The Cooking and Cuisine of Lazio

[jmolinari]

Maybe you should just make your own, it really isn't very hard, and doesn't need any special curing chamber like other salumi if you make pancetta stesa.

Easy, and better than most you can buy too.

jason

[Andrew Fenton]

Now that spring is officially here, and it seems unlikely that we'll be dope-slapped by another blast of arctic air, I've been thinking about spring foods. For my money, the Romans appreciate spring better than pretty much anybody else, and I wanted to have some fun with those flavors.

So... dinner last night. We started with a green salad, and moved on to a risotto with peas:

This is the first time I've used carnaroli rice rather than arborio. It was great: but was it noticeably better than arborio? Honestly, I couldn't tell. I'd have to do a taste-testing to know for sure.

What I really wanted to make was coratella con carciofi: lamb heart, lungs and liver cooked with artichokes. It's a great Roman dish (though I have mixed feelings about eating lung: it's so... spongy). Unfortunately, the wife doesn't get into offal much, so I adapted the dish by using lamb shoulder meat and cooking it a little longer than one would coratella:

A little squeeze of lemon and you're in business! So, so good.

[Shaya]

That looks delicious Andrew. I notice the great color on your artichokes - no hint of black at all. What treatment did they get in the cooking process?

[hathor]

Hey, nice to see you around Andrew!!

Lamb shoulder is just no substitute for lamb lung. But I'll take shoulder over lung, any day. Lung just makes me shiver, and not in a good way!

Don't know if this is Lazio specific, but the peas are spectacular right now. Pasta with peas and a bit of pancetta.

[Kevin72]

For a friend's birthday, I did a meal inspired by Roman cooking.

We started with an antipasto of mozzarella dressed with anchovies and garlic, and bruschetta to mop up the juices:

Bucatini all'Amatriciana:

We finished with scottaditti, lamb chops off the grill. When I've made this before, Hathor and I got into a discussion about the type of meat traditionally used, which in Italy is a shoulder chop. That makes for a lot of gristle and fat (the appeal of the dish, apparently) but not something I think would fly with guests and my wife, so I went the safer route and used conventional lamb chops. They still weren't pretty enough to warrant a postable pic, though.

[hathor]

Hey, scotto ditto is Umbrian!!

Our son was here last week (Umbria) and we started calling him the Principessa because he would trim all the fat and gristle away, while us 'locals' would gnaw around on the bones! It's all good!

Did you have sun dried tomatoes on that mozzarella or is that all anchovies?

[Kevin72]

Dammit, you caught me. I threw in some sundrieds to cut the anchovy-ness.

[hathor]

Better with the sundried tomatoes. I'm a hard core anchovy lover, but that would be a boatload of anchovies!!

[salutistagolosa]

hi, you may have found them in Umbria, too, but 'abbacchio scottadito' is definitely roman (I live in London now, but was born and raised in Rome).

I know it is late for artichokes now, but for the future I wonder whether you may find this video[/URL] useful (from www. gennarino.org): there you have a true italian grocer cleaning an artichoke from Sezze (an area around Latina that I think one of the first messages in this thread referred to).

[hathor]

hi, you may have found them in Umbria, too, but 'abbacchio scottadito' is definitely roman (I live in London now, but was born and raised in Rome).

I know it is late for artichokes now, but for the future I wonder whether you may find this video[/URL] useful (from www. gennarino.org): there you have a true italian grocer cleaning an artichoke from Sezze (an area around Latina that I think one of the first messages in this thread referred to).

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Ciao Saluistagolosa! I work with a Roman, and for 'sport' we have this same arguement!

[salutistagolosa]

hi, you may have found them in Umbria, too, but 'abbacchio scottadito' is definitely roman (I live in London now, but was born and raised in Rome).

Ciao Saluistagolosa! I work with a Roman, and for 'sport' we have this same arguement!

