The flavors of Sicily in Rome

To welcome spring, my partners and I are kicking off a series of Sicilian food and wine events hosted in Rome. If you love Sicilian flavors, and you'll be in Rome April 2-3, you should seriously consider attending!

The April 2-3 events were made possible thanks to partnerships with Casa Mia Tours, Chef Linda Sarris, aka The Cheeky Chef, and Sicilian food and wine sponsors. I can't wait to introduce them to you!

Check out the program of events:

Tuesday, April 2, 2019 | Sun, Sea & Soil Aperitivo

Join us for a Sicilian aperitivo at ProLoco Trastevere on Tuesday April 2, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.

Three of the most important ingredients in Sicilian cooking are sun, sea, and soil. Chef Linda Sarris from Palermo will cook up delicious Sicilian appetizers such as freshly made panelle (organic stone-milled chickpea fritters with lemon and fresh mint); fried anchovies and wild field greens; tomasini di russello (savory dough made from ancient grains filled with ricotta, sausage, and wild fennel seeds); Sicilian bruschetta topped with pesto trapanese, caper paté and sun-dried tomatoes. There will also be a tagliere featuring Sicilian cured meats and cheeses, like salame Nero Ibleo, and prized Ragusano cheese. Sicilian wine pairings and Sicilian amaro will be served. Signature cocktails will be available for purchase.

SICILIAN APERITIVO April 2, 2019 ProLoco Trastevere – Via Goffredo Mameli 23 – 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are available for purchase on Eventbrite ~ €25 per person, includes 2 glasses of wine, amaro and appetizer buffet.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 | Sicilian cooking lesson at Casa Mia

Join a Sicilian cooking lesson in Rome on April 3rd, 2019. Aprons on at 6 p.m.

Thanks to the many cultures who have called this island their home, Sicily's layered food history is filled with ingredients and cooking techniques that you don't see in other parts of Italy.

In the kitchen, Chef Linda Sarris will teach guests about the importance of seasonal cooking with high-quality products and share her own simple recipes that you can recreate at home.

Following the lesson, guests will enjoy a dinner together, sipping Sicilian wines.

The four-course menu with wine pairings will feature an antipasto of organic stone-milled chickpea fritters with lemon and parsley; a first course of organic busiate pasta made from semola di grano duro, cauliflower, passolina raisins, toasted breadcrumbs and pine nuts. Our main course will be calamari stuffed with artichokes, capers and mint. No meal is complete without dolce, and no Sicilian meal is complete without hand-made cannoli with ricotta cream and candied orange peel.
Dishes will be paired with natural Sicilian wines, also poured throughout the cooking class.

SICILIAN COOKING LESSON Via Fabio Massimo 107 – Aprons on at 6:00 p.m.

Tickets are available for purchase on Eventbrite ~ €75 per person.

Our event sponsors are:
Porta del Vento (sicilian wine from Camporeale)
www.portadelvento.it | @porta_del_vento_winery

Paesano Authentic (pomegranate amaro, artichoke amaro)
www.paesanoauthentic.com | @paesano.authentic

Azienda Agricola Biologica Di Giovanna (organic extra virgin olive oil)
www.di-giovanna.com | @digiovannawine

Molini del Ponte (chickpea & russello flour, busiate pasta)
www.molinidelponte.com | @molini_del_ponte_drago

Our event partners are:
ProLoco Trastevere
Etnella

I hope to see you there!

Internet craze apple roses

These super easy "apple roses" are all over the internet lately.

Everyone's making them, my son and I even crafted some at the latest cooking school session we attended together.

This got me thinking that I absolutely have to get my baking act together. This recipe is a great way for begginners to approach baking.

The thought that organically followed was, "This classic flaky dough wrapped around apple slices "glued" together with apricot jam can be transformed into fun variations."

In addition to the ubiquitous apple rose recipe, I'm adding a few savory suggestions to up your aperitivo game or your children's merenda snacks.


Internet craze apple roses

Preheat oven to 200° C (390° F)
Cut 2 apples in half and core. Do not peel. As a matter of fact, choose Gala or Red Delicious varieties whose red skin creates a beautiful color contrast with the cream colored pulp.
Slice the apple halves thinly and drop in acidulated water.
Prepare a basic syrup (2 parts sugar and 1 part water) and soften the apple slices in it for 2 minutes.
Dust with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, toss to coat evenly and allow to cool.
Using a pastry cutter, cut a rectangular sheet of puff pastry into 2-inch strips.

Brush the strips with warmed apricot jam and lay the apple slices on the top half of the strip, slightly overlapping them.

Fold up the bottom half of the strip and starting from one end, roll the strip on itself.

