Aglio, olio e peperoncino - Chef Guido's Classic Roman Pasta Dishes

Aglio, olio e peperoncino

This is the quickest pasta sauce to make and it tastes delicious. This is the classic Roman pasta dish I make for my family when I use what ingredients we already have in the cupboard. No need to go and shop, plus it is very fast to make. 
You can make it as hot as you like, just add or reduce the chilli you use.

Ingredients (serves 6): extra virgin olive oil, garlic, 2 garlic cloves, fresh chilli.

Method: Fry 2 bruised garlic cloves and a small fresh chilli in olive oil until the garlic is golden brown. Take out the garlic and mix the sauce in with cooked ‘aldente’ pasta. 

(Pasta shapes traditionally used: bucatini, spaghetti)


Dried Pasta: 80-100g per serving

Chef Guido's Tip: "top with a little fresh parsley"

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

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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

Immersed in Olives and Sabina Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The lives of my family and I are intertwined with the local Sabina extra virgin olive oil. We are not only surrounded by olive trees, we grow, harvest, take the olives to press to make our own extra virgin olive oil and make local cures using our own herbs mixed in olive oil...we also cure and eat our olives whole. Extra virgin olive oil is an essential ingredient in all my Italian cooking classes and Italian Culinary Holidays. In other words, we are immersed in olives and olive oil, inside and out!  Our local Sabina extra virgin olive oil often referred to as 'liquid gold' as it is recognised to have many healing properties. The olive itself is a symbol of peace and longevity, and it has often been used as a base for medicines because of its healing powers.

Visiting the 'L'Olivone', the Largest Olive Tree in Europe, is the first stop on your Rome Olive Tour

When in Rome.....come for a visit to the Sabine Hills with us to find out more about this amazing fruit, that has a long long history and is entwined with the local culture, here in the Roman countryside. I run Rome Olive Tours all year round. Rome Olive Tours with Convivio Rome

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How to cure olives, the Italian way

I've just finished the process of curing our own olives using the simplest local recipe from the Sabine Hills. It is so easy, that I wanted to share the local secrets on how to cure olives.

The olives (a 'carboncella' native Italian variety) collected from one of our trees back in December, were put inside a bowl, under layers of sea salt for 60 days.

Covered with large sea salt for 60 days

After rinsing off all the sea salt I left the olives to dry for 2 days on a cotton towel 

Then, I simply rinsed the olives and left them to dry on several cotton towels. I turned them every now and then to ensure they dried well.

I then chopped some orange peel and some garlic until I had a small handful of this mixture.

Finally, I put the cured olives in jars, mixing them with the orange peel and garlic and  finally covered them with our own olive oil. Fatto (done)!

Making sure all the olives are covered with extra virgin olive oil

PS: Nothing is ever wasted: for once all the olives are eaten, the olive oil from the jars can be re-used for dressing or cooking, with its wonderful flavour of orange and garlic.

Every Italian region have their own local recipes and methods on how to cure olives.

Let me know what way you cure olives as I would love to hear from you.

Convivio Rome conducts Rome Olive Tours, Italian Cooking Classes, 3 and 5 night Italian Culinary Vacations and Wine tours, all in the Sabine Hills, just north of Rome in Italy.

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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

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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