During our two weeks in Puglia over the Summer we were lucky enough to do a fantastic cookery class arranged by Original Travel.

Our cookery experience took place at the home of Donn’Anna, a true Italian nonna, whose Grandson translated for us during the day. The whole experience was a family affair from the warm welcome drinks in the garden, to the meal at the end of the course when the whole family sat around the table to eat.

The cookery class took place in Galatone, which is only 30 minutes from Lecce. We actually drove to the course on the day we moved from South to North Puglia and it was a great way to spend the changeover day.

Having had a drink and a warm welcome from the family we made our way into the large kitchen area to start our cookery class and prepare some typical Salento dishes.

The first dish we made was ‘Pitta di Patate Salentina‘ a tuna/caper/olive/tomato/potato dish. It is basically a potato pie/cake, the Italian way.

The second and the course that took the longest and required the most skill was making orecchiette. Orecchiette is eaten all over Puglia and we helped make the pasta dough and then we shaped a LOT of orecchiette. Some of us (the kids) were better than others (the adults!). I thought I might get better at it, but sadly I did not. It caused a lot of amusement during the meal when we ate it, to try and identify our own makes.

We learnt how to “scan” the dough and understand when it is ready to be worked and exactly how to shape the orecchiette with your thumb.

Once we left the orecchiette to dry, we moved into the kitchen to make cannoli style dessert with eggless pancakes, cream, and chocolate.

Once we’d prepared all the meal we then got to sit in the beautiful grounds of the house and actually eat it. Our favourite course had to be the tomato orecchiette.

You can book the cookery course as part of a wider trip to Puglia, along with lots of other family-friendly activities with Original Travel.