Retire Early Lifestyle
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In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Eating at Home in Matera, Italy

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

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Food ingredients in Italy are fresh, unique, specialized, affordable and all-'round delicious. Shopping for meals in this country is not only enjoyable, but exciting as well.

Below we give you a sample of our findings and how we made several meals out of them.

Various hams and cheeses

I must admit that I have never been a "ham person." It's just not my thing.

However, in Italy there is something different here about their hams. They don't just have one kind to choose from, there are dozens. And the flavor is remarkable.

Above you see a regular style of something similar to Honey-baked ham and top center is Prociutto -- which is really the "heaven of hams."

Down below, center is one of the many dozens of kinds of salamis offered. This one was spicy - what a twist!

Then of course, paired with cheese and the palate exploded in flavors.

The cheeses above are an Italian Brie, a smoked Gouda, Emmental, and a creamy mild yellow cheese of which I have forgotten the name.

Our bill for the meats and cheeses

Lest you think this portion of meats and cheeses was expensive, we show you our bill for them.

We paid for this in Euros, but it came to just over $26USD at the time.

And of course, we had food to spare.

Meat and cheese plate with Ciabatta bread

This time we took our deli items and added some Ciabatta bread.

Ciabatta was invented in the early 1980s to counteract the "invasion" of sandwiches made from French baguettes.

Baguette sandwiches were becoming so popular that the businesses and livelihoods of Italian bread makers were actually endangered!

After trying "this and that" Ciabatta was created. It's a strong yeasty dough with a high moisture content. All of this creates those lovely air bubbles Ciatatta is known for.

Crusty on the outside, so chewy and moist on the inside.

Orecciette pasta

Now, these little guys - pasta made in the shape of tiny ears - is called Orecciette.

Orecciette literally means "ear pasta" made from the special region of Apulia.

Why make pasta in so many different shapes?

Well these little ear pastas are able to catch the sauce in a "mini bowl" to add moisture and flavor to the eating of it.

Plus the little knobby bits are chewier in texture, creating a different experience than simple spaghetti for instance..

Mixed green salad

We were able to purchase freshly made salad mixes with various lettuces and radicchio mixed in.

These little cherry tomatoes pack a punch that belies their size and the blanched green beans were sweet and perfect.

Italians are big on figs, so finding fresh or dried figs was easy. Adding them to a salad gave a luscious contrast the cold-pressed Virgin Olive oil and cracked pepper.

Fresh watermelon

You know, picking out fruit can be tricky sometimes.

But we had terrifically sweet and ripe fruit in Italy no matter what we chose.

It could be grapes the size of a quarter that just burst in your mouth, or yellow melon, pears or this watermelon.

Italian cooking isn't that complicated, but it all starts out with quality ingredients. And the country is full of them!

Mangia!

Retire Early Lifestyle appeals to a different kind of person – the person who prizes their independence, values their time, and who doesn’t want to mindlessly follow the crowd.

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