la settimana dedicata all’ extra vergine
olive you: olive oil week at the castle
Extra virgin olive oil continues to astound the International medical community, as one of the healthiest foods on the planet.
Now our olive trees are in trouble and we need your help. Would you like to come help Italy recover?
Olive You: The Week of Our Extra Virgin
1) Extra virgin olive oil continues to astound the International medical community as one of the healthiest foods on the planet.
2) Much of the world’s best olive oil is actually destroyed by consumers, those that supposedly love it. With very few aware that it’s even happening.
3) A blight here has destroyed millions of trees but a cure is now available and we’re replanting. Pack your work boots and leather gloves. We’re going to spend a morning in the countryside, helping Italy.
You’ll learn to taste extra virgin, to properly critique it, seeking not only potential defects but to seek out individual taste profiles of the award-winning extra virgin olive oils from southern Italy.
And we’ll head into the kitchen, learning to make fresh pasta from scratch (making it nearly every meal), learning to master vegetable cookery, the heart of the Mediterranean lifestyle. You’ll learn to grill everything, from fish still dripping with the nearby Adriatic, to green winter onions to the fresh sausages that you’ll make from scratch, grilling them directly over orange tree wood in the castle’s main hall. You’ll learn the difference between cooking with oil and eating it raw and when can you do one and not the other. You’ll pour it generously over autumnal vegetables, each with a season and history of its own.
But it’s likely that it will be ‘learning to read’ olive trees, that will be your favourite take away from the course, each like a noble old farmer that spends too much time in the sun, each with a story to tell.
Book now Or write us for information or just to say ‘ciao’. We’d be thrilled to hear from you.
Where: At the castle.
When: the colder months, several times a year.
Where to stay: at the castle. 95 Euro single, 110 double.
Taught in: English.
Course cost: 1995 Euro.
Best way to arrive, depart, maximise your time with us: Everything is spelled out in our Student Services. You’ll be given access about booking.
Olive You!
A Week at the Castle Dedicated to Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The Winter Months
This is an example of our week-long Olive You! course held at the castle in Puglia, where we pick, press, learn to taste critically and cook and anoint with, what is likely the world’s most perfect food.
And while we’ve lost 9 million olive trees in the last few years to disease, we’re also replanting, so this course has a happy air of rebirth, rising out of all the botanical devastation. We’ll also discuss the often, not-so-obvious problems of globalisation in agriculture and how to protect the planet in the future.
The order of the days will likely change based on the day that we’ll go to harvest and press. And we will need to travel a bit to the disease-resistant trees to harvest but if you imagine a week dedicated to cooking, eating, drinking and learning- especially about high quality extra virgin olive oil- then you have grasped the concept completely.
Before the course begins.
Arrive in Lecce Sunday night and stay wherever you like (our suggestions for our favourite places are in Student Services).
Lunedi
Monday
Meet us with your tagged luggage (first and surname) at Porta Napoli in Lecce at 10:00. This is when the course officially starts and everything is included in your tuition, from Monday morning to Saturday morning. You will not even need to carry a purse or wallet the entire week.
We’ll talk about Lecce’s famous yellow building stone, how it was formed by nearly a billion years of dead animals and how it affects just everything here: the wine, food, climate, agriculture and architecture.
We’ll head down to the castle, move you into your rooms, give you time to freshen up, plug in and join the WIFI (the castle has 6 wifi systems that cover all the grounds, pool area, kitchen, dinning rooms and your bedroom).
You’ll get a tour of the castle and grounds and hear about its history and layout, making you feel instantly at home for the week.
We’ll decide who is the oldest person present and he or she will light the olive oil lantern that will burn the entire week. We’ll take a moment to present ourselves and for each of us to express what we hope to take away from the course and our time together.
We’ll have an introductory talk about the local cuisine, wine, history and culture and then move over to the castle’s main hall, for a staff prepared welcoming lunch (and the first of the week’s 13 wines).
You’ll enjoy your first wine tasting. That will segue into a staff prepared meal (one of only two meals of the week that you will not prepare). Like all the meals of the week- with the exception of our picnic lunch the day we pick- we’ll have an antipasto, fresh, hand-made pasta, a second course, 4 vegetable side dishes and un dolce ( ‘dessert’ or ‘pudding’). Lunch runs long and the wines flow freely.
The course also includes an olive oil massage in your private room by a local masseuse. These are available early mornings and during the breaks.
