Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Sabina DOP Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the Sabine Hills, near Rome in Italy.
Lauren Mouat, from 'Romeing.it' shares her experience of her Half Day Rome Olive Oil Tour, with Convivo Rome

Romeing article on Olive Oil Tour with Convivio Rome


Friday, 14 March 2014

Sabine Hills. a perfect day trip from Rome

Convivio Rome Cooking Classes has written an article on the beautiful Sabine Hills and why this unspoilt agricultural area makes a perfect day trip from Rome. Italy Travel site on About.com has published this article in their most recent newsletter and can be found here:





Monday, 17 February 2014

Local organic flour for our cooking classes near Rome

The flour we use for our cooking classes near Rome is supplied by a local water mill built in the 18th century, the 'Molino del Cantaro'. This is one of the few mills left in Italy to have the original timber mechanism and grinding stone from 300 years ago, still perfectly working. The flour from this 'mulino' retains all the wheat germ (something industrial flour doesn't have anymore) and comes from organic wheat which is grown by the mill's owner in a nearby field. Even the type of wheat is selected from a range of ancient Italian varieties. Anything that's made with this high quality organic flour, such as fresh pasta, bread, biscotti or cakes, has a lot more flavour and a great texture, just different from anything else.



Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Pizza dough 'little roses'.

Presentation of food has always been part of our Rome Cooking Classes and Italian Cooking Holidays. This is a simple technique to create little 'roses' made of pastry or pizza dough, filled with anything you like (It could be ricotta and spinach, mozzarella cheese and tomato or anything you usually fancy on a pizza, just finely chopped).



Monday, 13 January 2014

What's in Season?

During our Rome Cooking Classes we only ose local organic vegetables that are in season. 'Let's follow the Rhythm of the Seasons', a new chart for knowing what vegetables are in season (in Italian).


Thursday, 14 November 2013

Olive Oil Touring in Sabina

Sabina is a region, just north of Rome and famous for it's high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Harvest time happens just once a year, when the olives turn from green to black and at their best with the highest amount of anti-oxidants. The local farmers are currently harvesting their olives to make their own D.O.P. extra virgin olive oil. (D.O.P. means that the olives are grown, picked, pressed and bottled in the same region, in this case, in Sabina). 

If you want to find out what good olive oil is all about, Convivio Rome now conducts 2 types of Olive Tours: 1/ An afternoon Olive Grove Tour during our 3 and 5 night Italian Cooking Holidays, and
2/ A Half Day (3 hour) Olive Oil Tour. 
To find out more http://www.conviviorome.com/Convivio_Rome/OliveTour.html




Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Chocolate from fair trade in Città di Castello

We all love chocolate, but if it's from fair trade it's even better! We visited "Altrocioccolato' in Città di Castello (near Perugia) last weekend and learned a lot about chocolate and how it's made traditionally, starting from the cocoa beans. The intense aroma of pure chocolate accompanied us while we visited the town, listened to live music and strolled through the organic farmers market. With 60.000 visitors over the weekend 'Altrocioccolato' the Italian fair trade chocolate event of the year, was a success.