La Serata Pugliese

We were out having aperitivo with friends one night when two girls in our group came up with the idea of cooking up a meal featuring authentic dishes from their hometown region of Puglia. What a great idea! We offered our home as a venue and that's how we found ourselves chowing down on the best Pugliese food in town one Sunday night.

Puglia is the region that's the heel of the boot. One of the pasta that's synonymous with this region is orrechiette, which literally means 'little ears'. Our friend P spent several hours that morning making these from scratch!

Our friend W cooked up a pot of 'brasciule' - meat rolls with a parmesan cheese and herb filling, simmered in a tomato sauce to-die-for. First we had the sauce with the oriechette. Yes, you can definitely taste the difference in taste and texture of handmade fresh pasta. Then we had the meat smothered in more sauce for the secondi. It was all soooo good.

Here I am with the two talented cooks. I'm hoping some of it can rub off me. ;-)

And if that wasn't enough, P outdid herself further with dessert. An amaretti bavarese with a hazelnut chocolate sauce. Oh, and did I mention we had wine? D brought over 3 bottles of good red wine to help wash everything down.

Wait, there was also that bottle of white wine which we opened while waiting for dinner to be ready. No wonder we were all happy, relaxed and definitely well fed that night.

Thanks P and V for cooking! Can we do this again soon? ;-)