Guido's Seasonal Recipe: Filetto di maiale marinato (marinated Pork fillet)

This is a great Winter dish. Although you need to marinate the pork the night before, it is a very fast and delicious dish to make.

Chef Guido's recipe: Filetto di maiale marinato (Marinated pork fillet) Serves 1 to 20+

Ingredients: 1 pork fillet, 1 bottle of red wine, black peppercorns, bay leaves, sage, oregano, olive oil, sea rock salt, rocket to garnish, balsamic glaze, a clove of garlic.

Method: Marinate the pork fillet for 24 hours with a bottle of red wine, black peppercorns, bay leaves, sage, oregano, olive oil and a pinch of rock sea salt. Discard the wine, herbs and pepper.
Slice the fillet into thick slices and fry in a very hot pan with olive oil and a bruised clove of garlic until the meat is golden brown on both sides.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a few drops of balsamic vinegar and some rocket to garnish
Buon appetito!

Chef Guido conducts Italian cooking classes, olive tours and wine tours, all year round, in the heart of the very beautiful and unspoilt Sabine Hills countryside, just north of Rome.

Contact : info@conviviorome.com
Culinary Vacations and Day Italian Cooking Classes, plus Olive Tours: www.conviviorome.com
Half Day Rome Wine Tours: www.winetoursrome.com

The Olive Harvest Experience: picking our own olives

It all started one cool and sunny November day. Our small team of olive pickers joined us early in the morning, to help us harvest this year's olives. With nets, crates, and olive picking equipment ready, the work began.

Traditionally there would be 4 olive pickers working one tree at a time. Large nets would be arranged around the base of the olive tree, with two of the workers on wooden ladders working from the top of the tree down, gently 'raking' each olive branch to drop the olives onto the nets below. Those working on the ground would gather the olives in the net and place them into the crates. As each tree was completed and each crate filled with olives, they would move the nets to the next tree.
The olive picking process is much the same today, however to make the process more efficient, air compressed silicon hands , called 'la manina'  or 'the little hand'  are used to gently shake the olives off the tree onto the nets below.

We have a 'family sized' olive grove of 52 olive trees, with mainly 'carboncella' and 'leccino' olives (two of the main varieties of olives grown in the Sabine Hills).  Not all of our olive trees produced olives this year, but those that have, have produced in abundance. With a lot of help, we were able to harvest all our olives in just one day.

As the sun set, we took our crates of olives straight to a nearby 'frantoio', olive mill, to have our olives pressed immediately. To get the highest quality extra virgin olive oil, the olives need to be pressed with 24 hours of picking.

This year we harvested 200 kgs of olives which, once pressed, produced 46 litres of some of the best Sabina extra virgin olive oil I have ever tasted!

When you next come to visit us, you too, will be able to taste some of the wonderful Sabina extra virgin olive oil.
Learn more about our Half Day Rome Olive Tour at Convivio Rome.

We operation Rome Olive tours all year round, to discover more:
http://www.conviviorome.com/olive-tour.html
 email us on  info@conviviorome.com

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Chef Guido's Classic dish: Melanzane alla Parmigiana

This is one of my absolute favourite dishes. It can be made in a large oven dish, or in individual portions. For presentation purposes, I prefer to make my 'Melanzane alla Parmigiana' in individual ceramic dishes as I think it looks better.

Melanzane alla Parmigiana  - Serves 6.
1 or 2 aubergines (eggplants), 1 large mozzarella, basil leaves, tomato 'passata', extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, parmigiano cheese.

Cut aubergines (eggplants) into very thin slices, add olive oil onto the slices (and sprinkle with salt)  Grill them on a hot grill pan or barbecue. Place grilled aubergines to one side. Make a simple tomato sauce with a little garlic, olive oil, 'passata' and basil. Thinly slice mozzarella.
Start layering aubergine, mozzarella, tomato sauce, parmigiano cheese, making as many layers as you like..... finishing off with tomato sauce and then parmigiano cheese on top. Bake in moderate oven (170 degrees C. or 340 degrees F.) until cheese is melted.  Serve hot.
Buon appetito!

