Healthy Mediterranean Cooking in Puglia

Puglia is certainly a region of extra virgin olive oil, which replaces butter almost everywhere: we put it on top of bread and salads; we use it for cooking and baking.
One of the most common questions our guests ask us during our cooking classes and olive oil tastings is whether it is better to fry in extra virgin olive oil vs other oils.
I and Marika think that one of the major takeways from our cooking classes is that our dishes can be delicious and very tasty even if we don't deep fry ingredients, as the most traditional local cuisine would require.
I and Marika were lucky enough to be brought up by our GrandMother who taught us almost everything about the traditional home made recipes of Puglia. However, the traditional cuisine sometimes requires ingredients to be deep fried.
I and Marika have moved on and re-intepreted those traditional recipes in a healthier way. Because Marika is a Cardiologist and I am an extra virgin olive oil taster, we have a more Mediterranean approach. We love to smell and taste the flavors of raw extra virgin olive oil. We don't want to destroy its healthy benefits and flavors by frying it.
Also, we don't want to destroy the benefits of the ingredients we use by frying them.
Therefore our guests are always impressed when we can make very tasty stuffed eggplants, eggplant parmigiana or zucchini parmigiana, meatballs etc, without frying them!