Taste of rome cooking class recipes
RECIPES
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Ingredients for 12 people:
2 Radicchio di Treviso
1 endive
5 blood oranges
100gr Parmesan shavings
Caramelized walnuts:
100gr walnuts cut into quarters
50gr of Sugar
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of water
1 small pinch of salt
Croutons:
300gr Sourdough bread
4 tbp Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Dressing:
3 clementines
60gr Evo olive oil
25gr red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Honey
1tsp sea salt
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Method:
Over medium heat cook your walnuts with the sugar, butter, salt and water for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently so your mixture doesn't burn (especially towards the end). When the sugar mixture starts melting, stir constantly until all sugar is melted and nuts are coated. The caramelized sugar will be amber in color.
Transfer immediately onto a sheet of parchment paper and separate the nuts right away. Let cool for about 10minutes before then adding to the salad.
Cut the Sourdough bread into small dice and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake until golden and crunchy, about 10-15 minutes.
Peel all of the blood oranges, to reveal the pulp, making sure there's no white membrane left (as this can be too bitter). Slice the oranges about ½ cm thick rounds. Reserve.
Make the dressing: cut the clementines in half, squeeze the juice into a small pot and cook on medium heat for about 10minutes to reduce the liquid by ⅓.
Once the clementine juice has cooled down, mix in a bowl with the olive oil, vinegar , honey and season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust as needed.
Cut radicchio into thin slices and separate the chicory leaves keeping them whole. Toss together with the caramelized walnuts, the croutons, the dressing, and the blood orange slices. Place onto a platter and sprinkle the parmesan shavings on top.
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Carciofi alla Giudia is a classic Jewish-Roman dish featuring whole artichokes deep-fried until golden and crispy. Originating from Rome’s historic Jewish Ghetto, the artichokes are carefully trimmed, flattened, and fried in olive oil, creating a crunchy exterior while keeping the heart tender and flavorful.
Mammole artichokes (also called carciofo romanesco) are a thorn-free, round artichoke from Lazio, especially around Rome, known for their tender leaves, mild sweetness, and minimal choke. They’re used for carciofi alla giudia because their compact shape and soft bracts fry evenly, opening into a crisp “flower” while staying creamy and not bitter inside. The season for these artichokes runs from February to April.
To tell if mammole artichokes are fresh, choose ones with tightly closed, compact leaves, a firm and heavy feel for their size, and a bright color without browning or dryness.
To prevent peeled artichokes from browning, keep them submerged in water with a squeeze of lemon until ready to cook.
Sunflower Oil is the best oil to use as it has a high smoke point, produces a crisp exterior and neutral flavour so won't affect the flavour of the artichokes.
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(For 6 artichokes)
Ingredients:
6 Mammole artichokes
2 litres of Vegetable or sunflower oil
Maldon Sea Salt
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Start by Prepping the artichokes. Begin by trimming the artichoke. You start at the base of the artichoke, peeling off the toughest, dark green outer leaves. At this point, your artichoke should look something like the photo below. When you get to these inner leaves, thinner and lighter colored at their base, stop peeling and start trimming off the darker green tops of the remaining leaves lying underneath with a paring knife. Trim the stem of its tough exterior. When you’re done, you should wind up with a specimen that looks something like the photos below.
Immediately rub the artichoke all over with the cut side of a lemon, then submerge it in acidulated water until you’re ready to fry.
Heat one pot of about 25cm in diameter and 15cm in height with 2 litres of oil and heat the oil to about 120-150C/250-300F. The oil should be deep enough that the artichokes can float in it and bubble up very gently around the artichoke as it fries. You may have to cook only 3 or 4 artichokes at a time so that the oil temperature doesn't drop.
Drain the artichoke and pat it perfectly dry. Place it on its side in the oil. Let it cook on all sides, turning it from time to time, until almost tender. The artichoke will have slightly browned and its outer leaves begun to open, like so:
Depending on the size and age of your artichoke, this initial fry should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. You can test for doneness by inserting a paring knife in the stem and body of the artichoke. If you meet only minimal resistance, it’s done.
Remove and drain on paper towels. If serving immediately then cut into quarters and serve with flaked sea salt and if not not serving right away you can reheat the artichokes in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 200degrees to reheat them quickly before serving.
