Guido's Family Recipe ‘Pomodori col Riso’ (baked rice-filled tomatoes)

Guido's family recipe for Pomodori col Riso

 

‘Pomodori col Riso’ (baked rice-filled tomatoes) is a classic Italian Summer dish with variations in different regions. This is the roman version, that my nonna and mamma used to make, with roast potatoes added to it. Traditionally, it’s served at room temperature and enjoyed at picnics on the beach.

Pomodori col Riso

Ingredients (serves 6): 6 large ripe tomatoes, 500g (17.6 oz) of potatoes, 1 clove of garlic, 6 tbsp ‘arborio’ or ‘ribe’ uncooked rice, 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, salt and fresh basil to taste.

Method: Cut off the ‘top cap’ of the tomatoes and put it aside. With a teaspoon, carefully scoop out the tomato pulp. Put the tomato shells upside- down onto a plate to draw out excess liquid. In the meantime, cut the tomato pulp very fine into a bowl and keep 3 tbsp of it aside. Add olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh basil and rice to the tomato pulp.

Turn on the convection oven at 170ºC (338ºF). Dice potatoes to your favourite ‘roasting’ size and then place them into an oven dish with a swirl of olive oil, salt to taste, 1 whole clove of garlic (skin on) and the little tomato pulp you already put aside. Put the emptied tomatoes in the dish among the potatoes. Put just a tablespoon of rice mixture in each tomato. Cover each tomato with its cap. Top with another swirl of olive oil.Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until rice is aldente and tomatoes are slightly caramelised.

Serve hot, cold, or at room temperature. Great to take on a picnic or to a friend's home to share. Enjoy!

For more recipes: Guido's FREE recipe e-booklet '5 Minute Pasta'

Convivio Rome Italian Cooking Holidays

One Day Italian Cooking Classes

Half Day Rome Olive Tours

Half Day Rome Winery and Wine Tasting Tours

Virtual Italian Cooking Parties

Online Cooking Classes with Chef Guido

Corporate Virtual Cooking Events

Mid August in Italy - A time for holidays and the Toffia Music Festival

Mid- August is the time of year that many Italians take their holidays. Going to the mountains or to the sea to enjoy family time and relief from the hottest days of the Italian Summer.

Small family run businesses close with the sign "Chiuso per Ferie" with the dates that they are away for, firmly stuck on the closed security door. 

 

The Sabine Hills is well known for it's Summer time music and food festivals and Italians come from near and far to celebrate together. So while most Italians are on holidays, those who have stayed closer to home will come together with family and friends to enjoy wandering around the local medieval hilltop villages, such as Toffia, listening to live music, appreciating the local artists and artisans, and absorbing the wonderful atmosphere.

We are in the midst of Toffia's 25th annual Riviviamo il Centro Storico Festival. The energy is electric as all the locals come together (after many months of preparation) to help put on this festival every year. It is quite unlike any other festival in the area. Here are some photos to give you an idea of what the Toffia Festival is all about.

Toffia village set with lamps_this year's theme

Book presentation, with live music_violin played

Local artist's watercolour of Toffia

Street performers on stilts and local musicians

local young band playing in the medieval streets

Performance of play written and acted by Toffia residence

For more recipes: Guido's FREE recipe e-booklet '5 Minute Pasta'

Convivio Rome Italian Cooking Holidays

One Day Italian Cooking Classes

Half Day Rome Olive Tours

Half Day Rome Winery and Wine Tasting Tours

Virtual Italian Cooking Parties

Online Cooking Classes with Chef Guido

Corporate Virtual Cooking Events

The Sabine Hills: an insider's guide

Are you dreaming of your your next holiday to Italy? 

Would like to visit a magical destination that is off the beaten path and unknown to mass tourism?  

Please read on to be inspired!

Have you ever heard of the Sabine Hills area, in Italy? Find out more about Italy's Best kept Secret: the Sabine Hills in the article written by Chef Guido Santi for L'Italio Americano Magazine.

It is too good a secret, not to share again!

"For those looking for authentic, idillic rural Italy a stone’s throw from Rome, this is the perfect destination" writes Chef Guido, from Convivio Rome Italian Cooking Holidays. 

Full article can be found here, on this link. Enjoy!

Full article can be found here, on this link. Enjoy!

