Bread, Love and Ciociaria
The critics consider that novel set at the end of the war among the most successful of Moravia. Now then that the drama of Cesira and Rosetta – with Two Women 1960 directed by Vittorio de Sica, Loren won the Oscar – it becomes an opera entrusted to Maestro Marco Tutino (it is the first time since the Fanciulla del West by Puccini ), the area of the low Lazio also loved by Luigi Comencini is the new goal of the season.
Even on the mix of ancient villages, towers and hills where only farm products: olive oil, cheese, bread, wine, olive oil, prepared as before, following recipes and seasonal rhythms. To be discovered in small firms in the country, where do you stock up on good and genuine things, perhaps after exploring villages and churches away from the usual tourist trails. As Santa Maria Salome in Veroli, which has even a Madonna of the Cavalier d’Arpino, or Santa Maria dei Franconi, always in Veroli, with a lovely Romanesque façade.
Starting point for hiking and walking may be the inn Dithyrambic (via the Clock 11a, Castro dei Volsci, tel. 0775.66.20.91, double b & b 70 €), diffuse hotel built by Daniela Accolla in Castro dei Volsci, the birthplace of Nino Manfredi. Among stairs and ladders, narrow streets with cobblestones and old houses, hide small structures, each one unique, perfectly restored. For guests, breakfasts and dinners fragrant tasty (half board costs 25 € extra per person), in which the triumph of bufaletta osso buco stew and ravioli Amatriciana.
Also in Castro dei Volsci, but outside the historic center, here’s The Free Range, where Pasqualino Rossi and Antonella offering homemade dishes such as bread soup, fettuccine with meat sauce and hand-rolled sausages flavored with orange (menus from € 30). In front of the restaurant they just opened a new inn housed in a farmhouse, you’re simply furnished rooms (via Pozzotello 18, mob. 335.82.38.647, room 100 €).
A Vallecorsa, 11 kilometers, the oil and olives in oil are bought the company I Care, which hides behind the name of the care and attention for these products: Piero Nardoni you should contact the owner, who drew a small own stock in the house. Here you can choose extra virgin olive oil (8 € per bottle), pulp of olives, olives with red pepper, olives and tomato pulp, pitted olives in brine really tasty (Via Roma 115, mob. 339.11.88.197).
They know the country and are also genuine mozzarella, ricotta and cheese, products with only buffalo milk, the cheese factory Magna bloom (via Weathertop 46, Castro dei Volsci, mob. 347.87.60.239. Timetables 9.30-13, 16-19, closed Mon and Sun pom.). Also good meat bufalotto the Butcher Lauretti, Amaseno. This area of Ciociaria is famous for its herds of buffalo and in this shop Antonio Lauretti, with mom and dad Joseph Fiorella, sells the meat raised and processed in their farm (via ring road, tel. 0775.65.80.44, closed Mon and Sun).
A good bottle of wine? The right address is The Visciola (via Carcassano, tel. 0775.50.19.50, mob. 333.58.54.092), small biodynamic winery founded five years ago. The owners live above the cellar and one phone call to arrange a visit to the vineyards. To rediscover local cultures and traditions you can choose Under the Stars, another popular hotel, opened a few months Picinisco (via Giustino Ferri seventh, mob. 346.60.27.120, double b & b from € 200). The owner, Cesidio Of Ciacca, is a italoscozzese who lives between the Ciociaria and Glasgow, Scotland, and has chic details and tastefully renovated old houses, now become five suites.
To take care of the customers, when the owner is abroad, there is Daniel Venditti, piciniscano doc: manages the property and they cant do enough to report addresses precious for shopping gourmand throughout the territory. As the famous Pecorino DOP of Picinisco. It is purchased by the family in their farm house Pacitti Lawrence, equipped with a pleasant restaurant where you can taste the farm products and appreciate a country kitchen (district Serre, loc. Cervi, tel. 0776.68.81.83 mob. 349.07.23.087.
Never closed , average price € 30). The alternative for a lunch or dinner is La Mula, Ferentino, in an old mill owned by chef Roberto Cardella. Under the arches in wood and stone are tasted delicious recipes (via Casilina Sud 336, tel. 0775.39.53.58 mob. 393.92.69.065, closed Mon and Sun night, average price € 35).
In carnet address tasty one must observe even the tables of the Osteria del Tempo Perso in Casalvieri, open in the evenings and at lunch only on Sundays (piazza San Rocco 13, tel. 0776.63.80.39, closed Mon, average price € 30). And if you are the bread and cheese peasant food by definition, in spending to take back home can not miss the donut Morolo cheese, a truly unique product and smoked by Cacioteca Scarchilli of Morolo with beech shavings, as before.
For three generations, the cheese is considered a food which pay a lot of attention: if you arrive in the morning it’s easy to cross the so-called caciari nell’affumicatura at work, while on Mondays and Thursdays are absorbed by the preparation of fresh cheese, to taste then in the shop (district Madonna del Piano 12, Morolo, tel. 0775.80.60.19. Hours: 8.30-13, 15-18.30, closed Sun). Among the Ernici, Acuto, hides a destination for fine gourmet: The Hills Ciociare, in its 25th year of operation.