Preparing one layer at a time

Ready to go in the oven

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Simple Italian Pasta Sauce - Spaghetti all Carbonara

Here is one of Chef Guido's simple traditional Roman Pasta Sauces for you to try. 

Make sure you eat is piping hot!

Guido's Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Spaghetti alla Carbonara - Serves 6:

Ingredients: 500 gm of dried spaghetti, 50g of guanciale, 50 g of pecorino romano, black pepper, 4 eggs, extra virgin olive oil. 

First: put a large pot of salted water onto the stove to boil.

Tip: This sauce is very quick, and when ready needs to be stirred into the cooked 'aldente' spaghetti and served immediately.

Method: Cut the guanciale into short sticks. Put a little olive oil in a pan and fry guanciale until crispy. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with pecorino cheese, black pepper and a pinch of salt. When pasta is cooked, drain the pasta, put it back in the hot pot and mix all the ingredients until the eggs acquire a creamy consistency, without scrambling. Serve with extra pepper on top.

Buon appetito.

(Pasta shapes traditionally used for Carbonara Sauce are: spaghetti or rigatoni).


Find out more about Convivio Rome's: 

One Day Cooking-Touring Experience               

Half Day Cooking Class

3 and 5 night Italian Cooking Holidays

Rome Olive Tours                                        

Rome Wine Tours

The Olive Harvest has already begun in the Sabine Hills, near Rome

The Sabine Hills, just north of Rome is famous for it's excellent DOP extra virgin olive oil, and this year promises to be a 'bumper crop' for the local olive farmers.

The trees are heavy with 1,000s of olives and the farmers have cut the herbs and grass between the trees and laid down the nets in preparation for the forthcoming harvest.

In fact, we can see, from our home windows, that the olive harvest has already begun in the olive groves on some of the nearby olive farms.

Partial view from our Convivio Rome Italian Cooking School, home terrace over olive groves below. 

They began the olive harvest today!

Olives are picked just once a year and usually around October or November. Due to a long, very hot and dry summer, the conditions have been perfect for olive production this year. The farmers in the Sabine Hills have had a hard time in the past 2 years in 2015 and 2016, so they definitely deserve a good harvest for this year. 

We will let you know how the olive harvest goes!

Come and taste the New 2017 Sabina D.O.P. Extra Virgin Olive Oil #EVVO with us during your 3 or 5 night Italian Cooking Holiday or during your Half Day Rome Olive Tour with Maestro Guido. 

www.conviviorome.com

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More photos on our Instagram page: conviviorome.italy https://instagram.com/p/BaJXp1ODyHb/

Visiting Toffia, seems like you are on a film set... Well now you are!

"It is just like a film set, I feel like we are in the movies " : Many of our 3 and 5 night cooking holiday guests, comment when visiting and staying in Toffia, our medieval hilltop village in the Sabine Hills. They are right, it's simply magical here.

Well now, they are using Toffia as the setting for an American 10-part drama series about the kidnapping of J.Paul Getty III, called 'Trust' with Hilary Swank and Donald Sutherland*. Danny Boyle is the director and it will be first screened in January, 2018. So look out for the scenes, shot in our own little medieval hilltop village of Toffia!

(Photos by Maura F. and Antonella R.)

Filming in the main piazza of Toffia, at sunset, photo by Maura F.

Fake snow and vintage cars to set the scene, in Toffia.

Film set in main piazza, Toffia. 

Night light and fake snow, Toffia's main archway into the historic centre

Also, take a look at these photos, in the local newspaper: Toffia in the snow!

http://rietinvetrina.it/toffia-innevata-per-le-riprese-di-trust-con-hilary-swank/

As the film is set in 1973, so the film crew have also converted a building, within the historic centre, into a Bar of that era.

External view of Bar

Internal view of 1960's bar, used for film set

Convivio Rome's 3 and 5 night cooking holidays are now taking bookings for 2018. 