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Amatriciana is a simple sauce originating from a small town near Rome called Amatrice and came about by shepherds who used to bring cheese and pieces of pork jowl with them during long stays away from home and cook them in an iron pan. The people of Amatrice are very protective of their recipe and believe it shouldn’t be deviated from
This Recipe uses the following ingredients:
Guanciale which is the cured pork cheek which has a higher fat content and a richer, deeper pork flavor than pancetta which is the belly of the pork. When cooking the guanciale, start the guanciale in a cold pan and heat gradually as this will melt the fat slowly, giving you a flavorful cooking base and perfectly crispy pieces.
San Marzano Tinned Tomatoes: San Marzano is a delicious plum tomato and in this recipe we used the Tinned version where they have been blanched to remove the skin and gently cooked so they are sweeter than using fresh tomatoes and will break down into the sauce/ thicken quicker.
Pecorino cheese which is an aged sheep's milk and is a bit punchier and stronger in flavour than parmesan.
Dry white wine, nothing fancy needed, you just don’t want to use a sweet wine
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Ingredients for 12 people:
850gr Guanciale (pork jowl), cut into 1cm cubes without the rind
Dry Chili Flakes
6 Cans x400g of Mutti San Marzano Peeled Chopped Tomatoes
300gr Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
350ml Dry white wine
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Method:
Heat your oven to 180degrees. Place an oven tray into the oven with no baking paper for about 10minutes to get very hot. In the meantime cut your guanciale into small cubes making sure to remove the rind. Once the oven tray is hot, place your guanciale onto it and cook in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until a lot of the fast has rendered. Remove the tray from the oven and pour the rendered liquid fat into a bowl before continuing to cook the guanciale for another 10minutes or so until the guanciale is nice and crispy.
In a pan on medium heat, add a splash of olive oil and the peperoncino for two minutes before adding the white wine and cans of tomato. Do not add any salt as the guanciale will add a lot of saltiness. Cook the sauce for 20-25 minutes on a medium/low heat until the sauce has thickened into a nice rich sauce. Once you have removed the rendered fat of the guanciale from the oven you can add half of it to the tomato sauce.
Add the pasta (cooked 1-2 minutes less than package directions) directly to the sauce along with pasta water if needed, then mix in half of the crispy guanciale and half of the Pecorino Romano. Serve with the remaining pecorino and guanciale sprinkled over.
Fresh Pasta - Tagliatelle
Ingredients (yields 1 large portion)
100gr 00 flour
1 medium sized egg (about 55gr)
Pinch of salt
Method: Making the dough
Pour the flour into a pile on a clean work surface. Using the egg (in its shell) push the flour from the center in a circular motion to create a well (the outer walls of the flour stop the egg pouring out when it is cracked). If making more than one portion pour all flour into one pile rather than separate piles.
Crack your egg(s) into the well of flour and scramble it using one hand.
Begin to combine the flour into the egg using a pinching motion. At this point using both hands will speed the process up (however, if you’d like to keep one free to sip wine, who are we to judge?)
Persevere with combining the ingredients until they come together to form a dough.
Now move to using the palm of your hand to knead the dough for at least 4-5 minutes.
***Note Eggs are different sizes so add a few drops of warm water if the dough feels very dry and a sprinkling of flour if very sticky.
Your dough is ready when it is smooth in appearance with no white flecks and you can successfully perform the ‘spring back test’ - no fear, this is not a Simone Biles gymnastics trick, rather a simple poke of the finger on the dough - if it springs back the gluten is activated and the dough ready to rest - gold medal for you.
Wrap your dough in cling film tightly and rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.
Shaping the Tagiatelle:
Attach your pasta machine to a clean work surface ensuring you have space to the left of the machine for the dough to be rolled out. Dust this space with a little ‘00’ flour. Set your machine to the thickest setting (usually number 6 or 0 depending on the machine you are using)
Unwrap your dough and shape it into an oval the length of the rollers (if it feels sticky dust with a little flour).
Pass the dough through the rollers, turning the handle steadily, starting from the widest roller setting and working through the numbers to the thinner setting (we recommend setting 5-6 for tagliatelle or Tagliolini. Run the dough through the widest setting four times with a fold before every repetition and then from there step by step on each number without folding.
You should have a long sheet of pasta by now - if not, pass it through the penultimate level again.
Using a knife, cut your sheet of pasta into 2 or 3 pieces (ideally each piece should be around the length of a piece of spaghetti).
Move the handle into the tagliatelli cutting function of the machine. Thread each piece through, collecting with your hand as it comes out. It’s really important not to squeeze the pieces together as they will stick. Lay them out on a floured surface or plate - separating them as much as possible.
