What Do You Know About Pistachios? Flavours Investigates The Sicilian Nut

Italy loves pistachios and they are found either whole, crushed or used as a flavour in a wide variety of products such as gelato, pesto, ravioli, pastries, cream, sweets and cakes. It seems to pervade every aspect of Italian cuisine and well it might as it has been in the country for probably more than a thousand years. In fact until relatively recently pistachios were grown and exported from Sicily mainly in the Bronte region and around the world-famous Etna volcano.

This love affair with the noble nut, often draped in the colour of emperors, probably dates back to the time of the Phoenicians or perhaps the earliest Greek, way back in the annals of time. But once the Arabs took control of these nut trees, during the ninth century, production really increased and everyone developed a taste for these tasty treasures many of us still crave today.

Originally you would find Pistachios grown in India and throughout Central Asia, the Middle East and all along the eastern Mediterranean. Therefore it wasn’t too difficult to see why Sicily should have joined this exclusive club and become world famous for her own production.

Sicilian pistachios though are somewhat different to other varieties as they are slightly longer and a tad thinner than those found in Iran and Iraq. The Sicilian pistachios also undergo savage pruning every two years, a practice which is said to date back to the Arab Saracens who really improved nut production a thousand years ago. They had good reason to improve their harvest as pistachios have always been a mainstay of many sweet confections. When it is mixed with cane sugar it produces the perfect, sickly and delicious pastry treats we know and savour even now.

The volcanic soils around Etna have contributed to the Sicilian pistachio being slightly more robust than its Middle Eastern cousin, certainly the taste is much sharper. However, not that many people outside Italy know this fact as pistachios are not exported in great numbers. Neither the Italian government or the EU offers the kind of financial helping hand olive farmers receive.  Therefore, as you can well imagine, this impacts considerably on the numbers of farmers who wish to grow and sell these nuts.

Added to financial constraints, they are often bedevilled with cultivation problems such as lack of water and the slightly temperamental qualities of Pistachio trees in general. It is generally considered that on the whole, almonds fare much better in the Sicilian climate and therefore are far more available bearing in mind the reputation  pistachios have as being just that little bit more challenging and risky too. Sicilian drought conditions also contribute to the fact production has fallen.

Still that doesn’t stop them appearing all over the country in one form or another. Pistachios make a lively substitute for pine nuts in a pesto, for example and are used to give texture to rice dishes and also go well as a snack when toasted while sitting in an Italian bar watching a sunset.

They have health properties too and offer an effective source of protein, thiamine and Vitamin B6 but that can be willingly destroyed when mixed up with eggs and cream to form a regal Italian ice cream.

If you want to learn more about Italian ingredients and really understand process and passion then why not undertake a Flavours Cooking holiday in 2013 and come home enthused. Check out the results of two Flavours aficionados and their Taste of Sicily book they produced on the back of their inspirational experience.

A day in the life of a Flavours host...

A native australian but a true Italophile - Jessica is our host in Tuscany at both our Villa Toscana and Villa Maria properties. We asked her to give us the lowdown of a day in the life of a Flavours guide.

6.30 Its always an early start! The day starts with opening up the villa so that the more energetic guests can take an early morning dip while I prepare the breakfast. The all important espresso maker is put to work while I make a fruit salad and bake the croissants. Today, un-surprisingly the weather is beautiful so I set the table on the terrace over-looking the breath-taking views of the Lucca plain. As the first few guests emerge I get busy making the coffee!

9.00 While the guests munch on breakfast I set up the cooking lesson. Today we're making Ravioli, so it's rolling pins at the ready!

10.30 After a leisurely breakfast the cooking begins. This weeks group is a nice mix of ages, there's five people, the youngest Sally (32) is a lawyer from London, while the oldest (early 70s - I don't ask ages) Tony is a retired Maths teacher. Anyway the lessons are always fun with plenty of laughs!

12.00 After the lesson is over I set the table and it's time to eat! There's nothing better than enjoying the fruits of our labour looking out over the stunning Tuscan landscape! Always the favourite part of my day!

2.00 With a full belly we head out to Lucca for a day of sightseeing. Lucca is a lovely medieval town which never feels too touristy. There's some stunning shops and plenty of chances to while away the hours people watching in one of the many pavement cafes. After flashing the cash on some new Italian boots (a girl can never have too many) I go to meet the rest of the group by the famous Piazzo Antiteatro.

8.00 With the whole group accounted for we set off for dinner at 'Ammodonostro' - which translates to 'In our own way.' It's a great little restaurant that takes classic Tuscan dishes presenting them in a contemporary way.

