A Sicilian culinary retreat: Love is a Pink Villa in Sicily
3 - 10 May 2025
Learn the secrets of Sicilian cuisine at one of the Mediterranean’s most exclusive private villas, and indulge in the island's full citrus and almond extravaganza with acclaimed pastry chef Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes in London.
Highlights of the week
• hands-on cookery lessons with Claire Ptak and Rocca delle Tre Contrade's in-villa chef Dora
• a vineyard visit with wine-tasting
• foraging
• a street food and market tour
• guided excursions to some of the area's most iconic sights.
All this while staying in the luxurious confines of Rocca delle Tre Contrade, one of the very top villas in the Mediterranean.
“The local women from the Tre Contrade kitchen [Dora and her assistants] stepped in to teach us how to make arancini, cannoli, almond semifreddo, and the heavenly cakes that were always available for guests to snack on. A profound camaraderie grew between the head chef - Dora Maugeri, a tiny force of nature - and Puglisi [Michelin-starred chef in residence], but also with the students.”
Food & Wine magazine, September 2020
About Claire
We are extremely happy to announce that Claire Ptak will be joining Chef Dora for this culinary retreat. Claire is a baker, food writer and food stylist, and runs the renowned bakery 'Violet Cakes' in London's East End, where she serves local residents as well as preparing her creations for big events and even royal weddings.
Claire will be holding several pastry master classes during our culinary week, covering pastry making, baking and gelato making, and tapping into local seasonal ingredients, such as citrus fruit, orange blossom, pistachios, almonds, strawberries, sheep's milk ricotta and Etna pears.
A California native, Claire Ptak worked as a pastry chef for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse before moving to London. Here she quickly became a food stylist for celebrity chefs such as Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver, before renovating a derelict building in East London and setting up her shop and café 'Violet Cakes' in 2010.
Her fourth cookbook, 'The Violet Bakery Cookbook' was shortlisted for the Fortnum and Mason Best Cookery Book 2016. Claire regularly contributes to The Guardian and The Observer and her work has also been featured in Vogue, Bon Appetit, Observer Food Monthly, Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
About Dora
Rocca delle Tre Contrade's brilliant, enthusiastic chef, Dora, is from the local town of Giarre. She has been cooking practically ever since she could walk, when she would follow her grandmother into the kitchen to "help". A few years later, she began working with her mother in the family’s Sicilian rotisserie.
Always with a smile on her face, Dora has a flair, generosity and passion for food that is contagious. Her cooking is a multi-sensory spectacle of authentic tastes, flavours and aromas, and watching her transform the fresh produce that is brought in every day from the nearby markets and from Rocca delle Tre Contrade's own kitchen garden, is a sight to behold.
Her specialities include exquisite raw seafood dishes, which unbeknown to most have actually been served for generations along these shores, mouthwatering roast vegetable dishes, fish and meat secondi, arancini al ragù (the archetypical Sicilian street food), and cannoli with fresh sweetened ricotta.
“Dora stepped in to teach us how to make arancini, cannoli, almond semifreddo, and the heavenly cakes that were always available for guests to snack on.”
Food & Wine magazine, September 2020
The retreat in more detail
Our Sicilian Villa Cooking Retreat is a unique and exclusive experience with a maximum of 18 participants. Each day you will be able to immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, aromas and flavours of Rocca delle Contrade, watching cookery demonstrations, cooking up a storm, and learning about Sicilian food, wine and history.
- You will learn to to cook original and authentic Sicilian dishes, following recipes from Rocca delle Tre Contrade's well-guarded recipe book, including parmigiana, caponata, polpette al limone, pasta di mandorle, semifreddo and cannoli to name a few.
- You will also be able to discover a multitude of fabulous local ingredients, such as red and violet prawns, porcini mushrooms from Mount Etna, wild Nebrodi black pig and amberjack, tuna and swordfish fished from the Straits of Messina below the villa. (All ingredients are, of course subject to seasonal availability.)
- You will receive a recipe book, a personalised apron, and a hamper of some of the homemade delicacies you have made to bring home with you.
Each day, after a fabulous breakfast served around the communal table at the villa, you will participate in a host of culinary activities led Claire, Dora and the villa’s kitchen staff.
