Puglia, Italy- Stop Two- Valle d'Itria

We arrived to our second stop outside of Martina Franca in the Valle d'Itria. This was my second favorite stop in our trip in Puglia.  I liked it so much because it was very green, very relaxed and so charming with unique scenery.  You can read about stop One in Pogliano di Mare here.  

I've been enamored with these little trulli houses for some time, so when I found a cute and inexpensive one online, I booked it!

We spent under $100 a night for this one bedroom, one bath unit.  It does sleep 4, but I would recommend for two.  If you want the link, look for property 10776012  on VRBO.com   LINK .

We had a small pool too, but it was kind of cold in April, so it wasn't open yet.  We had such a great time relaxing here, we made dinner here every night and usually had great lunches out while we were sight seeing.

The kitchen was super small but had everything we needed.  We also had a welcome table of items for our stay including wine, fresh pasta, sauce, fruit, nuts, fresh basil and tomatoes and cheese!

Our place was off a quiet country road and had a few neighbors.  The neighbors next store arrived to work on their place doing renovation, but were also having a party on Italian holiday of Liberation Day when the Allies liberated Italy.  It is a major big deal in Italy on April 25th.  At first we were dismayed with the pounding music, but when 6 darling kids showed up at the door to invite us to the party, how could we say no?  They were so cute and had been told to bring us over! Only one guy, our host, knew English but he did a great job introducing us and having us try local specialties like the smoked cheese served melted over bread.  We also had some great homemade wine and enjoyed the festivities.

Alberello is a great but very touristy town of over 1,000 trulli homes. The streets are cute cobblestoned and the hills aren't too stepp for strolling and seeing the sites.  Prepare to take a lot of pictures.  My recommendation is to get there very earlier before all the buses.  We arrived about 9:15am and had no issue finding parking, but when we left about 11am, it was packed with cars trying to find parking. I had to jump out of the car to direct traffic so we could even back out of our parking space. I felt a little awkward, but it's nice that arm movements are universally understood and the guy behind the guy blocking our exit, got what I was trying to do. Plus, he was thrilled to get our parking spot.

There's a couple different parts of the town, and you should stroll up both sides as each has its merits. The side less traveled has the best panoramic views of the town. 

Trulli are often adorned with a painted symbol. Their origin is unknown but they usually have a religious or astrological meaning. Symbols may include astrological signs, the evil eye, the cross, a heart, a star, and others. 

Here's a little sign of some of the local symbols, a couple of them make sense to me and others leave me mystified.

This picture is from the less traveled part of Alberello. Watch for signs that say 'belvedre', which means view point! It was a great little garden park with different trails and areas to take pictures. 

Our trulli host recommended that we visit the walled town of Cisternino. It was a great day trip on our anniversary for a lunch in one of the highest rated local restaurants.

No Italian post would be right without showing some food, so here's the best pasta I ate in Puglia. We had a great lunch in Cisternino for our anniversary.  This  pasta was fantastic. 

T a g l i o l i n o b u rr o , p a r m i g i a n o , t a rt u f o * n e r o 

Fresh pasta cooked and thrown into a heated wheel of cheese and stirred until the cheese is incorporated into a sauce.  Topped with fresh truffles.  Link to the restaurant is here, Osteria Piatti Chiari. The truffles are priced separately, what's shown in the picture is about 4.50 euros.  They weigh the truffle before and after slicing it on your pasta so they know how much you were served.  You can see the girl has the basket with the truffle and the scale too.

We wandered around Cisternino and enjoyed the labyrinth of streets. 

Go ahead and try to get lost!  It's worth it.

Argentinian - Chupin de Pescado (whitefish stew)

 

Sometimes, you just know a recipe is going to be a keeper!  I found this one in the Food & Wine magazine (Link here) that had been kicking around since July 2023 at our cabin. It sounded like a wonderful Cioppino or Bouillabaisse... but was easier with only one kind of fish

Luckily we had brought some frozen mahi mahi and I had almost everything else, except for roasted red peppers and clam nectar. While fish broth or clam nectar are definitely more authentic, I'm not convinced that chicken stock wouldn't be as good as a substitute.

