  They just add enough so that it looks right, and looks like mamma used to make.

Polpette di melanzane

Put half a loaf of stale country bread in a bowl of water to soak.

Peel 1kg of aubergines and cut into 2″ pieces.  Boil in salted water, covering them with a plate to keep the aubergines under the water.  Drain and allow to cool.  Squeeze out the water from the aubergines by wringing handfuls between your palms.  (This is quite unattractive, and as Paula said, really something that you should do in private!)  When they are as dry as you can get them, chop the mush up so there are no big pieces.

Chop a handful of basil and add to the aubergine.  Squeeze out the water from the stale bread and crumble into pieces.  Mix the bread and aubergine together (about two thirds bread to aubergine).  Add salt, a handful of grated parmesan and an egg.  Mix all together and make into patties about 6 – 8 cm in diameter and 1 – 2 cm thick.  Coat in semola flour and fry in a pan 1cm deep of olive oil.

 

Mozzerella doesn’t come any fresher than this

Stretching curds to make mozzerella

One of the great things about being in Puglia is that there really are minimal food miles on your plate. Local food is the norm. When we first arrived I thought that this may become tedious, but eating only what is in season and locally grown is so great that we just don’t get tired of it. The markets are bursting with fruit and veg that are grown within 20 kilometres, and of course there’s normally something to harvest from the trees on the land.
For a real treat though, how about going to the local masseria to pick up your cheese? Masseria are old farm estates, mostly specialising in olives or dairy. A couple of kilometres from Trullo Solari is Masseria Nisi where you can greet the cows on your way in, then watch your mozzerella be made, stretched and tied into knots. You can be eating it within minutes. And just to top it off, the first of the figs are ripe on the trees. Delicious.