Chef Guido, Sally from Convivio Rome have been offering Rome Day Trips and Italian Culinary Vacations in the Sabine Hills since 2006. Find out more on the links below:

Convivio Rome Italian Cooking Holidays

One Day Italian Cooking Classes

Half Day Rome Olive Tours

Half Day Rome Winery and Wine Tasting Tours

Virtual Italian Cooking Parties

Online Cooking Classes with Chef Guido

Corporate Virtual Cooking Events

Guido's Cook Club Monthly Membership

Online Video Italian Cooking Package

The magical medieval village of Toffia- Video

Toffia, a medieval hilltop village, dates back to 940AD is nestled in the Sabine Hills, just north of Rome, Italy. This little village, population over just over 1200 residents, has an active community. Toffia is best known for it's music and food festivals held over the Summer period. 

Toffia is unknown to mass tourism and continues to offer an authentic taste of Italian life. Come along and 'live like a local' in joining Convivio Rome 4 and 5 Day Italian Cooking Holidays where you will be staying in one of the recently renovated homes within the historic walls. Let Chef Guido and Sally, from Convivio Rome, bring Italy alive for you.

For more information: info@conviviorome.com

Bookings now being taken, (with fully transferable deposit) for 2021 and 2022. 

Convivio Rome Italian Cooking Holidays

One Day Italian Cooking Classes

Half Day Rome Olive Tours

Half Day Rome Winery and Wine Tasting Tours

Virtual Italian Cooking Parties

Online Cooking Classes with Chef Guido

Corporate Virtual Cooking Events

Online Video Italian Cooking Package

Rome Day Trip: the Sabine Hills

The Sabine Hills: a perfect day trip from Rome 

Only 35 minutes from Rome's outskirts and just north of the Capital, perfect for a day out in the countryside or a longer stay as part of a relaxing holiday, the Sabine Hills (Sabina) will reward its visitors with ancient medieval history, unspoilt landscape, renaissance palaces castles and monasteries, cultural events, art exhibitions, hiking trails and of course the 'Sabina DOP' extra virgin olive oil from its olive groves.

Toffia, 930AD is the oldest medieval village in Sabina (the Sabine Hills)

Dating back to 1200's, this medieval hilltop village is a hidden treasure

Unspoilt countryside

The way the Sabine Hills are still today very rural and unspoilt is almost miraculous, despite its vicinity with a big city like Rome. The landscape of Sabina is quintessentially Italian, with its rolling hills covered by olive groves and fruit orchards and dotted with medieval hilltop villages and castles. Because of the olive trees and other evergreen mediterranean plants, the Sabine hills are always very green, all year round. A visit to one of the many hilltop villages in the area, will reveal beautiful views over valleys and mountains in the far distance. 

Views over olive groves and hilltop villages in the Sabine Hills

The Sabine Hills offers magnificent views over unspoilt countryside

History 
Sabina is an ancient land where civilisation started way before Rome and the local archaeological museum in Fara Sabina tells a story of walled cities, powerful kings and the development of fine art, pottery, jewellery and elaborate bronze manufacts from 2,600 years ago. Three of the seven kings of Rome, Tito Tazio, Numa Pompilio and Anco Marzio, were from here. 

During the middle ages, Sabina was part of the Holy Roman Empire and thanks to Charlemagne and his land donations, a local monastery called Farfa became a huge economic and military power in the area. The Farfa monastery owed its wealth to olive oil production for many centuries, as it was the largest landowner in Central Italy and it become an independent city state, its borders reaching well into modern Tuscany, Umbria and Le Marche.

500 year old streets run between the ancient monastery and artisan shops in Farfa

Sightseeing

National parks such as Monti Lucretili and vast conservation areas allow those passionate about hiking or mountain biking to explore the area using ancient  trails, walking through green valleys, woods and cultivated land. However, even just visiting some of the villages in Sabina will be an experience in itself. Medieval villages like Toffia, Castelnuovo di Farfa, Fara Sabina, Farfa, Bocchignano or Montopoli have impressive defensive walls, beautifully decorated renaissance palaces and ancient churches.