I did my sauce ahead of time, and then reheated it when we returned from a day of fun.  I nestled the pre-cooked potatoes and the fish into the sauce and reheated it on medium low.  Be sure to cover the pan if you do it that way.  If you heat the sauce, then ad the potatoes and the fish, cover it, and cook it for about 10-15 minutes.  I cut each mahi mahi filet into 4 'fingers' so it would cook faster.  

All in all, this was a quick and very satisfying meal.  It's not necessarily South American in flavors, more like Italian, in my humble opinion.  I pasted in the original recipe and instructions, only adding a 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes. I also used just two 8oz filets of fish, but I had lots of delicious sauce left over. I used the leftovers with sauteed zucchini and it was a wonderful side dish.

Ingredients, Serves 4

Potato Rounds 

• 3 small (4-ounce) Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed
•  4 cups water
•  1/4 cup kosher salt

 Pomarola

•  1 (15-ounce) can whole peeled plum tomatoes
•  1/4 cup olive oill, plus more for drizzling
•  1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/3 cups)
• 1 medium garlic clove, finely chopped
•  3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
•  2 fresh or dried bay leaves
•  1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
•  1 teaspoon black pepper, plus more for garnish
•  Sprinkle of red pepper flakes
• Granulated sugar, to taste

 Chupín

•  1 (1 1/2-pound) skinless grouper fillet (1 1/2 inches thick), halved crosswise
•  1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
•  1 1/2 cups fish broth or clam nectar
•  1/2 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
•  1/2 cup pitted and quartered black olives
•  1/2 cup drained jarred roasted red bell pepper strips
•  2 tablespoons drained capers
•  Finely chopped fresh parsley

Make the potato rounds

1. Bring potatoes, 4 cups water, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan over high. Reduce heat to medium-high, and cook potatoes, undisturbed, until just tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove from heat, and let potatoes cool in water 30 minutes; drain. Peel potatoes, and slice crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Set aside.

Meanwhile, make the pomarola

1. Puree tomatoes in a food processor until smooth, about 10 seconds; set aside. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium. Add onion, garlic, and salt; cook, stirring often, until onion is mostly translucent, about 4 minutes. Add bay leaves, paprika, and black pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in pureed plum tomatoes, and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens and is slightly chunky, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Season with sugar to taste.

Make the chupín

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Season grouper with salt, and let stand 15 minutes. Meanwhile, stir fish broth, chickpeas, olives, bell pepper strips, and capers into pomarola. Bring to a boil over high. Reduce heat to medium-high, and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and pour into a 12-inch nonreactive ovenproof skillet. Nestle grouper in sauce. Bake in preheated oven 9 minutes. Remove from oven; gently flip grouper using a spatula, and add potato rounds. Return to oven, and bake until fish is opaque and easily flakes with a fork and a thermometer inserted in thickest portion of grouper registers 135°F, 9 to 12 minutes. Drizzle with additional olive oil. Garnish with black pepper and parsley. Serve immediately.

Pico de Gallo

 

This has been my favorite side dish at our local Mexican place.  After years of loving it and carefully assessing what was in it, I finally had a go at making it myself. This is served with the fresh tortilla chips and salsa at the restaurant and it's my favorite part.  It's really like a salad... and a dip, and something to sprinkle on your rice and beans!  I can be whatever you want it to be. 

Be sure to chop things a bit smaller than you think they should be... you want to have a bit of everything in each scoop of your tortilla chip.

Ingredients

Makes about 4-5 cups

1 cup of red cabbage, diced small

1 cup of green cabbage, diced small

1 cup of tomatoes, diced small

3 jalapenos, diced small (remove the seeds)

1 cup of white onion, diced small

1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped

2-3 limes, juiced

1/2 cup of pickled jalapenos, diced small

2 tablespoons of the picked jalapeno juice, optional

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together and let sit for an hour or two before serving.  Lasts a day or two in the fridge, but it's best the day you make it.

Puglia, Italy- Stop One- Poglinano a Mare

Getting from Seattle to Bari isn't easy...you've got at best one stop, but likely two stops before you get there.  We left Sunday morning from SEA at 6am and arrived in Poglinano a Mare (about an hour south of Bari) at about 3pm Monday.  That accounts for a 9 hour time change, of course, but you will be really tired by the time you arrive, unless you are a great airplane sleeper, which ain't easy!.

