I had the pleasure of appearing on WMCN with Dawn Stensland to promote Making Artisan Pasta. See the video for a chance to see some of the brightly colored veggie pastas I love to make, including parsley, spinach, asparagus, beet, red pepper, and even chocolate pasta. I serve it for dessert with a sauce of crushed cocoa nibs, toasted hazelnuts, brown butter, a little brandy and honey. I top the pasta with grated “cheese”–actually white chocolate.

Any questions about fresh pasta, please send them to me on the Ask Aliza Tab and I’ll be sure to answer.

Happy Pasta Making!

I’ll be doing a hand-stretched pasta demo as one of the 15 programs in four sessions–including hands-on cooking classes, panel discussions, tastings, and demos.

Sipping wine in Unesco World heritage town of Alberobello

Please join Aliza Green & Al Paris as they prepare a dinner of Puglian specialties at Heirloom Restaurant on February 19, 2013.

To make your reservation at Heirloom for the “Flavors of Puglia” Dinner on Tuesday, February 19, 2013, please call the restaurant directly at 215.242.2700.  Seatings are 5:30/6:00pm and 8:00/8:30pm for this one night only event. Pricing is $75.00 per person (not including tax or gratuity). Note that the restaurant is BYOB.

Below is the menu.

Award Winning Cookbook Author

CHEF  ALIZA GREEN & CHEF AL PARIS

 ~present~

 The Flavors of Puglia

 PUGLIAN ANTIPASTO TASTING

Stuffed Roast Peppers  anchovies~capers~pine nuts~currants Focaccia of Burnt Wheat  cherry tomatoes~green olives Vegetarian Broccoli & Cauliflower “Meatballs”

Warm Fava Bean Puree   wilted cicoria greens

SECOND COURSE

Tiella

Puglian crusty rice~mussels~potato paella or

Burratta

creamy cheese~burst tomato~ arugula pesto

 ENTREE

Roast Orata

Mediterranean sea bream~fennel~black olives~crispy capers or

Cavatelli

handmade ricotta pasta~lamb ragu~garden peas or

Torta

grilled artichokes~local farm egg~mint~cipollini onion

 PUGLIAN SWEET PLATE

Red Wine & Honey Poached Figs

bittersweet chocolate ganache

Ruby Grapefruit Crostata

almond crema~cactus pear~blood orange

 Purcedduzzi

crispy semolina gnocchi~anisette-tangerine syrup

Fishing Boats in Puglia with Norman Watchtower

Follow this link for the complete itinerary, pricing, and contact information: October Itinerary for Aliza Green

You’ve traveled to Italy before, perhaps to Rome, Florence, and Venice or to Tuscany and Lazio and loved every minute, especially the food, restaurants, and markets. Maybe you’re ready to experience a whole new region of Italy–Puglia, which I call “land of 1,000-year-old olive trees,” because of its myriad ancient, wind-twisted and gnarled trees. The ancient inhabitants of this region at the heel of Italy’s boot, called it Messapia, “the land between two waters,” because of its unique peninsular location between the Adriatic to the East and the Ionian Sea to the West.  (Eighty percent of Italy’s olive oil comes from this region as does an equal percentage of its semolina.)

Handmade Orecchiette Pasta in Bari Vecchia

I will be leading an exciting and reasonably priced 7-night culinary tour this October exploring the culture, history, and cuisine of Puglia—where many cultures come together including Greek, Arab, Spanish, and Turkish. It’s common to see names like Diaz and Lopez and faces that are clearly Turkish and Arab. Because Puglia has been relatively isolated, the food is quite pure and not at all industrialized. Fish are caught in sight of the restaurants where they are served. Fresh burrata and other cheeses are made daily by local artisans (we’ll visit one and learn how it’s made).