After lunch you’ll have a break to relax or have a massage. Or spend time sending your pictures around the world, go for a walk in the local olive groves, read from the Baron’s multi-language library or just to nap off all the wine.
We’ll reconvene at 6pm to have a chalkboard talk— God Smiled on Us: An Introduction to an Italy You May Not Know. (This sets the tone for the week, of going deeper than you might expect,, but in a new and engaging way).
Then we’ll move over to discuss tonight’s dinner before we head into the kitchen to make the fresh local pasta from scratch (Italy’s healthiest).
We’ll have a hands-on lesson (you’ll learn to make 10-14 dishes, collectively) and then head up stairs to the main hall for wine tasting of tonight’s wine, that eases into dinner. Students will take turns returning to the kitchen (with the staff) to both finish and then explain at the table the final, finishing steps.
The wine and stimulating, international conversations will flow late into the night.
You’ll visit Silvestro’s personal amaro bar for after dinner drinks.
Martedi
Tuesday
Breakfast in the main hall at 9 am. (Early riser? Go for morning walk, visit Salvatore at the local caffè or help yourself to coffee, tea, etc. in the castle’s main kitchen.)
Breakfast includes fresh local pastries, fresh fruit, eggs, toast, yoghurt, cheeses and meats. Tea, juice and locally-roasted espresso.
At 10 we’ll move over to the chalkboard for Why the Olive? What makes this little fruit so special? We’ll discuss today’s lunch menu before we head down into the kitchen and make fresh pasta from scratch, then segue into a lesson on how to prepare the entire meal (as always, we’ll cook just enough to get you started but it’s you who will be cooking the entire week).
Then we’ll move upstairs for our first guided tasting of three extra virgin olive oils (alternating between slices of green apple to clear the palette). You’ll meet three extra virgin oils: Favolosa FS-17, Ogliorola and Leccino, three powerhouses of southern Italian oil olives.
After questions and answers, the food will be begin to arrive, with various students taking the opportunity to be finish a dish (with the guidance of the staff) and then explain it to those at the table.
You’ll have a break to go for a walk in the nearby olive groves, practice your Italian with those in the village, read, scroll your device or just to nap off all the wine. Or take this time to receive your olive oil massage.
We’ll meet again at 6 pm for Da Mieru a Vino: How Italian Wine Become Modern. We’ll discuss changes in Italian wine making and how Old World wines differ from that of the New. You’ll learn about the history of the amaro (Italian after dinner drinks) and how they aid digestion. We’ll discuss tonight’s menu and then move down into the kitchen to make a different fresh pasta from scratch (every meal a different shape). We’ll have a lesson on Mediterranean vegetables and pulses in the kitchen and how to introduce more of them into your diet.
We’ll move upstairs for a wine tasting, both to learn about dinner’s particular wine but also how to taste more critically in general.
Dinner will start to arrive, with each course finished and then explained by your class mates. Many corks will be liberated and we’ll go late into the night.
A visit to Silvestro’s personal amaro bar for night caps.
Mercoledi
Wednesday
Breakfast in the main hall at 9 am. Breakfast will include fresh local pastries, fresh fruit, eggs, toast, yoghurt, cheeses and meats. Tea, juice and locally-roasted espresso.
At 10 we’ll move over to the chalkboard for Kaveh to Coffee to Cafè: The Little Bean that Conquered the World. We’ll discuss Italian coffee culture, roasting.You’ll learn how to order your coffee in it Italian and we’ll head out to Salvatore’s café to practice your new skills.
You’ll learn about today’s lunch menu before we head down into the kitchen and make fresh pasta from scratch, then segue into a lesson on vegetable cookery. We’ll prepare lunch together, using our new skills and then move upstairs to talk about today’s lunch wine. We’ll do a guided tasting and then the food will be begin to arrive, with various students taking the opportunity to be finish a dish and then explain it to the table.
You’ll have a break for your olive oil massage, or to go for a walk, read, scroll your device or just to nap off all the wine.
We’ll meet again at 6 pm for Gear: Knives, Pots, Pans, their Purchase and Maintenance. You’ll learn to buy the best (including knives) for the least amount of money. And how to protect your investments. We’ll discuss our menu and then move down into the kitchen to make a different fresh pasta from scratch (every meal a different shape). We’ll have a lesson on the fresh cheeses of Puglia then prepare 10 to 15 dishes together- collectively- using those new skills to work together to assemble dinner.
We’ll move upstairs for a wine tasting, both to learn about dinner’s particular wine but also how to taste more critically in general.
