Cook, food stylist, sometimes writer. Cooking my way around the markets of Rome, and other adventures. Email [email protected]
Don’t walk, run, up to Mercato San Giovanni di Dio tomorrow and get your paws on this SMOKED BACCALÀ that I just ate in a salad. Claudio and his mum at Banco 98 have salted and dried cod, ready soaked and non, that people come from all over Rome for. I went this morning for baccalà for tomorrow’s dinner, and came back with today’s lunch too. Roughly torn ‘variegato’, finely sliced fennel, an orange that had been zested and was crying to be eaten, a poached egg, red onion and finely sliced smoked baccalà. Had to share subito as they don’t have it that often, so a bit of a treat. #baccalà #banco98 #smokedcod #sustainablefish
‘Tis the season for swaps. Lubriano! And studio! Email me if you would like to swap photographic services and boring technical work on computer (but also maintenance, gardening) for stays at Lubriano (3 bedrooms with garden) or use of studio. My email address is in profile. You need to be based in Rome/Italy. #thebartereconomy #venuerichcashpoor
My first real Roman neighborhood, back in 2005 when the piazza had just been redone. One of the real open air markets, with covered stalls for the meat, fish and deli (gastronomia) sellers. My favourite produce stall is Marco and family, growers from down towards Ostia, on the far left of the market looking towards the covered stalls. Not an exciting market but a beautiful piazza (with kids play area and garden by #Trastvereattiva, and outdoor cinema in summer by @piccoloamerica . And the soundtrack for this reel, prize for the first person to spot the link. #marketsofrome #trastevere #piazzasancosimato
Evolution of a recipe, and ‘fewer eggs better eggs’. The maritozzi recipe that we use at #markettotablerome originally came from @rachelaliceroddy ’s #fivequartersrecipesandnotesfromakitcheninrome, a great recipe that baker friend @danieletherington helped Rachel to test and write. Over the years (we baked quite a lot of mini maritozzi) we tweaked here and there - @carla_tomasi even developed a vegan version - arriving at the perfect quantities for a morning class. (That get included in the recipe notes for everyone who comes along). We are all for ‘fewer eggs better eggs’ - so the latest tweak was making the egg yolk a whole egg, and dividing this in two. Half for the dough (the egg helps make the dough a lovely yellow) and half for the egg wash, which give the sweet little buns a happy shine. Some handy info on eggs in Italy. Unless you buy them directly from a farmer (or Luigina’s Frutta e Vino at Lubriano), in which case the date is scribbled on in pencil, eggs are stamped and graded as follows. 0 for biologico, organic, fully free range. 1 for allevato al aperto, free range. 2 for alleviated a terra, inside but on ground. 3 for cage hens. Pays to check numbers! #fewerwggsbettereggs #maritozzi #knowyouregga
From the portfolio: latteria studio as a photographic set kitchen. Sharing a selection from the images taken for @luluskitchen.eg culinary consultancy at the studio last September, with summer produce galore. @aliaelaskalany created dishes that jump happily between Italian and Egyptian flavors, and her Bruschetta with ripe peaches, tomatoes and pomegranate molasses I have bookmarked for when stone fruit season rolls back around. Photos by @labnoon and (minimal) styling by me. #foodphotographystudio #naturallight
Updated my ‘places to eat around Rome’ list, finally. It will always be a work in process, as I strive to improve the ‘eat out more’ area of my life. You can find the list under the travel tab of ‘recipes & places’ on my website, link in profile. Share with friends, and if you go to @piatto_romano , order the Alici Arraganate, pictured. #wheretoeatinrome #nosecretsspotssadly
Scarves wound tight at the market, frost almost clinging to the greens, very foggy kitchen windows, rolling, chopping, braising, pounding. GRAZIE to everyone who came to yesterday’s first #markettotablerome of the year with @rachelaliceroddy and me. Happy cooks, carciofi, puntarelle, new entrant curly radicchio, ravioli & gnocchi, and the always wonderful (and gluten free) orange and almond cake. Thank you @eetschrift and @adventuresofeverydayliving for the lovely photos which I am always to bustling around kitchen to take. #winteratthemarket #cooktheseason
In the end that beautiful glass window is an illegal add on to our Lubriano house, a infamous’abuso edilizio’. So, looks like we are keeping this magic little hideaway, for which I will probably be grateful when I retire at 81. Available for short stays on Airbnb under ‘Garden View of Civita di Bagnoregio’. Under the pergola you will feel like you are in the middle of the alto-Lazio countryside, even though you are in the centre of a little town and only 3 mins on foot to the ‘frutta e vino’ shop. #lubriano #latuscia #lifeinasmalltown
This will be a massive memory bomb for anyone that grew up in 1970’s and 80’s Melbourne. The cinnamon scroll, and even better, the apple cinnamon scroll. @nadiaspilio , a Melbourne born baker with serious pedigree, has taken those memories and turned them into a fluffy, not to sweet, with a nutty spiced apple filling breakfast dream. On another level from the suburban scrolls of my youth (even though I loved them so). The scrolls, and other weekend breakfast favourites like Babka will be part of the Weekend Bakes class that Nadia is running at the studio Saturday Feb 4 and Sunday Feb 12. Imagine the studio warm and cozy with the smell of cinnamon and spice, specialty tea brewing and a moka on the stovetop. DM Nadia for details! #weekendbakes #saturdaymorningbakeclub #scrollsbabkaandmore
Broccoli pasta, winter staple. Here with just made cavatelli but also great with dried pasta, casarecce being my particular preference. Recipe is under the vegetable tab on the recipes page of my website. All kinds of 🥦 welcome. #cooktheseason
Fennel - Finocchi. A year round vegetable, but particularly good at this time of year at the Roman markets. Around here most often cut into crisp wedges and presented pre-dinner on the infamous ‘crunch plate’, but also much loved baked, the sweet aniseed notes caramelising around the edges. One of the veg I often pick out from the counter at a Tavola Calda. But on a slab of pizza? Also yes. Here I grilled the slices of fennel first and then baked it onto the pizza with Fontina, the earthy creaminess of the cheese melting into the charred fennel, with just the right sharp highlights. I put the cheese under the fennel so as not to toast it. Sprinkle of dried fennel flowers once out of oven. #fennel #finocchi #cooktheseason