10.30 We head back to the villa with our driver Nicola. Some of the group fancy a quick nightcap, so I get the Vin Santo out. Not that I mind! It's a lovely way to end the day, unwinding and chatting looking out over the unspoilt landscape of the Lucca plain.

11.00 After making some early preparations for breakfast it's definitely time for bed! Buona Notte!

Olive harvest time!

In most Mediterranean areas of Italy, olives are normally harvested in the months of November, December and January. But in Tuscany, where cooler valleys are sometimes hit by early frosts, the harvest can begin as early as the end of September.

This early harvest means that the fruit is less ripe when it comes off the vine producing less oil, making Tuscan olive oils a bit more hard to come by than others. The less ripe olives also account for the prized peppery taste of olive oil from Tuscany. This autumnal harvest time is one of the best seasons to visit Tuscany – there are even parties thrown to honour it!

Olives are to this day picked by hand, and they are combed from the tree branches with a long instrument that resembles a giant pair of scissors. This old method, known as Brucatura, provides the best fruit as machines tend to bruise the fruit which has a direct impact on the taste. In Tuscany, the olives are always picked by hand, for proud Tuscans it would be a crime even to use one sub-standard Olive as this can effect the taste of the whole barrel!

As you can imagine, olive harvesting is difficult work. Usually, the entire family, and often their friends, are called upon to pitch in with the farm workers for the harvest. The olives are always picked when green and timing is hugely important. Once the fruit is off the trees, it must be rushed to the press in order to avoid the fruit spoiling. Fermentation becomes an issue once the olives are picked. So, it is on to the presses as quickly as possible.

Each olive is about 20 percent oil, so it takes a huge number of olives to produce a litre of oil – normally about 200! However, with the finer and more expensive oils, it sometimes takes the fruit of an entire tree to produce a litre.

In Tuscany, as in most of Italy, the olives are pressed at a communal mill which is called a Frantoio. At the frantoio, many growers bring their olives to be pressed, but each grower is proud of his olives and comes along with them to the mill, to be sure that only his harvest goes into the pressing. A centuries old tradition still very much alive and well in rural Tuscany!
Flavours offer Italian cooking holidays at two venues in Tuscany, Villa Maria (close to Florence) and Villa Segalato (close to Lucca). Flavours also offer Pilates and Painting holidays in Tuscany.

For more details visit www.flavoursholidays.co.uk

Learning with laughter...a cookery course in Italy!

Last week I spent a week in Tuscany (a small perk of working for Flavours) and I've come back brimming with stories to tell on our Flavours blog! I thought I would start with what was one of the most hilarious groups we've ever had with us. A group of ladies that really knew how to live la dolce vita!

We have a lot of clients travelling on their own with Flavours (mainly due to our zero single supplement policy) and a common trait of all of these single guests is the apprehension they feel towards the prospect of spending time in a remote villa with a group of strangers - not only that - having to share a kitchen with them too! I can imagine the kind of fear associated with going on a blind date, as you nervously search for that Flavours sign in the foreign and mildly exotic arrivals hall in a antiquated Italian airport, yet I can assure you that this is quickly put to bed when you pull up to the villa, as I did for an al fresco lunch with your fellow cooks!

It never fails to amaze me how food (of course with that secret ingrediant of Italian charm) brings people together, after that first sip of Italian chardonnay, everyone was getting along splendidly. I've seen an accountant from Nottingham swopping recipes with a art teacher from Kent and a retired project manager from Milton Keynes talking wine with a chiropodist from Dublin, every holiday has a huge range of professions and ages!

The great thing about Flavours holidays is that we bring people together that have one common passion, it could be painting or pilates but this time it was cooking! Food is central to la dolce vita that Italians are so fond of and it's suprising how quickly you can slip into a daily life of eating, cooking, sunbathing, wine tasting and shopping, without those niggling annoyances of home (you will never need to wash up on a Flavours holiday). I don't know if it was the wine or the sunshine but I have never laughed so much as I did that week, and I was at work...with compleate strangers! On the second day, one of the ladies coined a phrase that I think will become a Flavours cliche, 'it's like learning with laughter!' I couldn't have said it better myself! Our holidays are as much about relaxation and socialisation as they are about learning authentic Italian ways of cooking, you will find that the week flies by, yet when you come back, you will have scores of different things to do with courgettes, tomatos, rabbit(it's amazing!) and the shapes you will make out of pasta would easily put Henry Moore to shame!

The week ended with us all exchaning email addresses and ready to meet up in the future, I just have to find an excuse to get out of the office for a dinner party, just to make sure everyone was paying attention, rather than giggling behind wooden spoons and pasta cutters!