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I hope he converts you to the true abbacchio

[hathor]

hi, you may have found them in Umbria, too, but 'abbacchio scottadito' is definitely roman (I live in London now, but was born and raised in Rome).

Ciao Saluistagolosa! I work with a Roman, and for 'sport' we have this same arguement!

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I hope he converts you to the true abbacchio

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Dai!!! Said with the appropriate hand gestures and eye roll!! Now that would be a good emoticon.

[mrbigjas]

hi, you may have found them in Umbria, too, but 'abbacchio scottadito' is definitely roman (I live in London now, but was born and raised in Rome).

I know it is late for artichokes now, but for the future I wonder whether you may find this video useful (from www. gennarino.org): there you have a true italian grocer cleaning an artichoke from Sezze (an area around Latina that I think one of the first messages in this thread referred to).

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wow, that's the most useful artichoke-related video i've ever seen.

[salutistagolosa]

I know it is late for artichokes now, but for the future I wonder whether you may find this video useful (from www. gennarino.org): there you have a true italian grocer cleaning an artichoke from Sezze (an area around Latina that I think one of the first messages in this thread referred to).

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wow, that's the most useful artichoke-related video i've ever seen.

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really glad you like it!

That (geenarino, I mean) is actually a pretty good site (I declare my interest, I am a moderator there), pity it is in Italian...

[mrbigjas]

i sure do. trying to describe how to prepare an artichoke is always confusing, and i've seen people do it on TV all the times, and it always seems to take a long time. but with that one cut, he just took care of everything. it makes me want to buy some artichokes and give it a try. I think i will.

gennarino.org does seem to be a good site -- franci was always recommending we read it. unfortunately, i don't speak italian, so it's pretty hard for me...

[Naftal]

For a friend's birthday, I did a meal inspired by Roman cooking.

We started with an antipasto of mozzarella dressed with anchovies and garlic, and bruschetta to mop up the juices:

Bucatini all'Amatriciana:

We finished with scottaditti, lamb chops off the grill.  When I've made this before, Hathor and I got into a discussion about the type of meat traditionally used, which in Italy is a shoulder chop.  That makes for a lot of gristle and fat (the appeal of the dish, apparently) but not something I think would fly with guests and my wife, so I went the safer route and used conventional lamb chops. They still weren't pretty enough to warrant a postable pic, though.

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Hello- Just a note to tell you how inspiring your antipasto was.. It got me to begin experimenting with anchovies and cheese

Thanks for getting me into the kitchen!

Edited August 8, 2007 by Naftal (log)

[Kevin72]

On that note, I snapped up some buratta the other day and made another brushcetta with it and this time an anchovy vinaigrette: four anchovy fillets, one clove of garlic, salt, olive oil, and red wine vinegar whizzed in a blender until emulsified. The zing and sting of the vinaigrette offsets the richness of the cheese and the two worked really, really well together.

[FoodMan]

Re-visiting these threads is a favorite exercise, all the more fun if I have something to add, albeit nothing too earth-shattering. I was starting a new batch of home-cured Pancetta this weekend and I had a strong craving to have some of this amazing pork product ASAP (I still had the butt end of the last piece in the freezer). I had no tomatoes for a PLT, and did not want to have a Pancetta and egg sandwich either. It was lunchtime and I needed something fast, filling and delicious. A lightbulb goes off and I remember I still have a few canned San Marzano tomatoes in a tupperware in the fridge leftover form another meal. Spaghetti All'Amatriciana of course!! with extra pancetta no less. Here is a picture by picture report of the process. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did....then again you have to be able to smell it and eat it to do that. So go make some.

[hathor]

Food Man, you rock!! That looks, and smells gorgeous!!

[Kevin72]

How funny. I just made some a week ago also.

[athinaeos]

Ristorante Vino e Camino in Bracciano, Lazio

I recently visited the Vino e Camino Ristorante in Bracciano, and was more than satisfied. You can read more in my review published in:

http://estiasi.blogspot.com