Fresh Sea Urchins Harvested by Divers

Wild foods like wild asparagus, cardoncelli mushrooms, wild fennel—which grows profusely, cicoria, mushrooms, and lampasciuoli (wild hyacinthe bulbs) are served in season. The famed hand-formed orecchiette (ear-shaped semolina pasta) are made by the skilled pastai (pasta makers) in Bari Vecchia, the old part of the port city of Bari, which we will be visiting (it’s also where you’ll be flying into from Rome or Frankfurt).

We’ll be staying a beautiful masseria—the local word for a villa—with all private baths, its own garden where they harvest most of the food served there including famed local almonds, tomatoes, figs, olives, and prickly pears. Here is a link to their website:, http://www.masseriamontenapoleone.com/index.html.

Here is a link to a map showing some of the places we’ll be visiting: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=209049121457044554502.0004cfe326070fdd396a8&ie=UTF8&ll=40.736852,17.361145&spn=1.015586,2.705383&t=m&z=9&vpsrc=1>

Lampasciuoli (wild hyacinthe bulbs) frying in oil

Mimmo with Homemade Liqueurs in Alberobello

The tour includes:

• Two cooking classes with myself and a top local chef, Rocco Cartia www.roccocartia.com
• Visits to Unesco world heritage site of Matera and Alberobello
• Lunch and wine tasting at the beautifully restored villa of Li Velli
• Professionally guided tour of Lecce, (the Florence of Southern Italy)
• Two local market visits
• Tasting of local speciality liqueurs at Alberobello with a master sommerlier
• Visit to Ostuni, “the white city” overlooking the plain and full of charming, steep winding streets—a personal favorite
• Meals at charming small local restaurants serving typical and innovative cucina
• Gala dinner at the unique Il Frantoia, a restored 15^th century olive mill where each course is prepared daily as part of a constantly changing tasting menu featuring the many unusual herbs, flowers, citrus fruits, and various olive varieties grown organically on the property. (The mill presses four different kinds of oils.) http://www.masseriailfrantoio.it/cuisine.htm.

The group size is a minimum of 12 and a maximum of about 15. We will be working with Antonello Losito and his team at Southern Visions Travel (http://www.southernvisionstravel.com/)—Antonello is both charming and highly professional and works with a team of experienced specialists that help make every detail of our tour memorable—in a good way! I spent a week with Antonello et al in April and fell in love with this up-and-coming region of Italy.

Wild Cardoncelli Mushrooms

Aliza with trullo house in Alberobello

Click on this link Making Artisan Pasta at Fante’s to see me preparing fresh pasta at Fante’s Kitchenware in the Ninth Street Italian Market, Philadelphia. Please send me your comments and pasta questions by clicking on the Ask Aliza tab on my website.

Italian Maremma & Umbria: A Pasta & Wine Lover’s Culinary Tour with Aliza Green: October 3 –13, 2012

Join Aliza Green, Italian food expert and author of 12 cookbooks, including Making Artisan Pasta, for a 10-day small-group exploration of autumn culinary delights, fresh pasta, and wine in wild, ancient Etruscan Maremma and Umbria, “Italy’s green heart.”

Visit Tarquinia and fifteenth-century Palazzo Vitelleschi with its fabulous winged horses.   Stay at Ramerino in the heart of the wild Maremma in southwestern Tuscany. Dine at small, local restaurants and meet the chefs. Visit medieval towns Suvereto, Massa Marittima, and Campiglia-Marittima. Pasta demonstration by “mama” at tiny Taverna del Tiburzi. Chocolate and wine pairing workshop with cioccolataio Dominico d’Affronto. Relax at Terme Calidario, elegant Etruscan/Roman style spa.

Tour Barrati Archeological Park on the site of an ancient Etruscan iron-working village. Decorate with fruits, vegetables, and flowers with Fiorella Falavigna De Leo.

Walk the beautiful trails at Ramerino then enjoy a special meal prepared by master salumaio (cured meat specialist), Davide Fedele. Tour and tasting at hyper-local sheep cheese farm, Podere Paterno, powered by geothermic steam. Tour and tasting at renowned Super-Tuscan Winery Petra designed by star-chitect Mario Botto.