Place each rolled "rose" in buttered ramekins or paper lined muffin molds.

Sprinkle a little brown sugar on the surface of each rose.

Bake in hot oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.


Sweet & savory spin-offs using the puff pastry as a base

• Use pears instead of apples, and spread white or dark chocolate instead of jam, sprinkle chocolate chips as garnish
• Use celery slices, spread peanut butter, garnish with coarsely ground peanuts or slivered almonds
• Strawberries and ricotta
• Pancetta and smoked cheese
• Pears and gorgonzola
• Peaches and nutella
• Grilled zucchini and goat cheese
• Salami and stracchino cheese
• Roast pumpkin and brie
• Lox and cream cheese garnished with arugula
• Roast potato and caramelized leek...

I can keep going if you like.

Image © Giorgia Di Sabatino – Elliot Baldwin – dlicedorient.blogspot.it 

Where to Eat Near the Vatican and Prati

Guidebooks often portray the area around the Vatican and the adjacent Prati business district as a culinary wasteland. It's not. But discerning the decent from the dreadful can be hard for the uninitiated, with many visitors too tired to think straight. 

So here's a Vatican and Prati shortlist of dining and drinks places that you can tuck away and count on. 

Continue Reading ➔

Wine tasting at VinoRoma

VinoRoma, or the sommeliers you'll love (and understand).

There's always a feeling of being underqualified when attending a wine tasting. I personally always fear I'll say the wrong thing, suggest the wrong pairing... I'm uncomfortable my instinctive approach towards wine will clash with the wine knowledge of sommeliers teaching and certified experts attending.

But on the other hand, I love wine. And I do try to learn things about it, and mostly how some wines can exalt the flavor of certain foods.

The best way to do this in Rome, in the care of knowledgeable wine stewards, is to head over to Vino Roma, a fabulous wine studio in the Monti neighborhood where you can learn everything about Italian wines at various types of guided tastings and seminars.

In the comfortable setting of a large communal space, under a vaulted brick ceiling, with the benefits of the on-site thousand year old cellar, and seated at a table laden with goodies and bottles, you can follow one of many interesting wine events held in English (German, Japanese, Italian and Turkish are available upon special request).

Tastings at Vino Roma are designed to inform and entertain everyone, guests will learn something new no matter what their level of wine knowledge is. The folks at Vino Roma don't believe in wine-snobbery, so any wine tasting panic is not an issue here, since no question is ever laughed at.

There are very popular wine tasting events going on at Vino Roma, my favorite ones are the ones that involve lots of food too! I recently attended a Wine & Cheese Lunch, and it turned out to be so much more than I expected. It was a wonderful chance to chat comfortably at the table with interesting fellow guests, sipping wine, nibbling great bread, cheese and salumi, and learning about wine regions, grapes and winemaking with the great team of wine lovers that work there.

If you're traveling to Rome, I suggest you absolutely book a tasting with Hande, Maurizio, Irene or Theo. They will be happy to pour a little happiness in your glass. It will be one of the highlights of your stay in the Eternal City.

Vino Roma

Via in Selci 84/G (minutes away from the Colosseum or the Termini central station; right by the Cavour Metro stop on blue line B)

Best museum restaurants in Rome

The combination of Art and Food in a city like Rome is a no-brainer. The illuminated trend of coupling delectable cuisine with paintings and sculptures originated in several European cities, like Bilbao with restaurant Nerua at the Guggenheim Museum, Barcelona, Paris at the Musée d'Orsay, Avignon and St Etienne. Other world museums that have picked up on this idea include the Tate Modern in London, the Winter Palace at the Hermitage in St Petersburg, and The Modern at MoMA in New York City, to mention a few.

Here's what the Eternal City has to offer in terms of museum restaurtants:

Atelier Canova Tadolini
The studio where Antonio Canova and pupil Adamo Tadolini worked in the early 1800s is now a unique cafe and restaurant, where patrons dine surrounded by plaster replicas and marble fragments of the maestro's scuplture.
Don't miss the sea bass carpaccio with lemongrass sauce, the gnocchi with zucchini blossoms, cherry tomatoes and asparagus tips, or the grilled veal medallions with side of chickory flan.
Via del Babuino 151 (Tridente) Tel. +39 0632110702 - The restaurant is open daily noon to 11pm, cafe opens at 8am.

Bistro Cafe - Chiostro del Bramante
Come for high tea, or to dine on fresh seasonal dishes in the Hall of the Sybils from which, thanks to large glass windows overlooking the church of Santa Maria della Pace, you can admire the famous Raphael frescoes of the "Sibille e Angeli." The menu is perfect for vegetarians with its featured salads, bean soups and bruschette loaded with toppings, all enjoyed while making use of the free Wi-Fi.
Via Arco della Pace 5 (Navona) Tel. +39 0668809035 ext#26 - Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 8pm.