You can find out more about our cookery holidays to Tuscany on our website, where you can also try out some of the recipes we sampled!

Top 5 Luxury Italian Flavours for 2009...on a budget

It seems everywhere we turn we are reminded of the current economic situation that really puts a dampner on our desire to indulge. Who says the financial gloom-mongers’ talk of a recession need rain on our gourmet parade! Italians are famous for the dolce vita and why would they ever let the credit crunch get in the way. Here's our guide to the living like Dolce and Gabanna with the money of gepetto pinocchio - inside secrets from our Italian staff...

Don't buy champagne...buy Prosecco.
Fast becoming the preferred and more economical choice when reaching for the fizz Prosecco is made from a variety of white grape of the same name. The grape is grown mainly in the Veneto region of Italy. The main ingrediant of the Bellini cocktail, it's the perfect antidote to a day cooking up a storm in the cocina.


Prosciutto - more than just a Ham
Like all Italian ingrediants there is more to prosciutto than meets the eye. There are two types of Prosciutto (cooked and raw or cured), most non-Italians think of the uncooked, air cured variety known as Prosciutto crudo. Prosciutto has been made in Italy since Roman times, the name coming from the Latin word meaning, "dried of liquid." Prosciutto di Parma, the variety most non natives have heard of has been praised for its flavour for over two thousand years. One of the great tings about prosciutto is it keeps forever - almost!

A sophisticated but thrifty dinner party starter Prosciutto e Melone (simply prosciutto and melon) is always a hit!

Never scrimp on good espresso.
Italians will never compromise on coffee! Espresso is brewed by forcing steam or hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee.
Espresso was developed in Milan, Italy, at the start of the 20th century and quickly became a hit amoungst Italian society. Espresso has a thicker consistency than drip coffee and is much, much stronger. Most Italians would never dream of starting a day without one. Great traditional brands that won't break the bank are Illy from Trieste,Segafredo from Bologna and Italy's favourite brand Lavazza from Torino.

Grana Pedano...the poor mans parmesan
Very similar in flavour to it's famous cousin although less sharp and milder Grana Pedano is known amoungst Italians as the poor mans parmesan. The name comes from the noun grana meaning (‘grain’), which refers to the distinctively grainy texture of the cheese, and Padano, which refers to the valley Pianura Padana.
Grana Padano was created by the monks of Chiaravalle who used ripened cheese as a way of preserving surplus milk. By the year 1477, it was regarded as one of the most famous cheeses of Italy.
Like Parmesan Grana Padano is a semi-fat hard cheese which is cooked and ripened slowly (for up to 18 months). It is produced by curdling the milk of grass-fed cows. It is produced year-round and the quality can vary seasonally as well as by year like wine.

Good home cooking...
Integral to Italian life and the perfect solution to the credit cruch, cooking at home is not only more economical than dining out, but offers the chance for that very Italian tradition of hours and hours at the dinner table - living the dolce vita. If you would like to learn how to cook and live Italian style then come and join us in Italy for our Flavours Italian Cooking Holidays 2009.

Buon Natale - a brief guide to Italian Christmas Traditions...

Buon Natale from everyone at Flavours! We’ve had a fantastic year with plenty of memorable moments in the kitchen and lots of new friends made on our Italian cookery holidays.

Our cooking courses for 2009 are proving very popular, why not make your new years resolution to come away with us and live the dolce vita! New for 2009 is our week long cooking holiday to Tuscany and a brand new villa in Bologna.
Our online gift shop offers some fantastic last minute ideas ranging from nifty gadgets for the home to luxurious cooking holidays in a box filled with Italian treats!
But how is Christmas celebrated in Italy?

Although Babo Natale (Father Christmas) and giving presents on Christmas are becoming more common, the main day for gift giving in Italy is Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas when the three Wise Men gave Baby Jesus their gifts.

In Italy, presents are brought by La Befana, a kind but ugly witch who arrives in the night to fill children's stockings. Le Befana arrives on her brromstick during the night of Janurary the 5th and fills childrens stockings with sweets, however the bad children get a lump of coal!

The Italian Christmas dinner is traditionally only made with fish! Called the feast of 7 fishes consisting of calamari, shrimp, clams, mussels, crab and of course a show-stopping main course, Stuffed Lobster. The Christmas dinner is traditionally eaten on Christmas eve and is followed by the most fabulous Penettone from the north! Check out our fabulous Panettone recipe on the blog!

Just to let you know our office is closed from the 19th December until the 5th January.

Have a delicous Christmas and a tasty New Year!