Salt some boiling water (salty like the sea!) and drop the pasta in - use a spoon to ensure the pieces are not sticking together. Cover with a lid and leave for 2 mins. Test a piece - if you can imagine it tasting delicious covered in sauce then it’s ready (fresh pasta will never really achieve the ‘Al Dente’ texture but over cooking it so it became mushy and soft would be a real shame - especially after successful completion of 14 steps)
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Saltimbocca translates to ‘jump into your mouth’ and as such should be bite sized pieces that are best hot right after frying in butter and oil! Delicious to enjoy as an aperitivo or otherwise can also be served as a main course. You want to use a tender and lean piece of meat so Pork Loin, Veal or Chicken breast is great. It comes from Roma :)
Cooking Tip: Make sure to really hammer your meat thinly because it is very lean and if it takes too long to cook then the meat will dry out. Insert the toothpick from the top and through the back, not from the bottom, so the top of the Sage and Ham stays exposed to the heat for proper browning.
Vegetarian Option: If you would like to do a vegetarian option then you can use a king oyster mushroom which you cut into thin slices about 0.5cm thick and tooth pick a sage leaf to each slice and pan fry in the same way as we panfried the pork.
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Recipe for 12 people as an antipasti:
Pork fillet or Veal Loin, approx 600gr
130gr of Parma Ham or Copa, approx 20 slices
45grams of Sage leaves
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil and butter
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Method:
Firstly, cut your meat into slices about 1cm thick (the thinner the better). You can then use your meat hammer to get the meat even thinner. The thinner it is the quicker the meat will cook and the less chance you have of it drying out.
Cut the meat in large bite size pieces, and then lay a similar sized slice of Parma ham followed by a leaf of sage. Secure this with a toothpick and make sure it is nice and flat. Insert the toothpick from the top and through the back, not from the bottom, so the top of the Sage and Ham stays exposed to the heat for proper browning. Season the saltimbocca on the meat side with salt and pepper.
Heat a generous knob of butter and a splash of olive oil in a pan over high heat. Once the butter and oil are melted and very hot, place the saltimbocca pieces in the pan, sage leaf side down, being careful not to overcrowd so that each piece makes full contact with the heat. You may need to cook them in batches, rinsing the pan briefly between batches to remove any burnt butter.
Let the saltimbocca cook until the sage and ham is very crispy, about 2/3minutes and the meat is almost cooked through. Flip the saltimbocca and let them cook for about 30 seconds on the other side or until cooked through. Be patient with the cooking to make sure the ham and sage are nicely browned and crispy.
Serve hot!
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Tiramisu translates to ‘pull me up’ in Italian and was created in the countryside when families would be sleepy after long family lunches and so the coffee would revive everyone. Traditionally no alcohol is added to the recipe however if you did want to add alcohol then usually Marsala wine is added to the biscuits with the coffee. We have slightly adjusted the recipe by adding in a delicious Pistachio butter however if you would like to keep the recipe traditional or nut free then just skip this step in the recipe.
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For 8 people:
500g mascarpone
3 tbsp sugar
180g Pistachio cream (we love the brand Pisti)
4 eggs
12 finger biscuits
250ml strong coffee
For the praline
70g shelled pistachio
80g sugar
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Method:
Place a bowl with the pistachio butter into a larger bowl of boiling water from the kettle and gently stir for a couple of minutes so that the pistachio cream will soften and become runny.
Place your biscuits in one single layer in a deep dish big enough to fit all of the biscuits in a single layer. Pour about 1.5tablespoon of strong black coffee onto each biscuit so that the outside is soft but the centre retains a little crunch. On top of the biscuits sprinkle a little dusting bit of cocoa powder with a sieve to lightly cover the biscuits and on top of the biscuits drizzle about two-three tablespoons of the pistachio cream over the cocoa powder.
Whisk ¾ of the egg whites and sugar together to form stiff and silky peaks. You can throw away the remaining egg white.
Fold the mascarpone with the egg yolks to form a smooth mixture
Gently fold the egg whites a third at a time into the mascarpone mixture until fully incorporated then spread the mascarpone mixture on top.
Pour the remaining pistachio cream on top of the mascarpone and put in the fridge to set for at least one hour. Serve with the Pistachio Praline
To make the Praline:
Put the sugar in a small pan on medium heat. Leave until you start to see the edges of the sugar melt and caramelize. Slowly turn the pan in circles to caramelize all of the sugar and then immediately pour over the pistachios in a lined small dish and spread around so the pistachios are fully covered. Pop in the fridge until cooled and then blitz in a blender to make a powder. Sprinkle the praline on top of the finished tiramisu and serve.
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