Just ask for our new dates.

www.conviviorome.com

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*A little more about Trust "In the series, set in 1973, a young Getty is kidnapped in Rome and his mafia captors are banking on a multimillion-dollar ransom. Trust looks at his ordeal at the hands of kidnappers who don't understand why nobody seems to want their captive back. The Italian police think it's a prank and decline to investigate. Paul's father is lost in a heroin daze in London and refuses to answer the phone. Paul's grandfather — possibly the richest man in the world — is marooned in a Tudor mansion in the English countryside, surrounded by five mistresses and a pet lion. Only Paul’s mother is left to negotiate with increasingly desperate kidnappers. The problem? She’s broke." quoted from article in www.thehollywoodreporter.com,  May 15, 2017,  by Kate Stanhope

Cooking Guest video, made for fun, after Charles' 3rd visit to Convivio Rome

Charles started attending our 3 and 5 night Cooking Holidays back in 2013. Coming from England makes it a little closer to just 'pop over' for a visit....
This is the 3rd time, over the last 6 years, and it is always a pleasure to see him return and to catch up. It's like seeing an 'old' friend again, when it feels like no time has passed between visit!

 Charles refining his fresh pasta making technique.

He came along with his friend Dave and we all had a lot of fun.

Here is the video  Charles put together, of photos taken during his latest 3 night/ 4 day cooking holiday with us, in September, 2017.  We think it is great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkn6aBa9OYE

Thanks so much for the video Charles and we hope that you will return again, soon. :-)

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A stroll in the Sabine Hills, from one medieval town to another

The Sabine Hills, just north of Rome, is a great place to get away from all the 'hustle and bustle' of day-to-day life. Come for a morning, for a full day or take a vacation here. It is amazingly untouched here. The air is fresh, you are surrounded by rolling hills, olive groves, sheep, medieval hilltop villages, monasteries and winding country roads. It is a perfect place to rest, relax, unwind and learn something new, in a fun and family home environment.

Here are a few photos I just wanted to share with you, when I took a stroll with our daughter Gemma and puppy dog, 'Rocky', from our home in Castelnuovo di Farfa (near a very the beautiful hilltop medieval village, of the same name) to the monastic village of Farfa (called locally, Abbazia di Farfa).  The weather is changing from Summer to Autumn, and the slight breeze and shade as we walked made it very pleasant.

I live here, and this short stroll reminded me of how beautiful our immediate area, between 3 medieval villages: Castelnuovo di Farfa, Farfa and Toffia. I hope you agree.

Local farmhouse with free range chickens and flocks of sheep for the local pecorino cheese.

On the final leg of the walk, between olive groves, and onto Abbazia di Farfa

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The magic of the Sabine Hills, captured: Farfa e Fara Sabina

Sabina is a small agricultural region just 40 kms north of Rome, surrounded by olive groves, medieval hilltop villages and ancient Monasteries. It is spectacular here. Sabina, is known as 'The Sabine Hills' (to English speakers) and in my opinion, far more beautiful, unspoilt, and far less touristy than Tuscany and Umbria.....and yet no one has ever heard of this area.

Convivio Rome runs 3 and 5 night Italian cooking Holidays. Half Day and One Day Italian Cooking Classes, Olive Tours and Wine Tours within this region.

This wonderful 2 minute video, taken by 'visitlazio.com' is breathtaking.

We hope you will be inspired to come and visit us and Convivio Rome

www.conviviorome.com

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What makes Guido's Roman artichoke recipe so special?

Maybe it is Guido's love of Rome and Roman Cuisine?: "Growing up in the Italian Capital (and my dad being a 7th generation Roman), I was lucky enough to learn about traditional Roman cuisine and its use of fresh herbs....".

Or, maybe it is because Guido always sources the best, local regional and in-season ingredients:  " Roman cuisine is simple and it’s about the perfect combination of a small number of ingredients together and of course, their quality....."

Read more about Guido's 'Carciofi alla Romana' and why they taste soooo good: 

http://www.italoamericano.org/story/2017-3-1/carciofi-romana

The Sabine Hills' own Goddess: Feronia, Goddess of Nature and Freedwomen

The Sabini, were an ancient tribe that ruled the land in which we now live. This mysterious tribe can trace its origins to as far back at the 8th century BC. Little is known (although more and more is being discovered) about them, but the Sabini co-existed in the same period of time as the Eutrusci, Latini, Volsci, Falisci, and centuries before the Ancient Romans. 

