Alumni Story: Natalie's "Rule of Yes"

When describing our culinary adventures, we always tell potential guests to "Expect surprises!" but it can be hard to explain the exact quality of unexpected moments that pop up throughout a trip.

When Natalie Beck, a friend of a friend from Boulder, pulled Peggy's phone number out of her pocket and joined the 2010 Amalfi sailing program last June, the course of her European vacation was changed and she jumped head-first into an experience that she describes as "something out of the movies."

"I was living by the rule of 'Yes'," Natalie explains, "No matter what it was, I decided to say Yes." Saying yes became infinitely easier as she traveled with Peggy among new Italian friends. "I was treated like family by everyone I met, the whole time, because I was with Peggy."

Watch Natalie retell a few of her favorite moments from the trip in this short video clip, filmed at Cafe Aion in Boulder:





During this 20th Anniversary year, we invite you, our alumni, to share your own stories with us! Send us written memories, photos, and video clips of the stories that followed you back home. 

Fishing in the Black Canyon, a video by Graham Markel

Organic olive oil tasting at Cortijo di Suerte Alta

Moroccan Fish Pastilla Recipe

Guided by master chef Bahija, we learned to make a traditional Moroccan chicken pastilla during the 2010 trip to Morocco.


Ready with our assortment of spices


Adding saffron to the chicken.



Bahija crushes almonds for the chicken pastilla by hand, a method she
laughingly refers to as the "Berber food processor."

By popular request, the recipe for a fish and seafood version of the pastilla follows. Enjoy!
FISH PASTILLA (Pastille au Poisson)
The below recipe uses filo dough to form the crust of the pastilla. Traditionally, Moroccan pastilla is made with warka, a slightly less-flaky, more malleable pastry sheet. In the United States, warka can be found in many Middle Eastern groceries, but filo dough also makes a suitable substitution.
>> 1 pound of filo dough
>> 5 T melted butter
>> 2 egg yolks
>> 14 oz white fish, cut in pieces
>> 14 oz. shrimp
>> 14 oz squid
>> 2 diced onions
>> 4 cloves garlic
>> 2 Tablespoons parsley
>> 5 oz. vermicelli

>> 1 teaspoon cumin
>> 1 teaspoon paprika
>> 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
>> 1 teaspoon saffron
>> 1 teaspoon harrissa (spicy tomato paste)
>> 1 preserved lemon, quartered and pulped
>> juice of one lemon
>> butter


Sauté fish in a skillet with 1 teaspoon of butter for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
Sauté shrimp for 5 minutes, separately, add salt and pepper. Sauté squid with salt and 1teaspoon harissa.

Sauté onion in a little butter until translucent.

Soften vermicelli in hot water, drain and set aside.

Melt a little more butter and add half the of the fish (you will save the other half) to the pan, together with all of the shrimp and squid. Add parsley, vermicelli, garlic, cumin, paprika, preserved lemon, lemon juice, saffron, salt and pepper. Mix and simmer in the pan for 10 minutes (or a bit longer if necessary, to ensure that the vermicelli is cooked.)

Butter pan for the pastilla.

Place 5 leaves of filo around in a fan, starting from the center (like we did in class with the warka) and brush with butter. Add one more in the center and brush again with melter butter.

Add filling, spreading evenly. Add the fish pieces that you saved and place them around the top of the filling. Brush outer leaves with butter and beaten egg. Fold the leaves of filo over the filling, trying to keep it round. Brush again with butter. Add one or two sheets of filo on top. Tuck in well. Brush again with butter and remaining egg yolk.
Cook at 400 degrees F. for 20 minutes or until golden. Decorate with lemon slices and cilantro. Slice into wedges like a pie. Serve hot!

Slow Food Cooking 101: Finding our materia prima at the Sant'Ambrogio Market

I’ve been lucky enough to travel with elephant columnist and dear friend Peggy Markel these last few weeks, in Morocco and Italy. This morning, over lattés at her favorite family-owned café in Florence, Cibreo, I said to her, “Peggy, it’s not that I want to open a restaurant or be a professional chef, but I want to learn to make delicious food for my family and friends. Where do I start?”