Guided tour of Pitigliano (“la piccola gerusalemme”) by local expert with visit to the old Jewish quarter followed by lunch of Jewish specialties.

In Orvieto, stay at the Hotel Palazzo Piccolomini in a restored Renaissance palazzo. Welcome reception at La Champagneria. Tour and tasting at Castello della Sala winery in a medieval castle. Dinner and hand-stretched pasta demo with Chef Valentina Santanicchio. Tour, tasting, and leisurely lunch overlooking the vineyards at Falesco Winery.

Visit to Monterubaglio with demo by three local pasta queens, then a hands-on class with Chef Velia de Angelis. Gala farewell dinner at La Badia, a restored 12^th century abbey.

Land Package Price:  $4,985.00* per person based on two sharing

Single Supplement:   $895.00 limited availability, please inquire

*Price subject to revision at 90 days prior to travel date. Rate is based on a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 14 guests traveling together throughout. Price based on currency exchange as of March 2, 2012.

Includes:

• Hosted throughout by Epicopia Experience Director, Aliza Green
• Transportation to and from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport
• All transfers and baggage handling
• 10 nights’ accommodation (as listed or similar)
• Daily breakfast, 8 lunches, and 9 dinners (total of 3 meals on own)
• Limited local wines (or non-alcoholic beverages) with included meals
• Transportation by deluxe mini-coach with an experienced, professional driver
• All cooking classes and demonstrations
• Licensed professional guide in Pitigliano and Barrati
• 3 winery visits & tastings
• Entrance fees to museums and sites according to the itinerary
• VAT and other taxes
• Signed copy of Aliza Green’s Making Artisan Pasta upon your return
• Welcome package

Not included:

• Gratuities to driver and guides
• Two lunches and one dinner not included in the itinerary
• International airfares to/from Rome
• Travel Protection and Cancellation Insurance is recommended (must provide proof of coverage or signed statement)

FoodTrekker fox

“FIGHT THE CHAINS!” FUNDRAISING DRIVE

SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT FOOD & DRINK BUSINESSES

 (Portland, Oregon, USA  25 February 2012) – Today FoodTrekker.com announced the launch of “Fight the Chains!”  – calling all foodies to support a crowdsourced fundraising drive to develop key technology tools in support of its effort to preserve and promote culinary cultures, food and drink businesses, culinarian people and groups, and foodie destinations. “Nobody we know wants to be eating and drinking the same global burgers and coffees for the rest of their lives. We must fight back and support independent businesses.” says Erik Wolf, Founder and CEO of the International Culinary tourism Association and FoodTrekker.com. Interested parties can support the campaign directly at www.indiegogo.com/foodtrekker.

THE GOAL

Funds raised from this campaign will help build key technology tools like FoodTrekker’s Tasting Team module, which enables its Tasting Team – independent food/drink journalists and chefs like Aliza Green and Harry Pagancoss (two of FoodTrekker’s advisors) – to maintain an online portfolio, write about food & drink businesses, connect with their audiences, and showcase their original food/drink editorial, photo and video content in multiple languages.  This is just one of the ways FoodTrekker helps support independent food and drink businesses.

WHY CHAINS ACTUALLY HURT LOCAL ECONOMIES

Multinational chains swallow customers from independent food and drink businesses.  Since 2008, according to leading market research firm The NPD Group, a shocking 87% of restaurant industry traffic lost has been at independent restaurants. In other words, people are eating more at chains, and less at independent food and drink establishments.  “The independents don’t have the same deep pockets as the chains. It’s harder for us to survive,” says Tommy Klauber, a serial entrepreneur and owner of Pattigeorge’s Restaurant, Polo Grill & Bar and other independent foodservice businesses in Florida. Chains tend to export profits to corporate headquarters, leaving a smaller local economic impact than residents realize.