We (Guido and I) have a passion for local and ancient history, so we often visit historic sites to find out more about 'what was before'. We recently visited an archeological site called 'Antiquarium e Area Archeologica di Lucus Feroniae', at the foothills of the Sabine Hills. 

This vast site was only recently rediscovered, in the 1970's, and now offers a small museum with the amazing finds, that date back to the 7th to 5th century B.C. Many of the artefacts are dedicated to Feronia, the goddess of Nature, woods and springs, and of freedwomen, who was also known to have healing powers and the ability to bring peace among the different tribes. 

Lucus Feroniae was a popular meeting place for surrounding tribes due to the sacred cult of Feronia and the monthly markets held in this town. The archeological site we walked around contains a forum, market place, basilica, amphitheatre, temple, mosaic floors, thermal bath houses, ancient paved roadways: in fact a whole complex. I have included some photos here. Enjoy! 

(Post written by Sally)

Guido's Italian Sourdough Bread

Fresh out of the oven

The secret to making good bread is found in the quality of culture and the flour. I make my bread using a sourdough culture kindly donated to me by Signora Giacomina, a lady in the village. This culture is over 35 years old. They say the older the culture, the better the bread.

I always prefer using organic stoneground flour from an ancient water mill here in the Sabine hills. It's the same flour I use for all our Italian cooking classes.

Italian Sourdough bread
Ingredients:1 kg of stoneground flour, 400g of fresh sourdough culture, 650 to 700 mls of water, salt to own taste.
Start mixing some of the flour and some water and salt in a bowl. Add sourdough. Transfer all ingredients on to a worktop or wooden board. Start needing, stretching and folding the dough all the time. Make the dough into two loaves and place  them into two bread tins or on an oven tray. Let the dough raise overnight for at least 8 hours. Bake at 170 C in a convection oven (otherwise 200C) for about 40-45 minutes.

Olive oil, nuts, seeds can be added to the mixture.

Tips on fresh sourdough: The sourdough needs to be kept in the refrigerator and to be fed or 'refreshed' once a week. This means getting rid of half it (in weight), (which will be used in the new lot of bread you are making) and replace it with the same amount of flour and water. Sourdough can also be frozen for long periods. Once defrosted you can add half a spoonful of honey to help it to get 'active' again and be ready to use.

The Olive Oil Farmers are jumping for joy in the Sabine Hills

We have had a few very cold days in #January, and the local #oliveoil farmers are jumping for joy! 'They say', just a few days of frost will help kill potential dangerous bugs/insects living in the #olivetrees.....so it looks like we have a great beginning for the production of #Sabina #EVVO extra virgin olive oil in this area for 2017! Viva Italia!

'Behind the scenes' in the Olive grove: Now is the time for trimming the olive trees. 

Cutting the extra branches off the olive tree, helps the tree to receive more light, heat and air, therefore optimum conditions for producing more fruit... Although the olive groves seem tranquil at this time of year, the farmers are still working, preparing the olive trees to produce their best! 

So 'fingers crossed' for the 2017 Sabina D.O.P. extra virgin Olive Oil.

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Rome Day Tours- Half Day Rome Olive Oil Tour with Convivio Rome.

Pecorino Cheese: Fresh from the local shepherd in the Sabine Hills, near Rome

Just visited the local shepherd to get a 'wheel' or 2 of #pecorino (sheep) #cheese. It is a tradition in the #SabineHills, near #Rome, for the shepherds to make their own cheese from the milk their sheep produce. Sheep's milk is even sweeter and creamier in the #Winter and cooler months of the year.

So January and February are great excuse to eat even more of this delicious cheese. We can buy it fresh 'primo sale' or more mature. When we visit, Irena, our local shepherdess, she will ask how mature we would like our pecorino, and then select a wheel of cheese from her wooden shelves in her storage area 'cantina', where all cheese matures. You could not get more local 'zero kms' and fresher than this!

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