My neighborhood

Where the heart of Rome beats faster

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Rome, with joy

I fell in love with Rome a lifetime ago. I had a friend who was a law student here and visited regularly in her adorable little apartment in Monti. We laughed a lot, ate too much pizza and walked for hours admiring all that grandeur and chaos around us.

I loved the colors: the amber shades of walls, overgrown with climbers, the emerald of inner court gardens, the sparkling turquoise of water in a fountain.

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

Then and now, everything in Rome was too much, too fast, boisterous. The city’s almost incomprehensible antiquity, the baristas dishing out the perfect cappuccino in seconds, the hair-raising intersections of boulevards, every sort of vehicles and people.

Via Appia Nuova runs in the middle of Appio Latino. It’s known for great shopping opportunities.

Luckily, I live in a place where all this can be taken in healthy doses. Appio Latino, with its narrow leafy streets and slightly crumbling facades, has that feeling of authenticity that only time can bestow. Here, time moves at its own pace, allowing the residents, many of whom have called this place home for 40 or 50 years, to savor a sense of community which seems to be lost in so many other places.

My street in Appio Latino, Rome

Wandering through the lanes, one is surprised to encounter a number of small family-run shops, often handed down through generations, some of which are guardians of tradition and excellence. I don’t need to walk more than 5 minutes in every direction from our apartment to find absolutely all I need. The pharmacy, supermarket, hardware store, tailors (yes!), shoe repair, clothes, all sort of doctors, all sort of foods, anything and any service, are just steps away.

Even after 8 months of living here, I can’t help getting excited about the convenience and the wonderful, friendly attitude of the shopkeepers as well as the neighbors in our area.

Family run shops and restaurants in Appio Latino

I will undoubtedly tell you more in the next months, but now it’s time to talk about cooking, isn’t it?

What to cook this month

Holiday food, of course!

This is a perfect time to give an Italian flavor to your festive table.

For appetizers, I suggest the broccoli sformatini flans with crema di Parmigiano, which I have just published on the blog. You could practice via the Test Kitchen (see details below) and be ready to show off with a beautiful appetizer for the next dinner party.

As a main, you could plan on the squash lasagna we have tested last month. I also have quite a collection of lasagna, cannelloni, and other baked pasta in the blog like these delicious fusilli with peas and ham.

If you are looking for ideas for a meat course, you can’t go wrong with my classic meatloaf stuffed with broccoli (I do love broccoli!), guanciale and soft cheese. No ketchup :) .

And for dessert? Cookies are great, but nothing completes and Italian meal like a creamy dessert. I recommend my legendary pearamisù, i.e. tiramisù made with pears poached in a heavenly concoction of wine and spices.

MDP Test Kitchen | December

This month, you are invited to test these melt-in-the-mouth broccoli sformatini with Parmesan cream. I have developed this recipe especially for the Test Kitchen group based on the zucchini sformato flan which appears regularly in my cooking classes.

To join the Test Kitchen and receive personalized assistance on the recipe:

1. download the PDF below with instructions on how to test a recipe:

Testing Recipes With Letizia

34KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

2. please join the chat:

3. Find this month’s recipe at this link, provide ingredients, make the recipe, and please report your results, difficulties, and observation on the chat. Feel free to ask further clarification before shopping and cooking. Photos are very welcome!

Additional tip

For this test, it is important to prepare all ingredients and tools in advance and place them in front of you on your worktop. This might be time-consuming the first time, but once you know this type of recipe, it will be easy and logical to execute.

Here is a short video with the mise-en-place of ingredients and tools for the flans (sformatini).

NB: The test kitchen is an opportunity to improve your Italian cooking skills and to help me make better recipes for you. My recipes are always available for free, but the interactive chat will be reserved to paid subscribers starting in January.

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