Today is our first full day at Paradiso with Peppe Zullo. We began with breakfast and then proceeded to the gardens at
Villa Jamele. Peppe gave our guests a tour of Jamele house along with a
bit of history.
We proceed to the wine room in the basement, where is shows off his temperature controlled room for
salami and cheeses. This is a new addition since our last trip.
We then tour the outdoor kitchen and patio. Along the way, we pick up some laurel for everyone to
taste and smell (fresh bay leaf). It immediately puts the senses on overload. Foraging takes on a new meaning, when you realize there are no 'weeds' but edibles and wild herbs. We gather and forage wild
arugula, dandelion greens, chicory, marisole, thyme, borage and much more. It is amazing how long the growing season is here and what we find along the way.
We have a full day of exploring the fields and learning how the produce
is used for certain menu items. If you ever wanted to explore the idea
of farm to table, this is it! Fresh, clean food is prepared with care
and creativity. The photo to the left is Borage. It is an underutilized
green in American cuisine, but here in this region of Italy, it is used
quite often. It is such a delight to enjoy.
We continue our outside stroll down to the large catering hall where Peppe
has the honeymooners sit in the bride and groom chairs. He does a lot of weddings here on site and they are spectacular!
We come back inside for a tour of
the large catering kitchen, all in stainless steel which is so easy to clean! Now if you want to eat you must cook! After all the greens are cleaned.
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| Look at this bounty of greens! We will be using most of these for our meals. |
One of our cousins actually works for Peppe. Pasqualina is a distant cousin on our father's side. She was so excited to see us! We hugged for a long while. It have been 5 years since we have seen each other. Below, she is demonstrating how to clean the wild field greens for our lunch. Bianca is paying close attention.
Antonio, who is one of the main chefs here with Peppe, is busy preparing a tasting. We have started our cooking class!
In Italy, the larger meal is typically served in the early afternoon. So the following pictures were from our lunch... a huge menu highlighting all those beautiful greens and herbs from the surrounding garden here on the grounds.
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| Swiss Chard |
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| Chickpeas and Borage in Olive Oil |
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| Fave Bean Puree and Dandelion Greens with Red Onion. |
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| Cannelini Beans with Chickory, Toasted Bread and a hint of Fresh Tomato |
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| Temper Style Borage. This is a wonderful green and I am always in awe at how much I love this one! |
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| Fried Onion Blossom |
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| Shaved Fennel Salad |
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| Crostini with fresh purees of |
We then tour the outdoor kitchen and patio. Along the way, we pick up some laurel for everyone to
taste and smell (fresh bay leaf). It immediately puts the senses on overload. Foraging takes on a new meaning, when you realize there are no 'weeds' but edibles and wild herbs. We gather and forage wild
arugula, dandelion greens, chicory, marisole, thyme, borage and much more. It is amazing how long the growing season is here and what we find along the way. 
We have a full day of exploring the fields and learning how the produce
is used for certain menu items. If you ever wanted to explore the idea
of farm to table, this is it! Fresh, clean food is prepared with care
and creativity. The photo to the left is Borage. It is an underutilized
green in American cuisine, but here in this region of Italy, it is used
quite often. It is such a delight to enjoy.
We continue our outside stroll down to the large catering hall where Peppe
has the honeymooners sit in the bride and groom chairs. He does a lot of weddings here on site and they are spectacular! 
We come back inside for a tour of
the large catering kitchen, all in stainless steel which is so easy to clean! Now if you want to eat you must cook! After all the greens are cleaned. 
3 comments:
Looks so delicious! Is this an olive bread at the end? What an amazing experience to share with la familia.
Love the lesson in greens and herbs. We received some comments from Peppe on boragio and had the large, batter friend leaves as part of our meal.
Buonissimo!!
Mike L
The last item is more of a sweet bread. They call this a panettone. But it was made with olives.
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