Penne all'arrabbiata

Ingredients for 6 people: 600 gms. of pasta (penne), 500 gms. of tomatoes, 3 or 4 garlic cloves, parsley, hot chilli, oil, salt.
making it Fry in some oil 3 or 4 cloves of garlic with some hot chilli - the amount here obviously depends on the individual taste - however, it should be quite a lot for the penne pasta to be really angry. Then add the tomatoes and enough salt to taste. While the tomatoes are cooking, boil the penne until chewy, flavour with the prepared sauce and serve with a generous tablespoon of freshly-chopped parsley

Spaghetti alla carbonara

Ingredients for 6 people 600 gms. of spaghetti pasta, 300 gms. of streaky bacon, 4 eggs, roman pecorino cheese, oil, pepper, salt
making it Fry in the oil the streaky bacon cut into pieces and allow to lightly golden. In a bowl, beat together eggs, 4 tablespoons of roman pecorino cheese, salt and pepper. Boil spaghetti until chewy, drain and mix straightaway with the beaten egg and streaky bacon pieces, then reheat for two minutes in a pan until the egg becomes firm. Sprinkle over some more roman pecorino cheese and a lots of pepper.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Ingredients for 6 people 600 gms. of bucatini pasta, 500 gms. of tomatoes, 50 gms. of streaky bacon, roman pecorino cheese, 1 onion, hot chilli, oil, salt
making it Cut streaky bacon into cubes, fry together with an onion, oil, then add tomatoes, hot chilli and salt. In the meantime, boil the bucatini pasta until chewy, drain and place in the pan containing the amatriciana sauce. Heat for a few minutes and leave the pasta to flavour. A characteristic of this dish is that the tomato should remain in pieces and not be over cooked. One last thing, on which no compromise can be made, is that roman pecorino cheese is a must with this sauce.

Spaghetti ajo ojo e peperoncino

Ingredients for 6 people 600 gms. of spaghetti pasta, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, oil, hot chilli, salt
making it Fry in lots of oil the garlic with some hot chilli, according to your taste, but not too little. Leave them to fry on a low flame and then remove the garlic and chilli and mix the oil with the spaghetti.

Gnocchi

ingredients 1,5 Kg of mealy potatoes peeled, about 1 1/2 cups flour, salt
making it In making gnocchi you should steam the potatoes rather than boil them. If you do not have a steamer, put the potatoes in a metal colander, set the colander in a spaghetti pot, fill the pot with water to just below the colander, and set the pot, covered, to boil. The potatoes will be done in 30-45 minutes, when a skewer penetrates but they are still firm. Peel them and mash them while they're still hot (a potato ricer works very well here). Season the potatoes with a pinch of salt and slowly knead in enough flour to obtain a fairly firm, smooth, non-sticky dough exactly how much flour will depend upon how moist the potatoes are. Roll the dough out into snakes about as thick as your finger, cut the snakes into one-inch pieces, and gently score the pieces crosswise with a fork. As an alternative to scoring with a fork, Bugialli suggests you gently press them against the inside of a curved cheese grater, to obtain a curved shape with a depression on one side. The choice is up to you. Cook the gnocchi in abundant salted boiling water, removing them with a slotted spoon a minute or two after they rise to the surface. Drain them well and serve them with a few leaves of sage, melted unsalted butter and Parmigiano, or meat sauce, or pomarola, or pesto. The quantities above will make gnocchi sufficient for four as a main corse, or 6-8 as a first course in an Italian meal.

Carciofi alla romana

ingredients 4 large artichokes, salt and pepper, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, mint leaves or dried mint, one lemon, white wine vinegar.
making it Preparation is half the battle with this dish, which will take you at least 5 attempts to perfect. We dont advise buying tinned artichokes as they will have been excessively preserved in a bitter salty juice and will be too soft. For this dish, fresh is best. Saying that, it might be easier to ask the local market to remove the leaves and inside of the artichokes for you as it really is a chore. Alternatively, prepare the artichokes by pulling each leaf in turn down towards its stem and wait for it too snap off. Keep going until the leaves change from green to the cream color with red tips. Once here, take a sharp knife and cut straight across the red tips. Scoop out the needle like leaves inside to reveal a soft fleshy interior. Trim the stems and cut to leave about 2 inches. Place the artichokes, stems up, in a pan. Add the mixture of olive oil, salt, pepper, finely chopped garlic, mint, lemon and a touch of vinegar until the level of the liquid reaches half way up the artichoke bulbs. Cover the pan and heat up. The dish will fizzle and pop, which is normal, but do check that the artichokes are not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Half a glass of water will help this process. Cook for 40 mins until the stems are soft and can be pierced with a fork. Eat immediately.

Saltimbocca alla Romana

Thoughts of sage bring to mind Saltimbocca, one of the most classic Roman dishes. The name literally translates as hopinthemouth and is singularly appropriate -- you can never have too many of these veal cutlets topped with prosciutto and sage.
Ingredients 450-500 g veal cutlets or scallops, 8 playing-card sized pieces, as many slices of prosciutto as you have slices of veal, Fresh sage - 4 leaves for 8 slices of meat, Olive oil or unsalted butter, Wooden toothpicks
making it Assuming you want to serve 4 you will need a pound of veal cutlets or scallops (8, each about the size of a playing card), 8 slices of prosciutto, 4 leaves of sage, butter or oil for sautéing, wooden toothpicks, and salt and pepper to taste. Flatten the cutlets with the flat of a broad-bladed knife, lay half a leaf of sage on each, and a slice of prosciutto. Affix the prosciutto to the veal with one or two toothpicks. Heat a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter or olive oil in a skillet and sauté the cutlets until done, cooking them more on the veal side than the prosciutto side. Season to taste and serve them with their drippings. As variations, you can sprinkle some (a couple of tablespoons at the most) wine or lemon juice into the pan when the cutlets are almost done. In any case, these will go well with a white wine from the Colli Romani.

Trippa alla Romana

For 6 people calculate about 1 kg. of ready-cooked tripe, cut into pieces and boil again in a lots of salted water together with a carrot, an onion, two sticks of celery and a sprig of parsley. When you think it is well cooked, drain the tripe and mix with a generous amount of gravy made from the recipe for roman fettuccine. Allow the tripe to absorbe the flavour for about 20 minutes and serve with a sprinkling of roman pecorino cheese and some mint leaves according to your taste

Abbacchio al forno

This is the classic Easter main course in Rome and Lazio. The success of the dish is in the choice of lamb. If you are squeamish look away now, but young, fresh and tender is best.
ingredients 1.5 kg baby lamb, 1kg potatoes, clove of garlic, ham, rosemary, glass of white wine, olive oil, salt and pepper
making it Prepare the lamb joint by rubbing in salt and pepper. Place in the oven inside a tray lined with olive oil and a few cloves of garlic and cook on a moderate heat for 30 minutes. At this point add the potatoes, which have been peeled and chopped into good size pieces, together with the ham and rosemary. After a further 30 minutes bathe the meat and potatoes in the wine and turn the meat. Leave to cook for another hour keeping the meat and potatoes moist with the juices. Serve hot.

Francesco Grisafi Italy