A couple shots of espresso will set you right with the world before you jump into your rental car at the Bari airport. We did okay, but its always best to be a good navigator and don't add any extra commentary on the driving in Italy while the driver is trying his best. I've learned a bit being married all these years. 

At the centrico (city center) of Poglinana a Mare, it is not drivable (a ZTL), we had to What'sApp our host, and she sent a big golf chart to ferry us into the parking (an adventure on its own...) and then took us to the drop off point outside the city old stone gate.  From there, you are on your own, walking the street tired and travel worn (greasy even...) and trying to locate your small hotel from Google navigation isn't always easy.  Surprisingly it does rather well, but its not always clear where to turn.  After a couple wrong turns, we found it.  Our host had WhatsApp'd us the instructions and a video showing us where our room was. Up about 3 flights of stairs and then, there we were... finally. A quick shower and then off to see the town and get some food.

View from our hotel deck and breakfast area. 

More view from the deck with a view of this amazing city.

Lama Monachile is the name of this cute beach between two high cliffs.

A great pizza with arugula, cheese and tomatoes.  Knowing my husband, I'm sure there's some spicy salami under there too. Pizza in Italy is terrific everywhere.  They don't cut the pizza into wedges for you.... you are on your own.  Please don't ask them to cut it, they will laugh like you are a child. LOL. It didn't happen to us, but we saw it happen.

Seafood salad was so terrific! Some much great seafood in Puglia.

A view of the city beach, lovely at all times of day, but as twilight was falling we thought it was most beautiful.  You can walk down to the Lama Monachile beach, but go early, or you won't get anywhere to sit, it was very crowded during the day.

Here's the breakfast that was provided at our hotel, it was excellent and delicious too. If you're interested in the recipe for the tomato toasts called friselle, find it on my blog here.

There's lots of walking areas along the water on the city wall.  Highly recommend to take some early morning walks to see the sights and get some exercise, you're going to need it with all that pasta, pizza and pastries you will be eating in Puglia.

Puglia tomato friselle rusk bread - Traditional breakfast

I've always loved sliced tomatoes on toast, it was my pandemic breakfast of choice. Simply toast, a smear of mayo, sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper.... absolutely my favorite. Sort of a design of my own making, but maybe I saw it somewhere???

Getting to Puglia and waking up to the hotel breakfast on Day 1 was terrific.... cheese, meats, fruits (including one I've never seen, nespole- more on that later) and these yummy tomato toasts. 

Our host,  Elena, was telling us our choices for breakfasts.  She offered frisselle and described as tomato toast,  then said "5, maybe 6 would be right.... I think 6". I was a bit worried, then delighted, when I saw the plate and that they were small. In the photo,  you can see that there are 5... that's because I already put one on my plate and was tucking into a yummy bite. 

Here's my attempt at making it myself for the breakfast when we got to our VRBO a couple days later.

Our host had left us so many things as a welcome gift; fresh orecchiette pasta, jarred pomodoro tomato sauce, the frise (bread rusks), tomatoes, local olive oil, a fresh basil plant, fresh cheese and an assortment of fresh fruit.... oh, and local wine!

The top picture has small frise rusks and the second picture is the larger size. Both are great, but maybe the big ones take a bit more time to soften a bit.

Here's all we did:

12-16 large cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters or eighths

A bit of good olive oil, 2-3 tsp

A big bit of salt

Fresh basil, cut into slivers

A bit of pepper, if you like (and I do)

A couple teaspoons of water

*Some Frise Maltagliate... (dry, light "bagels, AKA "rusks" or bruschetta)

In a medium bowl, cut the tomatoes, drizzle with oil olive and salt. Add slivered basil and pepper.  Give a nice stir and get the 'rusks' ready to go on a plate. 

So our host, through interpretation through his 14 year old niece, told us to make the breakfast,  adding a sprinkle of water. My hubby heard that I should sprinkle the dry bread with water, but I interpreted it to mean that I would add a bit of water to my tomato mixture. I actually think my hubby was right, but honestly, drizzling the rusks with a bit of watery tomato oil also works deliciously too.

Let the rusk sit and absorb the mixture while you get the rest of the breakfast ready to go.  We drank quite a lot of espresso in tiny cups while we prepared our breakfast.

