Travel to Italy anyone?

A few weeks ago I became an associate with a group of people who are promoting Italy as a travel destination. Our group offers Italian language courses, Cooking classes and Wine tours in Italy. We can also offer guide tours of Italian regions, advice and services on villa and apartment rentals in Italy, preferred hotels to fit your budget and what ever other services you might need if you wish to travel to la bella Italia.

We are all Italian speakers and we have all lived in Italy, some of us even have family there. Our advice is based on sound knowledge of all aspects to ensure that you will find enjoyment in any part of what we have to offer.

Have a look at the website

 If you want any questions on the information on the website you should mention my name as the associate who referred you, Lorenzo. You can contact me directly here and I will forward any request you may have or you can contact Stefania at the following email: stefania@esploritalia.com

Marcus-Aurelius, Campidoglio, Roma

Piazza Venezia, Roma

Saturday with the Chef

This Saturday morning I went on a walk with Chef Deb (Deborah Rankine) who is on YouTube and also has a blog, a TV show and gives cooking classes in Canada. She gave me a copy of her book. Her web site is: www.thefridgewhisperer.ca and www.culinarycaravan.com
We met through the Internet, I saw her on YouTube and sent in a comment about one of her recipes. She answered asking me about restaurants in Rome and then told me she was coming to Rome with her family for a visit.

She said she wanted to see a local fresh produce market in Rome where Romans shop for food. I met her at Porta Pia and we went around the corner to the market of Piazza Alessandria. She bought wine and olive oil, cheese and other Italian specialities. I also took her to 2 enotecas and for coffee in our little local bar. We went to Bartocci on Via Alessandria where she saw the staff make fresh gelato. She got quite a tour of the food shops in our area.

Tomorrow she goes to the Amalfi coast with the family. It was fun to meet her and to be able to show her around my neighborhood.

Cooking class on a Sunday morning

On Sunday morning we were up early and went to our cooking class in Riano which is a far suburb of Rome. You can get there by metro from Piazza Flaminio and you get off at the Montebello station about 20 minutes all together and it only cost 1 euro.
We drove since it was more convenient and I had guests coming with me to Wendy Holloway's B&B Flavor of Italy.
See her web site, www.flavorofitaly.com

The cooking menu had several recipes on Artichokes, they are in season right now, in fact it is just the beginning, we prepared Carciofi alla Romana and Carciofi alla Judaica, both are very old recipes, the artichoke Jewish style is 2600 years old as old as the Jewish community of Rome. I learned how to select them at the market, clean them, cut them and cook or fry them. We also made Ravioli with a spinach pasta stuffed with pumpkin and walnuts. Saltimboca alla Romana, thin veal scallop with sage leaf and a paper thin slice of prosciutto and 16 individual chocolate soufflés, they were beautiful.

It was great fun and we all learned something. We had a wonderful lunch of the food we prepared. A very nice way to spend a Sunday.

Food Holiday

On Sunday morning we drove to Riano just 20 minutes outside Rome, we went to Wendy Holloway's B&B located on a hill which has an amazing panoramic view of the Lazio Province and Rome in the distance, truly breath taking. Wendy has been living in Italy for 25 years and for the last 10 years has developed her business which is called ''Flavor of Italy'' see her wonderful website at www.flavorofitaly.com

It is a very easy drive from Rome on the Flaminia, you can also take the metro and then transfer to the regional train, getting off at Montebello, no more than 25 minutes from Piazza Flaminia in central Rome.
The Canadian Club of Rome had organized a cooking class for Sunday morning, Wendy thought up the menu and it was fun and wonderful.

We made several dishes, fresh anchovies, a wonderful little white fish marinated in orange juice, red and yellow roasted bell peppers in a sauce of anchovies, capers and olive oil, fresh pasta ravioli with a stuffing of ricotta and zest of lemon, the sauce was a light butter and cream with lemon zest, Salmon steaks Sicilian style, which is sweet and sour sauce, raisins and balsamic vinegar, Risotto with chanterelles mushrooms and mild Italian sausage meat, and a fig torte. She picks hundred of figs off her trees and then removes the stem and simply freezes them during the winter, so she can use them in recipes and they are as delicious as if just picked off the tree. We had a nice white wine from the Lazio region to accompany.

Each one of us made one dish and others then help out or observed with Chef Wendy encouraging us along.
Will and I have done many cooking courses around the world, the most memorable being in Vietnam 3 years ago in different cities, Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon, and also in Thailand. It is always nice to learn how to do a dish and to learn the different flavors and mix of ingredients. You learn to appreciate the culture of the country, not just by visiting sites but also how food mixes with the culture and what is important to the people. Rice in Asia is very important as bread is in Western culture, olives to the Greeks and olive oil to the Italians, dates to the Arabs. You gain a better appreciation all around.

Will is good at making pasta and he made the ravioli. The anchovies though most people think that it is a salty unpleasant fish is in fact if fresh, a very nice white fish and very good grilled or eaten as we did marinated. The caper and anchovy sauce I made for the roasted peppers, I washed the salt off the capers and simply added them in the blender to the olive oil and anchovies.

Pasta has a range of cooking time from 8 minutes for raviolis and spaghetti to 12 minutes for bigger pasta like fettuchini, of course in Italy all pasta is cooked aldente (to your teeth), which is the way we like it now.

We are planning to return to ''Flavor of Italy'' B&B on 31 January for a weekend of cooking classes and olive oil tasting.