Caffé Capitolino at Terrazza Caffarelli - Musei Capitolini
The breathatking view of Roman tiled rooftops is staggering from the top of the archeological Capitoline Museums, housed in Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Caffarelli.Visitors can take a breather from all the beauty inside the museum halls by sitting on the terrace of the Caffé Capitolino and ordering freshly squeezed juices, potent espresso or the house specialty salads, which come served in huge bowls.
Piazza Caffarelli (access from the musuem or from top of the giant Campidoglio staircase, turn right and head uphill) Tel. +39 0669190564 - Open Monday to Saturday 9am to 8pm.

Caffé delle Arti - Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
The National Gallery of Modern Art (aka GNAM) nestled in lush Villa Borghese, was built in 1883 to house the modern art of unified Italy. The cafe and restaurant "of the arts" occupies a shady wing of the museum's monumental structure, with a terrace surrounded by trees and greenery. After feeding your soul with masterpieces by Guttuso, Klimt, De Chirico, Pollock, Balla, Calder and Mondrian, fill your body with beef carpaccio, eggplant parmesan, a tasty timballo made with tortellini, and vegetarian cous cous, sprawled on one of the leafy terrace's plush sofas.
Via Gramsci 73 - Tel. +39 0632651236 - Open Tuesday to Sunday from 8:30am to 7:30pm.

Photo © Andrea Di Lorenzo

Open Colonna - Palazzo delle Esposizioni
Perched atop Rome's largest interdisciplinary exhibition area, sits an airy transparent open-space loft, which turns into a flickering urban lantern as night falls. Chef Colonna's innovative cuisine combines traditional Roman cucina povera with international and cosmopolitan flavors. Dinner is served upsatirs in the "Gourmet" level, but don't miss the value lunch options offered between Tuesday and Friday, with two buffet menus to choose from at a flat €16 per person.
Stairway entrance at Via Milano 9A (Nazionale) Wheelchair entrance on via Piacenza - Tel. +39 0647822641 - Open Tuesday to Sunday lunch from noon to 11pm.

MACRO 138 - MACRO
Museo d'Arte Contemporanea a Roma spells the contemporary art museum's acronym, whose permanent collection offers a selection of some of the most significant expressions of the Italian art scene since the 1960s. The all-organic and biodynamic restaurant housed in a spectacular glass and steel structure, offers buffet lunch and à la carte dinner, with an ever-changing menu largely dictated by seasonal and local availability.
Via Nizza 138 (Nomentano) Tel. +39 068548274 - Open Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 3pm; and 8 to 11pm. Sunday open for lunch only.

MAXXI 21 - MAXXI
The museum of 21st century art is Rome's latest addition. Anglo-Iraqui architect Zaha Hadid's vision was to design a space in which the pleasure of enjoying art (and food) is experienced at 360°. The MAXXI 21 restaurant's menu is based on the concepts of zero food miles, with use of products hailing from the immediate vicinity of Rome, particularly those in season; and zero calories thanks to a delicious menu designed to include only preparations containing less than 250 Kcal.
Via Guido Reni, 4A (Flaminio) Tel. +39 063207230 - Open Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 7pm, and Saturday from 11am to 10pm.

If it's music you're most into, and need respite from all the museum-visiting, why not make a stop at Rome's newest concert hall?

ReD - Restaurant and Design at Auditorium Parco della Musica is open from breakfast through to post-dinner drinks, with delectable meals in between. Chef Carelli's cuisine features both classic and innovative dishes, plus interesting artisan microbrewery ales and an impressive winelist. I'm often seen here for evening aperitivo, or to watch the rugby games broadcast on giant screens and mostly, for the pumpkin ravioli with home-churned butter and black truffles, the paccheri pasta with lobster tails, fresh tomato and basil, and the divine lamb shank with sweet pepper tiramisu.

Viale De Coubertin 12-16 (Flaminio) Tel. +39 0680691630 - Open daily from 9am to 2 am.

Amuse bouche recipe

To keep our guests busy while last touches were being made on the gargantuan Ferragosto meal, we offered these tiny amuse bouche (French for small, savory items served as an appetizer, literally 'amuse the mouth') presented in lovely little china dipping bowls.

We made deviled eggs and tuna-stuffed cherry tomatoes; and dressed each respectively with a minuscule Salina caper, and a pitted olive. We decorated each serving bowl with some baby lettuce and, voila smiles on faces.

Buon appetito.