Granola at Cefalicchio

While at Cefalicchio I had the pleasure of working alongside a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) student from New York named Annie. I learned a lot about baking and making scrumptious desserts from Annie and one thing that I really loved was the homemade granola. This was super easy to make and it was a staple at breakfast buffet at Cefalicchio. Many guests even asked if they could buy it! Granola is very forgiving so feel free to add or subtract nuts and dried fruit to your liking. I have adapted the recipe from Annie because I wanted to have less sugar - the original recipe calls for 12 ounces brown sugar but I found 8 to be sufficient. Lastly, all the measurements are in metric weights. If you don't have a metric scale you can easily convert these online however I find the metric measurements to be much more precise. The recipe makes a lot! Enough to give some as gifts to friends and family or to last you a few weeks if you have some every day. I recommend storing the granola in air tight containers and it tastes best if eaten within two weeks of being made.

Granola

Ingredients:

21 ounces rolled oats

30 ounces assorted nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, cashews)

12 ounces dried coconut

6 ounces flour

1 pinch salt

Cinnamon (to taste)

8 ounces brown sugar

7.5 ounces olive oil

12 ounces honey

30 ounces assorted dried fruits, chopped



Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 305 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, nuts, flour, salt and cinnamon.

3. In a large sauce pan, combine the brown sugar, olive oil and honey. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously.

4. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients, tossing to coat well.

5. Bake on large flat trays in the oven until browned lighting stirring occasionally to bake evenly.

6. Mix in the dried fruit and store in airtight containers.

Cefalicchio's Garden and Pesky Hens

One the best parts about cooking at Cefalicchio was that you had access to an incredible vegetable, fruit and herb garden! The gardens were thoughtfully planned out and wonderfully maintained. Nothing tastes as good as a salad made from lettuce and tomatoes picked just 5 minutes before. Or a pasta with roasted zucchini collected that day. Some things that Cefalicchio grows include lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, peppers, an assortment of squash, peaches, apples, figs, and blood oranges. The options were endless and the herb garden alone had at least 12 different kinds of herbs including rosemary, lavender, mind, basil, and thyme. Above is a photo of one of the lettuce beds. Here is a close up of a gorgeous head of leafy greens!

Look at this beautiful pumpkin!

And in case I didn't talk about figs enough in yesterday's post, here is a close up of a fig vine just at the beginning of fig season in early August.

And a bowl of freshly picked figs!

Cefalicchio also had a small farm with hens, ducks, sheep and horses. At least every two days I would go and collect the eggs from the hens. A fun and funny task. The first time I was sent to the collect the eggs I came back eggless. The hens were sitting on their eggs and I didn't want to bother them, so I came back empty handed only to be told in a thick Italian accent "Don't come back without any eggs!" So I returned to the small hen coop and spent a few minutes just staring at the hens hoping they would figure out that I was there for their eggs and get up, however I had no such luck. Eventually I worked up the courage to sort of nudge one of the hens off her nest and sure enough she was sitting on 4 lovely light brown eggs. However, I sensed by the way she was staring at me, that she was pissed off with me. I nudged the other hens and collected all the eggs and they followed me out their coop and were squawking away as I closed the gate. With time, these hens warmed up to me and I didn't feel so bad taking their eggs, after all, I had to make brioche!

Olive Trees, Grape Vines and Ewok Huts

In my free time I enjoyed for walks in the country side. Cefalicchio has 80 hectares of rolling grape vines and olive trees sprinkled with wild arugula and huge fig trees. Cefalicchio practices biodynamic farming which essentially treats the farm as an organism in and of itself. Using compost as a way of caring for the soil and limiting the need for external inputs. The photo above is from the Cefalicchio website and is taken from the view point on the tower on top of the villa. The pictures below are all from my walks. Arugula is growing all over the property, just sprouting up along dirt paths and in the hills. It doesn't look like the homogeneous arugula we are used to that comes washed 3x in sealed plastic bags at supermarkets. It is crisp and narrow with a jagged edge. In Puglia, Arugula is mostly used for pastas as opposed to salads but it can be enjoyed both raw and cooked. Here is a picture of a bushel of wild arugula on the ground:

As it turns out, I wasn't the only person excited about the wild arugula. I frequently saw locals from the nearby town of Canosa walking around with large plastic bags and picking their week's worth of the fresh greens and any wild herbs like thyme and rosemary that were growing around the area. Here is a photo of a lovely trio who showed me the best spots for arugula.

Around the beginning of August was the start of fig season. I thought I loved figs before I arrived in Italy, but I left Puglia having been completely spoiled with the best figs I've had in my life. Large, fleshy and growing in abundance! I remember when I arrived in Rome, after having had fresh figs every day in Puglia and being so disappointed with the overly priced shriveled and tasteless semi-green figs being sold at markets. Here is a picture of me holding a handful of arugula and a half eaten fig and in the background is a large fig tree which I frequented nearly every day! You can see the beautiful dark salmon color of the fig and how well it holds its round shape. Puglian figs are truly excellent.

Now for the Ewok huts! These are actually called Trulli and they are conical huts made from stone that have an ancient history and are normally built from solid limestone rocks. I've been told different stories regarding their original purpose but from what I gathered, they were used by farmers and laborers who needed to take breaks from the intense heat. Also, it served as a place for them to stay if they lived far away. Now, they seem to serve as sheds for storing tools and I found that some even had clothes inside. I think they look like adorable Ewok huts.