The rusks are in the package behind the bottle of olive oil.  There were more gifts from our host in the fridge: cheese and orecchiette. What a nice gift to leave, everything you need to make yourself a dinner, a snack and a breakfast.

*to make these at home it would be easy to use bruschetta toasts, or leftover French bread toasted/ dried in the oven.  It's supposed to be hard and dry,  hence the sprinkle of water. 

On day one,  here's a photo of our view as we ate breakfast. Not a bad place to start your day. 

Cauliflower Fried Rice

A simple and healthy side dish, or even a main dish, if you like.

I start with raw cauliflower that is grated in the food processor, or by hand. Use the big grater attachment, you want some bigger pieces and not tiny bits.

First, get all your ingredients ready to go ahead of time, do not assemble as you go as you will end up with over cooked fried rice!

Serves about 4

Ingredients

• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup celery, small dice
• 1/2 cup carrots, small dic1/2 cup white onion, diced
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 4 cups fresh cauliflower, grated
• 1/2 cup Ham, small dice (optional)
• 1/2 cup Bacon, diced (optional)
• 1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
• 2-3 Tbsp soy sauce

Other optional items/substitutions

• 1/2 cup broccoli, very small florets
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced small

Over medium high heat in a large non-stick skillet, add the sesame oil, vegetable oil and bacon (if using), use it to saute the celery, carrots and carrots until they start to soften a bit and the bacon is cooked, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and heat until just soft, about another 2-3 minutes. I add the well beaten eggs to the veggies and mix to 'scramble'.  You can make the scrambled eggs big or small by stirring more, it's up to you.  Add the raw cauli rice, the ham (if using) then the green onions and peas.  Stir to "fry" the mixture, and adjust seasoning with soy sauce.  You can add salt and pepper, if desired.

Try not to over cook the cauliflower rice, as it will start to lose moisture and make your fried rice soggy.

You can serve along side some grilled meat or fish, or even a Chinese stir fry.

Mahi Mahi with Feta Cream Sauce

Easiest dinner ever.

Feta is one of my favorite cheese, along with goat cheese!   This is a great easy way to fancy up some fish for a quick week night dinner.  We often have frozen fish in the freezer (thanks to Costco), and Mahi Mahi is one of our favorites.  This would also work for halibut, tilapia and even salmon.  It's quite possible that this would be great on chicken breasts too, but I haven't tried that yet.

Ingredients

Makes 2

• 2- 6 oz mahi mahi fillets
• 3 Tbsp mayonnaise (like Best Foods)
• 3 Tbsp of crumbled feta
• 1/4 tsp of dried dill
• 1/4 tsp of garlic powder
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• Fresh black pepper
• 1 tsp minced parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

On a foil lined pan, coat with oil and place fish fillets on top.

Make mixture of the mayo, feta, dill, garlic, lemon juice, pepper and parsley.  Make sure to mix well and get most of the lumps out.

Cover the entire top of the fish with the mixture, put on the top rack of the oven and cook 10-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. Mine took 14 minutes but they were very thick filets.

Here they are after baking, some of the sauce fell off, but it still plated up nicely.

Here's another recipe that is something a bit similar, Baked Parmesan Salmon. Try that too!

Greek Green Lentil Salad

I had this salad years ago at a Greek restaurant in Vancouver BC (The Greek by Anatoli) and loved it so much. I am not sure if this is 100% the same, but this is what I dreamed up over the years thinking about it.  It has all my favorite flavors!

I finally made this for a party at my house for my birthday. Lots of friends and family came and brought other Greek goodies to share, so it wasn't too hard to host my own party.

I bought my green French lentils in bulk, they are my favorite! I think other lentils would work too.  I just simmer the lentils in water until they are tender, then drain and add them in.  They do tend to swell quite a bit, so be careful that you don't cook too many.  If you do (like I did), you can freeze them to add to soups, or toss with roasted veggies for a nice side dish.  You could even saute them with some butter and spices and make a nice 'bed' for a piece of grilled fish, chick or pork.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 cup green lentils, cooked and drained (cooled)
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes
• 1 can of garbanzo beans, drained
• 2 cups of arugula (or spinach)
• 3/4 cup of feta, crumbled
• 2-3 Tbsp parmesan cheese
• Juice of one lemon
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Since I was prepping this ahead of time, I added everything to the bowl except the arugula and put it in the fridge.  When we were ready for dinner, it was easy to add the arugula and give everything a toss. I tasted to make sure the seasoning was right, and served it right away.