With Claire, we'll focus on the use of local Sicilian ingredients such as citrus peel, almonds, pistachios, sheep's milk ricotta, orange blossom, Etna pears and wild strawberries. Based on our cravings, we'll make a repertoire of great baking recipes for morning, noon and night. We will touch on gelato-making, candying citrus peel and some of its many uses, elements of Afternoon Tea, how to bake and ice your own celebration cake at home, how to make the perfect soufflé, and Claire's signature "best chocolate cake".
Dora, meanwhile, will guide you through the processes of making authentic Sicilian antipasti, pasta dishes, main courses, salads, desserts and more. The fruits of your labours will then be served for lunch and dinner.
When you're not in the kitchen, you'll be invited to discover some of the area’s multifarious gastronomic traditions, with visits to markets, a vineyard tour with wine-tasting on Mount Etna, a street food experience in Catania’s old town centre, and an exquisite Sicilian breakfast experience of almond and coffee granita with brioche buns.
Of course, you will also have time to enjoy the infinite, luxurious charms of Rocca delle Tre Contrade, relaxing in the gardens, strolling amongst the lemon orchards, playing tennis, swimming in the stunning heated infinity pool (ranked as one of 100 best pools in the world by Condé Nast Traveller), luxuriating in the hammam, working out in the gym, and exploring the surrounding countryside.
The programme in full
Day 1
Arrival day including transfers from Catania Airport to Rocca delle Tre Contrade. (NB Catania International Airport in Sicily is the closest to the villa.)
- from 4:00pm - arrival at villa and check-in (in the case of early arrival, lunch can be arranged before check-in).
- an introduction to Rocca delle Tre Contrade.
- 7:00pm - welcome aperitif and introduction to the week ahead. Introduction to Claire Ptak and her passion for pastry, baking and gelato.
- 8:00pm - dinner prepared by Dora Maugeri, Rocca delle Tre Contrade's in-house chef.
Day 2
- 8:30am - breakfast and an introduction to the day's itinerary.
- 9:30am - departure for a vineyard tour on Mount Etna (approximately a 90-minute panoramic drive across the highest roads on the volcano (2,000 metres above sea level). A visit to a small boutique winery, where you will learn about the terroir and the wine-making process, and taste a selection of typical Etnean wine. After a ricotta-making demonstration, a picnic lunch will be served. On our return to the villa we will visit an unique high altitude pistachio farm.
- 3:30pm - arrival back at Rocca delle Tre Contrade.
- 4:00pm - Claire Ptak will demonstrate how to make candied peel, an ingredient that will be used throughout the week to enhance your cakes and desserts.
- 7:30pm - aperitif and an introduction to the wines being served for dinner.
- 8:00pm - dinner prepared by the villa's in-house team.
Day 3
- 8:30am - breakfast.
- 9:30am - a visit to the local vegetable and fish market with Dora and Claire, followed by a walk through the villa's orchards and vegetable plot, foraging for wild greens and harvesting lemons for limoncello. Back in the kitchen Claire will show us how to make a simple galette from what we find.
- 10:30am - a hands-on limoncello-making class following Rocca delle Tre Contrade's tried-and-tested recipe.
- 11:30am - a Claire Ptak pastry-making masterclass focussing on galettes paired with candied peel, Etna pears and pistachios. Claire will also be showing how to make a simple vanilla sponge, which will be used in the celebration cake lesson on day 4.
- 1:30pm - lunch.
- 3:00pm - a hands-on cooking lesson focusing on raw seafood and salt-baked fish recipes. You will help to prepare dinner, working with Dora on the day's catch and learning about Sicilian raw seafood traditions. The day's secret recipe is Dora's pasta con le vongole (pasta with clams).
- 7:30pm - aperitif and a brief introduction to the wines being served for dinner.
- 8:00pm - dinner - a seafood feast.
Day 4
- 8:30am - breakfast.
- 9:30am - a hands-on cooking lesson during which you will finish and bottle the limoncello (which will be included in your box of delicacies to ship), and learn how to make Dora's celebrated ragù-filled arancini, caponata (a sweet-and-sour aubergine/eggplant relish) and parmigiana (slices of aubergine interspersed with a basil-infused home-made tomato passata and cheese).