Dinner will start to arrive, with each course finished and then explained by your class mates. You’ll finally eat your fill of burrata and your wine will pour generously.
A visit to Silvestro’s personal amaro bar for night caps.
Giovedi
Thursday
Breakfast in the main hall at 8 am. Bellini breakfast! (local negroamaro-based sparklers blended with peaches we preserved over the summer). Breakfast will include fresh local pastries, fresh fruit, eggs, toast, yoghurt, cheeses and meats. Tea, juice and locally-roasted espresso.
We’ll arrange transportation up the groves where we’ll be harvesting for the day (the Bellinis should help you sleep away the time on the bus). We’ll pick and assist in repositioning the nets, gathering and then visit a mill to see our olives pressed to make world-class extra virgin olive oil. You’ll see the entire cycle, from a fruit on the tree to production to bottling, demystifying the entire process for evermore.
We’ll have a staff-prepared picnic lunch aboard the bus— with more sparkling wine— back to the castle (the beauty of the bus is that the driver is designated, cook kids in back).
We’ll meet again at 6 pm for The Pig: a Global Love Story. We’ll discuss our menu and then move down into the kitchen to make a different fresh pasta from scratch (every meal a different shape). We’ll have a lesson on how to get the most out of olive oil in the kitchen and then use those new skills to work together to assemble dinner.
We’ll move upstairs for an extra virgin tasting- coratina, paranzana and pendolino. Dinner will start to arrive, with each course finished and then explained by your class mates.
A visit to Silvestro’s personal amaro bar for night caps.
Venerdi
Friday
Breakfast in the main hall at 9 am. Breakfast will include fresh local pastries, fresh fruit, eggs, toast, yoghurt, cheeses and meats. Tea, juice and locally-roasted espresso.
At 10 we’ll move over to the chalkboard for 1493: A history of Italian Vegetables. As today is the new the new wine comes out, we’ll also discuss high level wine making techniques, including carbonic maceration (how the Novello [Italy’s beaujoie nuevou] is made). You’ll learn why wine recently become a grocery in many parts of the world, how to store it and age it and what’s the difference.
You’ll learn about today’s lunch menu before we head down into the kitchen and make fresh pasta from scratch, then segue into making fresh sausages from scratch. We’ll prepare lunch together, using our new skills and then move upstairs to talk about today’s lunch wine. We’ll do a guided tasting and then the food will be begin to arrive, with various students taking the opportunity to be finish a dish and then explain it to the table.
You’ll have a break for your olive oil massage, to go for a walk, prepack your luggage, read or simply to scroll your device.
We’ll meet again at 6 pm for SCREWED: Global Olive Oil Fraud, just what is it about olive oil industry that renders it as corrupt as the narcotic’s trade? Then we’ll discuss our menu and then move down into the kitchen to make a different fresh pasta from a little flour and water.
We’ll make fresh sausages from scratch and grill them over olive wood, right in the baron’s large cut-stone fireplace. And assemble a massive feast with wine flowing like a river.
You’ll receive some departing gifts of highlights from the Salento.
Sabato
Saturday
departure
Breakfast one last time in the Baron’s main hall.
The youngest person present will blow out the olive oil lantern, signalling the end of our time together. We’ll take a moment to share what we each learned, what were the surprises and how we intend to use these new habits when we return home.
We’ll arrange transportation back to the Lecce train station, for either a departure headed north of Lecce, or to return for a few more days back in Lecce, one of Italy’s prettiest cities.
About a week after your course we’ll send you a password to all of our recipes and include all the email address of the others on your course. Many if not most make life-long friendships while here. They send us many happy pictures of wine-soaked reunions, held all over the world.
Puglia produces half of Italy’s annual production (Tuscany, as a comparison, produces only around 3%). As a nation we consume more than we produce, which begs the question, what is filling the world’s supermarket shelves as ‘Italian olive oil’?
Colour has no bearing on quality: Professionals tasters use cobalt blue glasses, just to remove the colour from the equation. It’s the easiest element to fake.
Here is Southern Puglia a blight has wiped out 9 million trees. We’ve been interviewed about it in a lot of the world’s magazines, newspapers and investigative television shows.
We’re replanting.
Q: How much of the week is spent working in the fields replanting?
A: One morning. The rest of the time we’re learning about extra virgin olive oil, in many different ways, including in the kitchen and around the table.
Q: Can I take some home with me?
A: As much as you want to carry. We can send you the rest, as much as you like.
Q: We just booked the course. Can you send us some oil in the meantime?
A: With pleasure.