Cooking Classes

LEARN HOW TO PREPARE ISTRIAN DISHES, TRADITIONAL AND MODERN

Meet our hosts, people with deep understanding of Istrian food and wine. Stroll Pula’s green market or visit the local farmers to purchase the ingredients. Enjoy the homely atmosphere of our cooking studio, where we brunch, sip wine, prepare all the dishes from scratch and enjoy the fruits of our labour in the shade of olive trees. End it all chatting alongside some coffee or grappa, like Istrians do.

– the menus we offer are based on certain Istrian dishes, such as pasta and meat stew, or food items such as fish or truffles

– classes can be customised to your dietary habits – we can do vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, any food intolerance or allergy

FOR GROUPS OF 2-15 PEOPLE
AVERAGE CLASS DURATION: 9 AM – 4 PM

Some more details: The classes are held in Scuola, EatIstria’s cooking studio, with a maximum capacity of 15 people. Scuola is located in Goran’s olive grove, situated 15 minutes away from Pula by car. In case of bad weather or in cold months, the capacity is maximum 6 people.

The duration of the culinary workshops (including a visit to the Pula’s green market for sourcing groceries, the drive to the olive grove, a brunch, the workshop itself and lunch) is 7-8 hours. In the case of half-day classes, we skip the visit to the green market, we skip marenda so the program lasts for 3-4 hours.

All full-day classes include a welcome drink (sparkling wine or homemade grappa), and marenda, a light brunch, after the arrival to the olive grove (for example, prosciutto, cheese, olives, or baccala mantecato and salted anchovies).

Although we offer standardized programs, almost every workshop is slightly different than the others, as we adjust to the offer on the market on a given day, to seasonal groceries, and to customers’ desires. It is also possible to adjust the workshops to the guests’ dietary habits – from vegetarianism and veganism to certain intolerances, such as gluten or dairy. Certain workshops can be combined – for example, pasta making is not part of the fish class, but can be added with no extra charge. The dishes we prepare we normally eat at the table situated in the shade of the olive trees or of the pergola, unless the weather does not allow.

Vegetarian / vegan class

Being a poor area for a long time, Istrian cuisine was short on meat, so many of its traditional dishes are vegetarian / vegan or can be easily made so. For this class we make minestrones, creamy risottos or pastas with vegetable- or mushroom-based sauces, in spring – wild asparagus in every possible way…

Labinski krafi / Istrian ravioli class

Easily the best kept culinary secret of our peninsula, this ravioli-like pasta hails from east Istrian town of Labin, and is hard to find even on the menus of local restaurants. Traditionally made on special ocasions such as Christmas, it boasts rich, cheese-based filling, accompanied by an unusual combination of condiments including vanilla, nutmeg, lemon zest and raisins.

Truffles galore class

Learn to cook with truffles from starter to desert. A showcase for Istria’s most renowned food item. Where best to learn to cook with this delicate mushrooms if not in region graced by plenty of both black and white ones?

Traditional fish class

For our easily most creative class, we browse the fish market for daily offer and pick the best of the catch according to your preferences – be it shellfish, calamari, sardines, crayfish… Then we turn it into dishes our grandmas used to make and feed us when we were kids.

Čripnja / peka class

Dating back to ancient times, čripnja/peka is a baking bell made for cooking on open fire. Food prepared in them turns out neither cooked nor baked, but somewhere in between, crispy on the outside, yet tender on the inside. Veal, lamb or octopus usually find their place in a čripnja/peka.

Filleting & grilling fish class

For this class we source the best pieces of fish Pula’s fish market can offer, along with some seafood of your choice. We practice fish filleting, and use fillets to prepare raw fish dishes such as carpaccio, popular in Istria in recent years.

Pasta class

Although heavily influenced by Italian cuisine, Istria developed its own, unique types of pasta. For this class we prepare the most popular ones, namely fuži and pljukanci. We usually serve them with another local staple, žgvacet, a slowly cooked stew made from chicken or beef.

Baccalà / stockfish class

Ruling Istria for centuries, Venetian Republic left its mark in its traditional cuisine. The most common dish is bakalar na bijelo (known as baccalà mantecato in Italian), paté made from stockfish (air dried cod), which was being imported to Venice since centuries ago.