What a cooking school!!

Only those participating to the weeks scheduled at Fié allo Sciliar (Alto Adige), will have the exclusive chance and the unforgettable pleasure to meet the world known chef Luis Agostini and his beautiful and modern school, "Condito", in Bolzano, where he will receive our guests as a perfect host as well as the only one, among the famous chefs, who shares his recipes wih everyone willing to learn his secrets...

The Condito school kitchen

Two of the four half-day cooking lessons will be given in the original kitchen of the XIVth century Maso Grottner, an exclusive ancient building recently restored and opened only for special clients.

The Grottner entrance hall

The Grottner new kitchen

The Grottner old patio

The Grottner XIV century kitchen

The Grottner first luxury suite

The Grottner second luxury suite

Al dente ...

Bucatini Amatriciana
Serving: 4

• 100 g pancetta, diced
• Extravergin olive oil, for brushing
  
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
  
• 1 fresh chilli, seeded and chopped
  
• 500 g tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
  
• 350 g bucatini pasta
• 40 g pecorino cheese, freshly grated
  
• salt

Brush a flameproof casserole with oil, add the pancetta and cook over a low heat until the fat runs. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-6 minutes until lightly browned. Add the tomatoes and chilli, season with salt, cover and cook for about 30 minutes. Cook the bucatini in a large pan of salted,boiling water until al dente, then drain and toss with the sauce in a warm serving dish adding the pecorino cheese.

Jump ... jump

Roman Saltimbocca

Serving: 4

• 100 g prosciutto slices, halved
  
• 500 g veal escalopes
  
• 8-10 fresh sage leaves
  
• 50 g butter
  
• 100 ml dry withe wine
  
• salt

Saltimbocca means "jump into the mouth".
Place a half-slice of prosciutto on each escalope, put a sage leaf on top and fasten with a cocktail stick. Melt the butter in a fying pan and cook the veal over a high heat on both sides until golden brown. Season with salt, pour in the wine and cook until it has evaporated, then remove the cocktail sticks and serve.

An Alpine flavour

Grappa is a fragrant grape-based pomace brandy of between 37.5% and 60% alcohol by volume of italian origin. Literally "grape stalk", most grappa is made by distilling pomace, grape residue (mainly the skins, but also stems and seeds) left over from winemaking after pressing. It was originally made to prevent waste by using leftovers at the end of the wine season. It quickly became commercialised, mass-produced, and sold worldwide. Some grappa, known as prima uva, is made with the whole grapes. The flavour of grappa, like that of wine, depends on the type and quality of the grape used as well as the specifics of the distillation process.

Grappa was originally made in the northern Italian town of Bassano del Grappa, and some contend that this is the origin of the name, rather than from the Latin graspa.

In Italy, grappa is primarily served as a "digestivo" or after-dinner drink. Its main purpose was to aid in the digestion of heavy meals. Most grappa is clear, indicating that it is an un-aged distillate, though some may retain very faint pigments from their original fruit pomace. Lately, aged grappas have become more common, and these take on a yellow, or red-brown hue from the barrels in which they are stored.

A mediterranean recipe

Pasta alla Norma

Serving:4

• 350 g spaghetti
• 2 Aubergines (eggplant)
• 4-5 ripe tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• fresh basil
• seasoned ricotta or pecorino cheese (for grating)
• extravergin olive oil

Once sliced, the aubergines are to be sprinkled with coarse salt, placed under a weight and left for the juices to run out. Sautè the chopped onion, the crushed garlic ad a few basil leaves in 4-5 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan. Toss in the tomatoes, roughly chopped, with a pinch of salt and reduce it all gently (15-20 minutes). Rinse the aubergine, dab dry and brown with olive oil in a frying pan. Boil the spaghetti in salted water, drain al dente and stir into the tomato souce, dredging with grated seasoned ricotta cheese. Add the aubergine, diced finely, a couple of sliced basil leaves and another liberal sprinkling of cheese.

What else?

This is one of the "tastiest" moments of the Roman week. On Tuesday evening  we all meet at an incredible place to enjoy a light dinner with an exceptional variety of cheeses, "salumi", wines, breads, olive oils, and many other Italian local specialties. Limata is one of the most famous "formaggeria e salumeria in Rome.

Limata has been founded in 1950 and always searched for high level quality standards, personally and directly selecting producers from all regions of Italy of any kind. This is why you will have the rare opportunity to try special matchings of cheeses with sweet mustards, of delicious dried cherry tomatoes with daily produced "burrata" and many more...  

Some other examples of rare combinations: Castelmagno d'Alpeggio, even "mature", together with white water mellon sauce, the Vedeseta of the Val Taleggio with the green tomatoes chutney , the extremely rare Bagoss di Bagolino of the Val Caffaro "married" to the red onions chutney.

Why not try the salame from Felino e il "doppio cucito" from Varzi, the deer's and roe's "mocette", accompanied by delightful wines and followed by a selection of chocolats and sweet specialties

What else?

Artist's cheese

De Gust message is simple. Quality and the continual effort to better it are at the heart of their philosophy. They aim to prove to their consumers that production and technology can exist side-by-side with nature, without in any way altering, betraying or wasting it, but by bettering, respecting or even enriching it.

Hansi Baumgartner



The company, De Gust, was founded in 1995. Its main activity, carried out with professionalism and passion, is that of re-discovering, selecting ad refining small quantities of niche-market cheeses, all characterised by their high-quality, prestige and organoleptics and often difficult to get hold of, or indeed even at risk of extinction.

Their search began in Rio Pusteria, a village situated at the point where two of the most important valleys of South Tyrol meet. From here they ploughing fertile terrain in a micro-area that exactly met their principle of "field of deliciousness".





The assortment consist mainly of cheese from raw milk, or milk from Alpine pastures, be it from cows, sheep or goats.



Here you have a little selections of cheese that you will try during the two hours guided tasting that is included in Fiè allo Sciliar cooking course.

Cruscato (with bran)

With pear flour

Floral magic

Refined goat's cheese

Almkaese varieties

Stangenkaese

Husumer

Cheese made in high mountain huts in Lagrein dunkel wine

A perfect combination

As soon as you enter "Mediterraneum", you can immediately realize that our cooking school in Rome is a perfect combination between a professional kitchen and your own one at home! In fact the philosophy of Tasteof.it is that everyone attending our courses will be able to cook any recipe, when back home.

All participants will be involved so that the "lesson" will actually be a moment of amusement and friendship making.

Practical lessons will be alternated with short theorical moments, so to learn the essential of italian cooking.





We will use only fresh products in our recipes and we will go together to choose and buy them directly from the farmer's market, on the "outdoor" lesson on thursday.


And of course, we will joyfully taste everything we cooked, together, at the and of each lesson!

www.mediterraneumlab.it