A must for all visitors is to meet those who were born and work in this corner of Sicily, so they can get a closer view of local culture and values, through food.
Watching your mother, or even better your grandmother while cooking is the best way to learn a recipe. Giovanna is the grandmother who always prepares local Ragusan dishes: “ravioli with ricotta”, “cavatelli” with pork, “parmigiana” made with eggplant, “fava beans”, local vegetables picked straight from the garden and, the inevitable “scacce” ... just to say a few!
To look at Giovanna’s hands while preparing “cavati” or “scacce co 'u rieficu” is an experience that revives the beauty of ancient gestures.
Meeting her is the best way to bring home those flavors and colors of the local cuisine in Ragusa.
Conoscere e decidere di acquistare la cioccolata modicana di Casa Don Puglisi, non è soltanto una scelta di qualità, ma anche etica.
Buying chocolate from Modica at “Casa Don Puglisi”, is not only a quality choice, but also an ethical one.
The house is named after Don Giuseppe Puglisi, and welcomes women, mothers with children in need, by giving them food, shelter, and the dignity of a job.
When entering the laboratory you can breathe the air of the old artisan shops, and the use of raw fair trade products adds to the flavor of redemption for all the Southern countries of the world.
Solidarity, Tradition and Quality are the trademarks of ‘Casa Don Puglisi’, and seeing is believing!
In the middle of Ragusa’s countryside, there is a family farm, where two young sisters, 23 and 26 years old have decided to stay and dirty their hands! Under their mother’s supervision, Veronica and Valeria prepare homemade bread with wheat flour obtained from the wheat grown by their Dad. After baking it in a stone oven, the girls sell their homemade bread to ‘Coldiretti’. Wouldn’t you like to taste their original ‘pane cunzato’?
Livestock is one of the leading sectors in Ragusa’s local economy, and dairy farms are part of the country life.
A typical farm product is ‘ricotta’ cheese; a main product of Ragusa’s sweet & savory ‘culinary’ culture. Going to the farm to eat warm ‘ricotta’, prepared in a hot caurara over a wood fire, is an experience for the palate that also gives you the chance to discover the beautiful Iblean countryside, and allows you to meet the families who live there.
Arianna's curiosity for the world of wine started early, at age 16.
Her passion, experience, and curiosity, accompanied also by a degree in Viticulture and Enology have helped her turn it into a profession.
Arianna has been seeing her company and her projects grow since 2004; a laboratory of ideas to be implemented within the company itself.
A young company, all the employees are between 25 and 35 years old; an organic company that grows only local grapes and where the harvesting is done by hand only.
"The bunch should be cut and placed carefully in the case" says Arianna.
Andrea's passion for bees started in the spring of 2002 when a close beekeeper friend asked him to assist during the capture of a swarm. Once the capture operations were over and he earned his first bite, Andrea immediately bought a family of bees and a hive. Today the hives are about four hundred!
His respect for bees, the environment and the consumer has led to an "Organic" production system; breeding in fact is awaiting a "BIO" certification.
The health status of the bees and the processing of the products are supervised by Dr. Andrea, who is also a vet and takes care of food inspection.