Here is it is all tossed and ready to serve. It lasted well on the buffet and there weren't any leftovers.

Since this was a Greek party for my birthday, I wanted to share our outfits and back drop.  In case  you're wondering why I am wearing pink star glasses... well, I have to admit it was actually a Mamma Mia Greek party.  We had a blast and it was a fun way to usher in my 60th year.  Singing and dancing until 3am almost killed me, hahaha, but a great time was had by all.

Colmar, France- Easy trip from Germany

I have always wanted to go to Colmar, a small quaint city near the border of Germany.  The Rhine river separates the two countries, and a quick trip over the bridge, you know in France.  The Alsace region of France, is a bit more like Germany in its cuisine and the looks of the buildings. Colmar is also known for a very important sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, best known to us Americans for the creator of the statue of Liberty! 

 

Called the "Little Venice" of France, which I imagine is very annoying to the real Venetians, the only real thing in common to Venice is that it has a couple canals. It is nothing like Venice in real life.  However, I don't let the mere semantics of what people call it change what I liked about it.  It was quaint, it was fun, it was beautiful!  Remarkably, Colmar escaped any bombing damage from WW2.  To the right is a picture from my February visit on a sunny but cool day. It was perfect for catching the reflections of the buildings in the perfectly still waters of the canals. 

Going in the winter has its merits... it still had many visitors except nothing like it must look like in the middle of summer with busloads of tourists arriving from all points of the globe.  Many river cruised come down the Rhine, and Colmar is a very easy stop to access from the cruise ship.

At first, I thought that the city was very small and dare say it, a bit anti-climatic, but I kept meandering down seemingly deserted lanes to see what else I might discover.  The lanes kept opening up to bigger areas fille with more and more cuteness. 

So many beautiful metal scrollwork signs.  Here's one of the "Two brothers charcuterie" shop.   Below is one of the high streets, filled with tourist shops but also many local shops for people who obviously lived here.

I needed to get some lunch, so Googled "restaurants around me" to see what was recommended.  That's my usual trick for finding places that are enjoyed by tourists and locals alike.  I found a couple of great option, from a cute tea house to an expensive restaurant that might be offering more than I really wanted for lunch.  I had walked by this place a couple of times and it was so darn CUTE, and it had enough stars to reassure me that I would get a decent lunch.

My lunch was basic but exactly what sounded good!  The two table on either side of me seemed to have ordered the same thing, so I really like I chose well. It was basically a French flatbread 'pizza' with a white sauce, cheese, onions and ham!  A green salad (always weird in Europe with beets and corn...) was fresh and nice. Order a pichet (small pitcher) of local rose wine to add to your meal.  I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch.

I needed to drive back to Lake Constance in Germany (also called the Bodensee) where I was visiting for a business trip.  Coming back from France, I could easily have retraced my trip back to the East side of the lake, but decided instead on driving through Switzerland, visiting Lichtenstein for the first time, Austria and coming back to Germany (and the lake) from the south.  It took me five hours altogether, but I did visit 5 countries in 5 hours... not sure where else in Europe you are able to do that. I added Lichtenstein to my list of visited countries, so I'm now at 51 countries! Woo hoo.

I visited the castle below in Vaduz, which happens to be the home of the reigning prince of Lichtenstein.  You are not allowed to get close to this palace, as the guards are a bit aggressive to keep you away. It was fun to see the view though, with the Swiss mountains in the background. The castle from the below shows just how massive it is, it does look a bit smaller here.

It was an easy drive to Austria, and I had a great lunch in the city of Bergenz in Austria and truly had one of the best burgers of my life in a well regarded place called Weiss restaurant. A radler beer, pictured below, is a local German beer that it usually mixed with either Sprite or soda water for a low alcohol choice. Perfect for lunch when I still had some sightseeing and driving to do.

I highly recommend getting out and seeing the local area, even when you're traveling for business. I did go by myself, which is a different experience, but still a lot of fun. Get out there and do it!