CELEBRITY CHEFS & AUTHORS FURNISH REWARDS

Campaign donors can choose cool rewards like cookbooks by James Beard-award winning author Aliza Green or celebrity chef & Association spokesperson Harry Pagancoss; a customized culinary tour in the US city of your choice; or even a personal celebrity chef cooking lesson in Portland, Oregon –home to the hottest culinary scene in the USA.

ABOUT FOODTREKKER

FoodTrekker.com is new kind of sales and marketing platform for all kinds of independent food and drink businesses and people. It covers a lot more than just restaurants – think the long tail of the food industry, including cooking schools, wineries & breweries, small food producers, farms & farmers’ markets, culinary magazines, chefs, food writers and much more. Big chains are banned. Unique to the site is proprietary matchmaking technology, which pairs foodies perfectly to the kinds of culinary experiences they’ll truly love. FoodTrekker just soft launched in its hometown of Portland, Oregon, with more cities and features coming soon.

WHY CROWDSOURCING WORKS

Crowdsourcing projects are a new way for new projects to raise the money they need to grow. Crowdsourced projects are all the rage now – with some garnering over US$1 million in a single campaign. Crowdsourcing works because it is funded by billions of raving fans,

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Erik Wolf, CEO and Founder, erik@foodtrekker.com, (+1) 503-213-3700

About International Culinary Tourism Association (ICTA) and FoodTrekker The ICTA is the world’s leading authority on culinary travel, with 16,000 members in 120 countries. The Association offers education and product development solutions to the world’s food and travel industries. FoodTrekker is a consumer-facing site that focuses on the preservation and promotion of the world’s culinary cultures.  Visit www.culinarytourism.org and www.foodtrekker.com for more information.

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hand-stretched rich egg-yolk pasta for tortellini

Fun, Easy and Delicious--Making Artisan Pasta

MAKING ARTISAN PASTA: How to Make a World of Handmade Noodles, Stuffed Pasta, Dumplings, and More

 Homemade rules in the kitchen, and everyone from artisan bakers to canners and picklers know it. Culinary enthusiasts are exploring classic skills again, and home cooks are making homemade, hand-shaped pasta faster than you can say tagliatelle.

With simple, fresh ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions, MAKING ARTISAN PASTA (Quarry Books) teaches you how make your own fettuccine, ravioli, lasagna, and dozens of other styles of pasta and noodles by hand. The fully illustrated, step-by-step tutorials will walk you through the entire tasty process, from mixing dough, rolling, and shaping pasta through cooking, serving, and storing. Artisan pasta is fun to make and fun to eat for everyone from kids to seniors. Colorful doughs flavored with red pepper, porcini mushrooms, and asparagus and flours like buckwheat, chestnut, and rye inspire the creative cook.

Going far beyond noodles, though, this book includes tutorials on gnocchi, Chinese pot stickers, pierogi, and dozens of other world pastas.

Inside you’ll find:

• History of pasta in China, Italy and modern day variations
• Clear explanations of  flour, eggs and other basic ingredients a pasta artisan might use
• Complete tutorial for making artisan-style hand-stretched pasta, the ultimate for flavor and texture
• Special kitchen tools and suggestions for using  tools you already have
• “Artisan Notes” providing special tips and tricks for every recipe
• Page after page of full-color photo diagrams showing techniques for successful results
• Comprehensive information on storage, freezing,  and more

Through author and chef Aliza Green’s expertise and encyclopedia knowledge of all things culinary, plus hundreds of gorgeous photos by acclaimed food photographer Steve Legato, MAKING ARTISAN PASTA will teach you everything there is to know about making fresh, delicious pasta in your home kitchen….and you’ll never look at the supermarket pasta aisle the same way again.

