Regaleali- Tasca d'almerita is one of the most important wine producing estates in Sicily. Nearly all the produce that appears on its groaning tables comes from the fram-  lamb. Poultry, sheeps milk cheeses, wheat, olive oil, vegetables and fruit.
Anna runs courses from 1-5 days. Courses are held in autumn – late September/ October and early November and again in the spring – March/April. And May with a maximum of 12 students. Six guests only can stay on the estate but there is an Agriturismo Tudia nearby.
 
 

Driving up to Regaleali is definitely an adventure – windy roads with steep curves as I head continually upwards. The mountains here are spectacular – soft-rounded peaks which plummet to carefully etched valleys . I  feel anxious every time I pull over to look at the breathtaking view.

A one and a half hour drive from Palermo and I am in the interior 'heart' of Sicily.  Dry, dessicated clods of brown earth crumble beneath the farm workers feet as they roam the hills along side me- no rain for nine months now.  Suddenly the road changes to huge potholes which I carefully circumnavgate  and then gravel. I keep driving until I see green vines everywhere.

The cooking classes at Regaleali are held in a lovely old stone building called"Casa Vecchia'. I enter through a painted royal blue arch to find myself in a courtyard with huge palms, and tables and chairs scattered about.
The Marchesa Anna Tasca Lanza is an extraordinary woman.- a woman running a very successful business in such an obviously man's world.  She greets me wearing jeans and running shoes and leads me into the most wonderful kitchen – shelves bulging with her produce – fig jam, quince paste- cotogna, home- made tomato salsa, artichokes and mushrooms 'sotto olio', sun-dried tomatoes, rich crimson tomato extract, and an array of home made cordials.  Copper pots and pans gleam from the walls, and two tables set with colourful ceramic plates are eagerly waiting to hold the efforts of our cooking lesson which we will proudly consume at lunch.

Anna is  aided by two assistants smartly dressed in blue and white check uniforms and aprons. Anna and her sister Costanza did not go to school they had a tutor at home and their aristocratic training has prepared them well for this invitation into the world of Regaleali.  The winery which has been completely  modernized to  ensure that all wines produced are premium world class wines,  is run by  Anna's nephews .  Anna runs the cooking school aided by her charming and very knowledgeable husband Venceslao, both a count in Italy and a Marchese in Spain, always in jacket and tie  and offering anecdotes about Sicilian life to guests.

The sun here in Sicily is so strong that it makes sun-drying anything – tomatoes, grapes for passito, currants, or the incredibly rich tomato extract a viable alternative for preserving food.  Sicilians also preserve fruit, make their own jams and honey,s, or place vegetables and herbs in salt or in oil or vinegar to continue enjoying them throughout the cold winter months.  Sicilians have no concept of waste – water from boiling broccoli becomes the base of a soup; left-over pasta from lunch is thrown into the soup pot for dinner; even the must from the wine is distilled to make alcohol, or boiled to make sticky sweet paste, placed in a variety of moulds and sun-dried to become a dessert served with cheese.

For our cooking class we are making
· sarde al beccafico – pan-fried sardines
· arancini – fragrant rice balls consumed anytime in Sicily as a snack
· pesce al tiepida – marinated fish bruschetta
· crostata di fichi freschi – fresh fig tart
· crostata di marmellata – a jam tart

Anna prepares 'pasta frolla' a pastry dough widely used in Italy; its sweet richness varies depending on usage an personal taste. Sicilians like drier cakes than us. An interesting preparation  was to butter the springform tins for the crostate and instead of flouring them, Sicilians use very fine breadcrumbs. The pastry is made by hand, rolled out roughly and then pressed into the tins. The topping of fresh figs and home made strawberry preserve are from the estate. She shows us how to butterfly the sardines, inviting guests to come and have a go. Using our fingernails we open the backbone of the fish from head to tail and then, using two thumbs to open up the sardine we carefully remove the backbone. The speed with which I had seen fishmongers do this in the Vucciria market was not matched by our clumbsy and fumbling attempts.  The sardines are soaked in vinegar and then washed, patted dry . A quick dip into flour and they are quickly fried in the wonderfully pungent Sicilian olive oil.

We also prepare a marinated fish to have on bruschetta. Take any fresh fish, fillet it, and place it in a dish with lots of lemon juice – the Sicilian lemons are much more perfumed and aromatic than ours, and a full-bodied olive oil. Salt and  pepper. Leave the fish to mariante for 1 hour in the fridge and then take small pieces and place on the wonderful  Sicilian semolina bread that has been lightly toasted.  Sicilians rarely use cracked black pepper and  the Marchesa has a penchant for pepe rosso – ground chilli pepper. This special bread is called 'rimacinato' and its warm golden colour invites you to bite into its crunchy crust liberally sprinkled with sesame seeds.

The last and most complicated dish that we  make are arancini- rice balls with a crispy coating we can not match here in Australia without this incredibly versatile bread.  Arancini traditionally have a fragrant interior of meat ragu made with both pork and veal or beef, or with mozzarella and prosciutto or béchamel sauce and prosciutto.  Breadrcumbs for many Sicilians in their history have been the alternative to cheese and are often called 'poor man's parmesan'!

The risotto we make is so easy. Instead of ladling stock from a hot pot,  once the rice has sauted with the onions the stock is added all in one go and the lid placed on the pot.  One of Anna's assistants stirs it occasionally.  To colour the risotto Bertolini makes a ground saffron which is added to the pot and turns the mixture to a golden-yellow!  While waiting for the risotto to cool Anna takes us into her extraordinary garden. How do things grow in this unrelelenting heat for nine months of the year.  The abundance of  vegetation is overwhelming.  Even though the land is so dry and cracked and parched, palnts grow profusely even the bay leaf I picked had an extraordinary perfume. Anna has just written and printed another book ' Herbs and Wild Breens from the Sicilian countryside' – full of explanations of such exotic ingredients as wild asparagus made into frittata, nepitella or catnip roasted with artichokes – we use it keep animals away – or even nettles made into a soup!

The making of the arancini is a group activity and we all wet our hands to take a handful of rice, create a little pocket in the middle to place a spoonful of ragu inside and then we carefully close the ball. Arancini are traditionally made in a cone- shape with ragu and in a round shape if filled with prosciutto and mozzarella or spinach and mozzarella.

The rice balls we proudly place in a mixture of egg and flour beaten together and then into a bath of breadcrumbs – an unusual and different method which help the breadcrumbs to stick and give the riceballs a heavy coating of crumb.

Lunch is served with rosato from the Regaleali estate and we spend a pleasant hour or two discussing our achievements and eating it all!   Those who have some energy left , drive with the Marchese up to the winery for a tour  while those sated with wine and fabulous food lounge on the conveniently place chairs in the glorious sunshine.  I talk and relax with chefs and guests from all over the world  before dragging myself away from this peace and tranquility for the drive back to Palermo.