Toffia, one of the most beautiful hilltop villages in the Sabine Hills

A maze of picturesque alleyways, archways and little piazzas will welcome the visitor, almost resembling a movie set, without the mass tourism of other Italian regions. Impressive medieval castles can be seen in Rocca Sinibalda (Castello Cesarini, 1084 AD) and in Frasso Sabino (Castello Sforza, 955 AD).

Medieval streets and picturesque doorways in Castelnuovo di Farfa

 Great photo opportunities lie within the medieval streets

Culture
Today, Sabina is well known for its art and music festivals which are organised throughout the year. Toffia is famous for its "Festa del Centro Storico', an art, music and street theatre festival which lasts for 5 nights in mid-August and attracts more than 3,000 people every night. Toffia is also known for its very active theatre, run by 'Officina 33'. In Fara Sabina there is an international Jazz Festival in July and Casaprota hosts the interesting art and music 'Arterie festival'.

A local music trio, called 'Lamorivostri', keeps traditional music alive, with frequent concerts in the Sabina area and in Rome.

Sabina is well known for its music and art festivals 

Food

Sabina is famous for its extra virgin olive oil, the very first in Italy to receive the DOP denomination. Olive oil has been produced here for millennia (there is an olive tree that's 2000 years old) and is known for being light and flavoursome at the same time. The area is also well known for pecorino cheese, olives, salami and of course guanciale (cured pork cheek), necessary for any amatriciana or carbonara sauce. Cooking Holidays are run in Toffia. One day cooking classes, as well as olive oil tours, and wine tours are also offered in the Sabine Hills area.

There are many Restaurants to choose from in Sabina. For an interesting combination of traditional dishes with a touch of creativity there is 'La Taverna del Corsari' in Montopoli.

How to get there from Rome

Fara Sabina is the best place to begin to explore the Sabine Hills. There is an excellent direct train departing every 15 minutes from many stations in Rome (Ostiense, Trastevere and Tiburtina, for example) to Fara Sabina Station. It takes 39 minutes to get from Rome Tiburtina to Fara Sabina. Here there are buses to many different villages in the Sabina area. By car, the direct way is via Rome-Florence (A1) motorway, Fiano Romano exit, then following signs to Rieti and Via Salaria, then to Fara Sabina.
If you join any of our Convivio Rome Culinary Holidays, or day activities such as our cooking classes, olive tour and wine tours, we include a free pick up and return service to our local train station.

Cooking Classes: https://www.conviviorome.com/one-day/your-day-cooking-experience.html

Olive Oil Tours: https://www.conviviorome.com/olive-tour.html

Wine Tours: https://www.winetoursrome.com/

Visit the Sabine Hills, Virtually: Convivio Rome are also offering fun Virtual Cooking Parties and LIVE Cooking Classes, where you can learn authentic Italian cuisine in a fully interactive live cooking class. If you wish get an authentic taste of Italy, and meet like minded people, you can also join Chef Guido's monthly membership called 'Guido's Cook Club'

Train information: can be found on trenitalia.com site

Bus information: can be found on cotralspa.it

© Guido Santi, 2020

Additional background information on Guido: Guido Santi is an eighth generation Roman who has a passion for cooking traditional Italian cuisine and for local, fresh, organic food and wine. As a follower of the Slow Food philosophy, he supports and promotes local farmers and the 'zero kilometres' philosophy. Guido runs "Convivio Rome" with his Australian wife Sally, offering cooking classes, 3 and 5 night culinary holidays, plus olive oil tours and wine tours in or nearby the medieval hilltop village of Toffia, Sabina (Italy), just north of Rome. You can follow Convivio Rome on Facebook and on Instagram

View from Guido's home and the Convivio Rome Cooking School

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Best Rome Day Trips - Easy Fun Day Trips from Rome

When planning your trip to Italy, Rome is top of the 'list' for tourists to visit. But once you have 'done' the major sights in the beautiful Eternal City, where would you go to take a day trip into the Rome countryside?
The train system is very efficient in Italy and you do not have to travel far to experience something authentically Italy and have a great day out.