About the Author

ALIZA GREEN, author, consultant, and influential chef, has been a pasta fanatic ever since she spent a summer in Italy at age six. She studied with Marcella Hazan, from whom she learned to make fresh pasta for the Bolognese-inspired Ristorante DiLullo, where she served as Executive Chef. She studied Italian to read cookbooks and culinary publications and to work with chefs and food producers in Italy. With the help of the restaurant’s three pasta artisans, Green prepared enough fresh pasta to serve hundreds of customers daily, all cooked to order—a formidable task in a restaurant that seated more than 200. Green is the James Beard Award–winning author of ten suc­cessful food guides and cookbooks including The Fishmonger’s Apprentice (Quarry Books, 2010), Starting with Ingredients: Baking (Running Press, 2008) and Starting with Ingredients (Running Press, 2006), four Field Guides to food (Quirk, 2004-2007), Beans: More than 200 Delicious, Wholesome Recipes from Around the World (Running Press, 2004). To learn more about Green or to ask a culinary question, visit her website, www.alizagreen.com.

• • •

 MAKING ARTISAN PASTA

How to Make a World of Handmade Noodles, Stuffed Pasta, Dumplings, and More

by Aliza Green

Quarry Books

$24.99 US / $27.99 CAN

ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-732-7

 Please consider attending the New Bedford Working Waterfront Festival this weekend. Visit this link for more information: www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org

For fish and seafood lover’s only: New Bedford Working Waterfront Festival

 and to find out when and where I’ll be appearing.

Aliza Making Hand-Stretched Pasta at a Slow Food event

With the publication of my new book, Making Artisan Pasta (Quarry Books, January 2012), I will be traveling to the mysterious and wild Maremma in coastal Tuscany and to Italy’s “green heart”–Umbria with a group of 15 pasta lover’s this October. We’ll be learning to make our own fresh pasta and watching artisan pastai hand-stretch pasta for the ultimate in chewy but tender texture and rough surface that perfectly absorbs the sauce as well as touring top wineries, learning chocolate artistry, eating in some of the best regional restaurants and meeting chefs and producers, visiting markets, picking olives, and going on a wild mushroom hunt.

That tour is now sold out but I am starting to take names and contact information for those interested in joining me on my next culinary tour in fall 2012. Our tentative itinerary starts with a stay at a beautiful agriturismo (farm-inn) in the heart of the Maremma surrounded by medieval walled towns, geothermal springs, abundant game and wild mushrooms, and some of the most famous “Super-Tuscan” vineyards.

Antica Schiamadda, Genoa

Romanengo Genoa

From there, we’ll travel to Genoa–a marvelous multi-faceted seaport that is not visited by many tourists and home to superb fresh-herb pasta and fillings. Genoa is a center for artisanal food production and well worth a visit to wander the narrow streets of its walking quarter, home to Pietro Romanengo, which has been making superb candied fruits, bonbons and preserves in Genoa since the 18th century at the oldest candy factory in the world. We’ll be tasting and learning to make authentic  Pesto alla Genovese, Pansotti al Sugo di Noce (triangular ravioli stuffed with white cheese and fresh herbs including borage), Farinata (crispy, thin chickpea flour torte baked in a wood-burning oven) at l’Antica Schiamadda, and Torta Pasqualina (layered Easter pie filled with greens, hard-cooked eggs, and cheese). 

Antique copper pots in Lucca restaurant

 We’ll also visit the small, charming city of Lucca, home of top-quality olive oil, and famed for its intact Renaissance-era city walls as well as the delicious traditional Tuscan fare at its fine restaurants, considered by many to be the best in Tuscany.  Tortelli Lucchese, fresh ravioli made from bright golden yellow egg-rich dough, stuffed with ricotta, and topped with a rich meat ragu is a typical dish.  Also farro (ancient wheat grain), local heirloom beans, rabbit, and baccalà (salt cod). And, we wouldn’t want to miss exploring Tuscany’s Chocolate Valley nearby along the Via Cioccolato.

If you’d like to know more, please send an email message to me on the Ask Aliza tab and I’ll be sure to send you more details.

Buon appetito!