Feasting in Frascati

On our recent trip to Rome, Michele and I were fortunate to be invited to the home of Josephine Wennerholm, a food blogger and cooking teacher in Frascati. We follow her blog Frascati Cooking That’s Amore  and have always found it full of good information, not just on Frascati, but on Rome and the surrounding area.

Josephine’s husband Pino picked us up in Rome and drove us to Frascati, which is about 30 minutes from Rome, unless there is traffic. There we met a group of their friends, great food and wine lovers all. Josephine had prepared a real feast, and several of her guests contributed their specialties.

We started with an amazing assortment of antipasti. Josephine had made delicious suppli, Roman style rice balls, that were flavored with mushrooms and tomato and fried in a crispy breadcrumb coating.

Next we had little fried turnovers filled with greens and cheese.

There was focaccia filled with mortadella, or as the Romans say, mortazza.

A slab of porchetta from Bernabei, one of the best porchetta makers in the area, was next.

It was sliced and served in pizzette, in this case little rolls.

Alessandro Ferracci, a chef and the son of Anna Dente, who owns a famous restaurant in the area, prepared several dishes. This was a salad of boiled tongue, only the back part, which the chef said is the most tender.

He tossed the chunks of meat with a classic green sauce, made with parsley, garlic, and olive oil, and served it in more of those pizzette.

Chef Ferracci

We had two pastas. The first was a specialty of Chef  Alessandro, and a Roman classic, Rigatoni with Pajata. Pajata is the intestine of suckling lamb, which contains a delicate cheese since the lambs eat only milk.

It is a great delicacy in Rome and was actually illegal until 2011.  It takes an expert to prepare it properly and Chef  Ferracci’s version was excellent.

Josephine prepared the second pasta, one of our favorites. It was rigatoni with oxtail ragu, another Roman specialty.

Michelle Smith prepared the Roman style artichokes, which were simmered until meltingly tender with garlic, herbs and olive oil. Michelle is a sommelier and blogger at Easyfrascati.com

 

 

I had a long conversation with her about wine.

Next there was sliced  tongue, served with mostarda

and lamb alla cacciatore, cooked with vinegar and garlic.  Sorry,  no  photo.

Josephine also prepared another of my favorites, borlotti beans with tomato sauce and cotiche, pork skin.

Dessert included a salame del Papa, chocolate, nuts and crushed cookies formed into a log.

Josephine also prepared a Cassola, a ricotta cheesecake with raisins.

One of the guests also brought an assortment of  tempting pastries.

It was a great feast and one of the best parts was meeting so many people interested in food and wine and enjoying Josephine and Pino’s warmth and hospitality.