- 11:30am - a Claire Ptak masterclass dedicated to making a fresh Sicilian strawberry celebration cake - a classic vanilla sponge (made on day 3) with a strawberry buttercream. Claire will also teach you her recipe for a quick strawberry jam.
- 1pm - lunch.
- 3:00pm - free time.
- 4:00pm - a visit to the 17th-century baroque city of Catania and its patisseries, markets and food stalls. Your English- and Italian-speaking guide will take you on a street food tour, pulling together the city’s fascinating history, its ancient mythology, and the lives of ordinary people through its food traditions. You will eat dinner "along the way".
- 10:30pm - arrival back at Rocca delle Tre Contrade.
Day 5
- 8:30am - breakfast.
- 11:00am - a Claire Ptak masterclass focussing on three recipes: her "best chocolate cake", which will be served at lunch; simple English scones that are perfect for an Afternoon Tea (to be served with the strawberry jam made on day 4); an ice-cream base to be used on day 6.
- 1pm - lunch.
- 2:30pm - a hands-on cooking lesson, during which you will learn how to make spaghetti ai tre pomodori (three-tomato spaghetti - one of Dora's recipes), whole roast chickens or fillets of beef, and almond semifreddo, the Sicilian precursor to modern ice-cream.
- 6:30pm - cocktail-making lesson, led by bartender Fulvia Monaco, featuring a few or the villa's signature drinks, followed by aperitifs.
- 8:00pm - an introduction to the evening's wines followed by dinner.
Day 6
- 8:30am - breakfast.
- 9:30am - a Claire Ptak masterclass dedicated to Italian gelato, using the ice-cream base made on day 5.
- 1:00pm - lunch.
- 2:20pm - bringing it all together, everyone will work together to help prepare the evening's celebration menu. It will be an informal mix of cookery demonstration and hands-on cooking, during which Claire Ptak will hold a masterclass on soufflés, which will later be served at dinner accompanied by the ice-cream made earlier in the day.
- 7:30pm - aperitif.
- 8:00pm - signature gourmet dinner, accompanied by a selection of rare Sicilian wines.
Day 7
- 8:30am - breakfast.
- 9.30am - departure for a full-day guided excursion to the UNESCO World Heritage towns of Syracuse and Noto (approx. 1hr20 drive), including lunch along the way.
- 4:00pm - arrival back at Rocca delle Tre Contrade.
- 5:00pm - afternoon tea taken around the fire.
- 7:30pm - aperitif and cocktails.
- 8:00pm - farewell dinner.
Departure day
- 8:30am - breakfast.
- 10:00am - check-out and transfers to Catania airport.
Itinerary may be subject to minor alterations.
Notes
- Breakfast is served every morning around the communal table at the villa
- The programme may be subject to slight variations based on weather conditions and the availability of seasonal produce
- The work stations in the villa's large demo kitchen will be shared by a maximum of four participants
Number of participants
- Maximum 18
your Accommadation at Rocca delle Tre Contrade
Rocca delle Tre Contrade occupies a stunningly panoramic position atop its own hill on Sicily’s east coast. Uninterrupted 360-degree views take in the sparkling Ionian Sea to one side and the fertile flanks and lava peak of Mount Etna to the other. The views of this former aristocratic estate are further enhanced by the intense greens and citrus flashes of the villa’s grounds, which feature lemon groves, fruit orchards and vegetable gardens. The magnificence of Mother Nature is rivalled only the amenities on offer, which include delightfully refurbished, generously proportioned interiors, 12 luxuriously finished en-suite bedrooms, a spectacular 25-metre, south-facing infinity pool (ranked one the 100 most beautiful pools in the world by Condé Nast Traveller), a clay tennis court, and a spa area, including a steam room (hammam) and a well-equipped gym.
Close by is Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano (a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site), Taormina, Catania, and a host of other fascinating towns, many of which are also designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The culinary excellence and welcoming hospitality of Rocca delle Tre Contrade has been mentioned by Food & Wine magazine (US), The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Times (UK), BBC Good Food magazine (UK), Elle magazine (UK), House & Garden (UK) magazine, Bon Appetit magazine (US), Foodism magazine (UK) and The Sophisticated Traveller (AUS).
*Please note that the closest airport to Rocca delle Tre Contrade is Catania International Airport in Sicily
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