Usually, I start with a recipe in mind and then hit the internet or a cookbook, make a few tweaks, and the result is fairly decent. But Peggy took me to the market and taught me that great quality cooking starts with great quality ingredients. It’s all about how you choose your materia prima, as she (and the Italians) call it—the basic building blocks of a meal.
~ Merete Mueller

Read the rest of the post, including a video tour of the Sant'Ambrogio Farmer's Market in Florence, at elephantjournal.com

Peggy Markel's Journal Juju~film by Cynthia Morris

Fritatta!

Frittata has become one of my favorite things to make. It's simple, easy and quick, and uses up savory bits of this and that for a tasty dish. The fresher the eggs, the better. While staying in California I collected fresh eggs everyday. A filmmaker friend was coming for lunch, so we thought to film from the gathering of the eggs to the finished frittata.



Frittata Californiana

6 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
a drizzle of olive oil
1/2 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano
1 shallot, chopped fine
1 yellow pepper, diced
(any bits of left over cheese, goat, blue or otherwise, in this case I used a cup or so of homemade spinach pasta)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves separated from the stems
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together eggs, milk and parmigiano, salt and pepper. In an non-stick pan, saute' shallot in olive oil, adding a pinch of fresh thyme. Add chopped fresh pepper and saute until semi-soft. Add bits and pieces of your tasty leftovers. Add egg mixture and stir around
gently to incorporate the flavor base of shallot and pepper. Add leftover pasta, spread around. Add a small handful of grated parmigiano and a few leaves of thyme. Cook on top of the stove on a low flame until the egg pulls away from the pan on the sides. At this point, put it under the broiler at 500F in the oven. Let it cook for a few minutes until the frittata starts to puff and turn golden. At this point, it should be cooked through. Take pan out of the oven and cool for just a minute. You should be able to give the pan a shake and loosen the frittata right on to a serving plate. Serve hot!

Speak to me of love Peggy Sue...'Parlami d'amore Mariu'

How to temper chocolate the artisan way in Sicily

Ordinary Magic ~ Devi Garh village potter

Shoba and I took a walk down from the 18th century Palace of Devi Garh into the village of Delwara. The village was half painted powder blue,in honor of Krishna (and to keep bugs away..they say.)The people of the village were so friendly. We popped into one man's courtyard and watched him throw a small pot. He was so agile.

Out of the mud near his wheel came this beautiful small vessel in minutes.

Singing Sardinian Dishwashers

In May of 2009, I accompanied my dear friend Lisa Bartolomei to Sardinia on a scouting trip for Anthony Bordain's 'No Reservations'. Even though Lisa is Florentine, her mothers side of the family comes from Nuoro, a small town in the 'introterra'of Sardinia. We visited her Aunt Luciana who is a true herbalist that harvests wild plants and grows some of her own to make medicines to sell in her 'Erbosteria'. Needless to say, the hospitality was stellar and we ate extremely well. (more on that later)..

In between meals, we raced from venue to venue to 'fix' locations and meet the people to let them know how the production would unfold. Slowly and surely, I fell into a trance as the countryside flew by me.

Tooling around the green hills dotted with sheep was not unexpected. Neither was savoring world class ricotta from 'Pecorino sardo'on pan caracao.

What I didn't expect, was to see such uninhibited passion in the everyday. It shouldn't have surprised me. Italians are passionate about most everything. Take that passion and push it out into the middle of the Mediterranean and you will find an even more independent folk;'I Sardi', used to doing things their own way- even the dishes. And they'll be darned if someone tries to stop them.

A passion for life? Put it to work.

The ladies of Santuario San Francesco di Lula, do just that.

I must be the only visitor to Sardinia who barely saw the sea..but apparently didn't need to.