As it is often hard to choose where to go for your Rome Day Trip.....I wanted to give you 2 Guides to Rome Day Trips: We have included both Martha's Tips, called '6 Rome Day Trips' and Guido's Guide called '5 Best Rome Day Trips' ( see below):

Italian Travel Expert: Martha has a list of her favourite places to visit:

6 Rome Day Trips : Ancient Sites, Hill Towns, Gardens, and Wine

You don't have to go all the way to Pompeii to walk on ancient Roman roads, visit Ostia Antica

⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪

As an eight generation Roman, here is Guido's (my) guide on the 5 Best Rome Day Trips in the Sabine Hills and closer to Rome:

The Sabine Hills, an unknown and very beautiful place to visit- an easy Day Trip from Rome

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Italian Springtime Salad with Fennel, Orange and Olives : 'Insalatina di finocchi, arancia e olive'

Here is a simple Italian salad recipe that I make at this time of the year.  This salad is so easy to make, full of fresh flavours, and will only take you 5 minutes to prepare.

In Italian it is called 'Insalatina di finocchi, arancia e olive' meaning 'Italian Fennel, Orange and Olive Salad'. It combines some wonderful flavours: fresh and crispy fennel, juicy sweetness of the orange, and the salty full flavour of local olives (black olives are best to use).

My own 'Insalatina di finocchi, arancia e olive'
using blood and local oranges, our own cured olives, plus locally grown fennel

Ingredients:
½ - 1 fennel
2 oranges peeled (blood orange and / or navel oranges)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (Sabina D.O.P.)
1 large handful of black olives, (gaeta, leccino, carboncella, suggested varieties)
Pinch of fine sea salt, to taste

Instructions:
Chop your fennel in long thin strips, along the grain of the fennel. Cut your juicy ripe peeled oranges into cubes. Add both the fennel and the orange pieces along with a handful of black olives into a bowl.  Drizzle over a healthy amount of olive oil ( please only use extra virgin olive oil, as it is the best!) and sprinkle over some salt, to taste. Mix all the ingredients together and serve chilled.

Please tell me what you think.
Sally

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Carbonara Pasta - fast, tasty Roman cuisine

Carbonara is a symbol of Rome’s cuisine and one of my favourite fast pasta dishes to make.

'Spaghetti alla carbonara' served with ground black pepper and topped with extra Guanciale

Ingredients: (serves 6)
50g of guanciale (cured pork cheek), 50 g of pecorino romano cheese, black pepper, 4 eggs, extra virgin olive oil.
Dried Pasta: 80-100g per serving

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 immediately and with extra pepper on top.

Pasta shapes traditionally used for Carbonara are spaghetti or  rigatoni.

Chef Guido's Tips:
Tip 1: This sauce is very quick, and when ready needs to be stirred into the cooked 'aldente' spaghetti and served immediately.
Tip 2: If guanciale is not available you can use pancetta instead

If you like this recipe, please download Guido's FREE 5 minute Roman Pasta Recipe Booklet

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Amatriciana - Chef Guido's simple Roman Pasta Sauce

Amariciana, is named after Amatrice, a town that lies in the mountains of northern Lazio, famous for producing the finest guanciale (cured pork cheek). Amariciana is another one of my 'go to' Roman pasta sauce recipes, because it is simple, quick and full of flavour.

Amatriciana
Ingredients (serves 6): 50g of guanciale (cured pork cheek), 50 g of pecorino romano, 1 can of peeled S.Marzano tomatoes (no added sugar), salt, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil.

Method: Cut the guanciale into short sticks. Put a little olive oil in a pan and fry guanciale until crispy. Put guanciale aside and cook tomatoes with a pinch of salt in the juice that’s left in the pan for 10 minutes. Add crispy guanciale at the end. Mix this sauce with cooked ‘aldente’ pasta and grated pecorino cheese. Serve with extra pecorino and plenty of black pepper.

(Pasta shapes traditionally used: bucatini, rigatoni, mezze maniche)
Dried Pasta: 80-100g per serving

Chef Guido is an eighth generation Roman, who runs Italian cooking classes  and Convivio Rome, with Sally, his Australian wife, in the beautiful Sabine Hills, just north of Rome. Italian Cooking Classes, Culinary Holidays and Olive Tours, plus Wine Tours.

Cooking Holidays and Day Tours  with Convivio Rome, are available all year round

For further information

www.conviviorome.com (cooking holidays, cooking classes and olive tours)

www.winetoursrome.com (wine tours)

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

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

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

www.winetoursrome.com

*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. :-)

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

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.