Sicilian Olives, Wine & Cooking™

Check in to our luxury resort property for a Sicilian cooking tour where you will participate in hands-on cooking classes, visit an olive farm and and experience a wine tasting featuring five wines.  Cooking classes are traditional and delicious using high quality produce and products – farm-to-table, seasonal and local.  Tie on your apron with Executive Chef Angie and learn how to prepare Sicilian fare followed by delicious food with precious wine from the property’s cellar.

Olive Oil Farm Tour & Tasting With Harvest Lunch

Experience an olive farm tour and authentic harvest lunch with olive oil tastings.  Meet the Signora and learn how she and her family have been producing extra virgin olive oil for decades.  She welcomes you to her property, leads you through silvery green trees brimming with olives that will be pressed into extra virgin olive oil.  You will learn about sacred olive trees, how they grow, how the olives are picked by hand, and the cold pressing process.  Taste the olive oil and discover olive varieties that can be applied to cooking.

Following the tour, relax on the terrace and enjoy a harvest farmer’s lunch including crostini with sun dried tomato and caper pâté, frittata, anelletti pasta, eggplant parmigiana, peppers with capers and mint, and caponata, a Sicilian salad with eggplant, tomato mint.  Sip and swirl on Signora’s homemade wine while enjoying fresh fruit from her garden.  Join the Signora for an authentic tour and harvest lunch in the heart of Sicily!

Sicilian Cooking Classes

In the kitchen, learn to prepare delicious Sicilian antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, main courses and dessert in your hands-on cooking classes with Chef Angie in Sicilian cooking classes and pasta making classes preparing traditional fare.  Learn about farm-to-table produce like fresh fish, artisan cheese and bread, grass-fed meat, Sicilian eggplant and tomatoes that transform into delicious fare.  Sicilian desserts including ricotta cheese pie, cassata, and cannoli are a few of the traditional sweets on the menu.  Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys the foods that were prepared in the cooking class.  Enjoy antipasto – grilled and stuffed eggplant, artichokes Sicilian-style – fresh pasta tossed in almond pesto, ravioli stuffed with ricotta and pistachio sauce, fresh fish stuffed with herbs, or grass-fed meat stuffed and roasted and garnished with zucchini flowers.  Desserts are always a treasure with hand-stuffed cannoli, fruity cassata and ricotta, a traditional cheese and orange pie.

Sicily Wine & Extra Virgin Olive Oil Tasting

Discover Sicilian wine and extra virgin olive oil of this region where the constant sun and sea breeze add to the flavor.  Learn about the precious wine of this region while sipping and swirling five glasses of wine.  Also in the food experience, you will taste three extra virgin oils while learning and discussing the growing properties, pressing and varieties of olives before being cold-pressed into extra virgin olive oils.

Sicily

Sicily has a fiery passion, and a vivacity and spirit that extends from the top of Mount Etna, to the sea that surrounds the island, to the hearts of its people. Sicily is the melting pot of the world, a great blend of history and cultures, since this island was first inhabited.  Sicily’s history started with the Greeks, then to the Romans, Arabs, and Normans. Each group of travellers arrived with their culture and then left it behind, leaving Sicily a melting pot of flavors. Orange and lemon orchards, vineyards and olive groves line the rugged island, while almond trees grow almost wild.

And from all of its delicious wonders, brings a Sicilian cuisine that is described as del sole e mare, of sun and sea.  A rich food culture, layered with spices and herbs from the Arabs and Greeks to the Spanish and French influences, has made Sicilian food one of the most applauded in the world. Sicilians not only know how to cook, but are genuine, passionate and friendly. They are always willing to help or stop to have a conversation, and it is not uncommon for visitors and tourists to receive invitations to a local’s house for dinner.  

Sicily Accommodations, Luxury Resort

The luxury resort property is set on a green hill with a splendid view over the countryside near Menfi.  The resort is immersed between beautiful vineyards and olive groves, and half-way between the Sicilian coast and the country. This luxury resort also has a restaurant, an infinity pool and private restaurant.  It’s just a short distance from the Porto Palo beach, making it the perfect location.  Rooms are large and bright – each one with a private ensuite bathroom and comfortable bedding. Breakfast, including whole Italian fare – coffee, tea, fruit, artisan bread and cakes, cereals, and cheese – is served daily.

Click for Property Photo Gallery

Itinerary~ 5 Days, 4 Nights

Day 1: Arrival & Check-In

• Arrival and check in at the resort.
• Relax and explore the area, take a swim in the property swimming pool and soak up the Sicilian sun.
• Welcome dinner at the hotel including a chef’s tasting menu on Sicilian fare.  Wine and beverages are not included and available at a surcharge.

Day 2: Olive Oil Farm Tour & Tasting Lunch

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, step into the olive grove for a visit to the farm, olive orchard and mill.  Step-by-step, you will see how the olives are grown, how they are picked, pressed, then bottled.  Sample a selection of extra virgin first-cold-pressed olive oil while learning about acidity, scents and flavor from the different varieties.
• After your tour of the olive groves and the mill, relax on the terrace and enjoy a harvest farmer’s lunch including crostini with sun dried tomato and caper pâté, timballo di pasta, frittata, traditional anelletti pasta, eggplant parmigiana, peppers with capers and mint, Sicilian salad with mint and sweet homemade wine prepared by our Chef.  The experience ends with fresh fruit.  She will also explain how fresh local olive oil pairs to perfection with the local Sicilian cuisine.
• Afternoon free. Suggestion: visit the ancient Temples in Agrigento.
• Dinner on your own – with suggestions provided.

Day 3: Cooking Class – Traditional Sicilian Fare , and Wine with Extra Virgin Olive Oil Tasting!

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning cooking class.  Tie on your apron for your cooking class preparing a full-course menu of traditional Sicilian fare of four courses – from antipasto to timballo, fresh pasta, Scabbard fish with herbs and cassata, Sicilian ricotta cake.  During the cooking class, learn about extra virgin olive oil with discussion and tasting.
  Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the cooking class with 2 glasses of wine included.
• In the later afternoon, meet your sommelier for a wine tasting in the property’s tasting room with five precious glasses of wine.  Also included, is an extra virgin olive oil tasting with three extra virgin olive oils and discussion.
• Dinner on your own.  Suggestions provided.

Day 4: Cooking Class – Sicilian Street Food

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning cooking class.  Tie on your apron for your cooking class preparing Sicilian street food – learn the history of Sicilian street food and how to prepare three recipes that you can easily recreate at home for lunch, holidays or picnics.  Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the cooking class with 2 glasses of wine included.
• Following the cooking class, relax by the pool with the property’s Sicilian wine.
• Later in the evening, dinner on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 5: Check Out & Departure!

• Breakfast is served.
• Morning checkout and departure.
• Arrivederci Sicily!