The last cooking guests checked out last week - so now we're entering a more quite time of the year. Just a few B&B guests here and there - yes we are open all year for B&B - and Umbria is also great in autumn and winter.
So with no guests in the house - it's time to tackle the vegetable garden - has been a bit neglected over a very busy fall - so in good need of a little love and care.
So one of the first things to do - is to clear the beds from tomato plants and a lot of weeds. Hidden among those weeds, the cchili plants were still alive and producing like mad. So according to tradition, you pull them out, with the roots and hang them upside down in a dry place. Once all dried out you can use them for months to come - we often just leave them on the dried out plant - looks good in the kitchen.
So with all these chilis - why not do one of the most classic dishes in the italian kitchen - the one and only - Spaghetto aglio, olio e peperoncino - the perfect dish, when you face an empty fridge or if you come home late after a night on the town - and just a little hungry. This dish can basically be done in more or less 10 minutes. Being such a simple dish - you really have to rely on the best of ingredients - so look for great garlic - the red one are the best, this is the time to use your best extra virgin olive oil and get some good quality dried pasta - if you can get a thick spaghetto extruded from a bronze disc and slowly dried - go for that one. Favorite brand for this dish is Faella - but other will work as well. Normally this dish is made with dried chili - but if you have fresh, you can use this as well - we did. Use as much or as little as you like - but remember it has to be on the hot side.

This time we cook it in a slightly more modern way - creating a creamy sauce with the cooked garlic and not heating the olive oil - so we keep all the great flavours of the oil - this time we even used the new oil adding yet another spicy layer of flavours to the dish.

So for 2 persons you need:

4 cloves of garlic, cut in half lenghtwise
250 g spaghetti
80 g extra virgin olive oil
80 g natural mineral water
sea salt
a drop of lemon juice
chili, fresh or dried, chopped
fresh parsley, chopped

Place garlic in a small sauce pan and cover just with water from the tap. Bring to the boil. Once boiling, drain and return to the pan. Recover with water and bring to the boil. Repeat this 4 times, to remove some of the harsh notes from the garlic.
Meanwhile bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook your pasta al dente.
When the garlic is cooked the last time, place in a small bowl and add olive oil, water and season with salt and lemon. Use an handheld stick blender and blend into a creamy sauce and pass through a sieve.
Place in a large bowl and add chili and parsley. Once your pasta is cooked, drain and transfer right away to the sauce. Cooling the pasta slightly in the sauce with help to make the sauce even creamier - so give it a good stir.
Plate up - and enjoy......

If you are feeling real festive add some grilled calamari or flaky fish to the dish when you serve.

We have just added a new feature to our Instagram called " Ask for a recipe". We add a post to our Instagram feed more or less every day - and very often - as in almost always it's food related. We post pictures of what we will be having for lunch or what we are serving to our guests in the B&B. When you follow us on @ilghiottoneumbro - you can now ask for recipe for any of the posted dishes and we will  publish it here on the blog.

As a little extra - we will put all the requests into a big bag and draw some great gifts at the end of the year for christmas - so what's to loose.

The first request is from Tone from Norway, who would like to know how to make Arancini di Riso.

These fried rice balls has been on our menu for almost 20 years - first in the restaurant in Copenhagen and now here in the Umbrian country side, where a lot of guests cook them during their cooking course.

Basically it's a great way to use leftover risotto from the day before - you can use any type of risotto. Arancini is the number 1 street food in Sicilia - and if you come to Rome we call then Suppli - slightly different shape, but they are more or less the same.

The arancini we posted on Instagram was made with left over Risi e Bisi - the classical Venetian risotto with peas and mint - so we will add the recipe for this as well.

Happy cooking and join us on Instagram - @ilghiottoneumbro

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Risi e Bisi - classical Venetian risotto with peas and mint

Serves 6

50 g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
300 g risotto rice
250 ml white wine
1 litre chicken stock
350 g fresh podded peas
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 handfull fresh mint
50 g parmesan, grated
lemon to taste
sea salt and black pepper

Melt half the butter in a large pan and saute the onion on medium to low heat for 15 minutes without taking any colour. In a seperate pan heat the stock and adjust the seasoning.

Mean while bring a small sauce pan with salted water to the boil. Blanch half the peas for a minute or so. Drain and transfer to the bowl of a small food processor, process with the olive oil and 3/4 of the mint to a paste. Season with salt and pepper. Set a side.

Once the onion is done, add the rice and stir to coat the rice in the buttery onion. Turn up the heat and pour in the wine. When the rice has absorbed most of the wine, you can start to add the warm stock a laddle at the time. You might not need all the stock.

It takes around 18 minutes to cook a risotto, when there is 3 minutes left, add the rest of the peas. The risotto is ready when the rice is creamy and al dente.

Chop the rest of the mint. Once the risotto is ready, remove the pan for the heat and stir in the butter, parmesan, pure and the chopped mint. Adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and a little lemon.

Your Risi e Bisi is now ready.

When you want to make arancini - then leave the risotto to cool completely - even overnight is great.

Then you need:

flour
a few eggs
bread crumbs
sun flower oil

Now take you cold risotto and shape into small balls - if you like you can even adda cube of mozzarella in the middle. Once all the risotto is used - set up the breading station. You need a bowl with flour, one with the eggs whisked together and one bowl with bread crumbs. Take each ball and turn in the flour, the in eggs before coating in the bread crumbs.  Once all balls ae coated, you can cook them right away or even keep them in the fridge for a few hours.

When you are ready to fry them - heat some oil in a pan - we prefer to use a low sided pan - once the oil reaches 180c degrees fry the arancini until golden and crispy - you might wat to fry them in batches, so you don't overcrowd the pan.

Fried arancini can be keept warm in a 100c degrees hot oven until all are cooked and ready to serve.

Happy cooking and see you soon with yet another Insta recipe - it might just be your request.

Many of you know this - but there might be some unaware of our cooking courses, that we do here in Umbria. They range for 3 to 6 days with lots of hands-on cooking in the kitchen, visits to farms and vine yards, lots of tastings, good amount of vino, laughter and good talks around the kitchen and table. 
Each year we try to change things a little - adding a new course to the cooking calendar, adding new elements to the exciting courses - well in general - shake the bag a little once in a while.

Each course is very seasonal - we cook what's in season and try to keep things as simple as possible - in our kitchen, you will not find shelves packed with crazy equipment - a pasta machine an and ice cream churner are the most advanced gadgets we have around. We do this on purpose - food should be simple, easy, tasty and straight forward. In Italy we are blessed with great products so why spend time and effort to cover up the taste of a great produce.
The cooking course are spaced out through the whole year - on our web site - www.ilghiottoneumbro.com - we have the cooking calendar with all the dates and availabilities for the year to come. 
​Most of the courses takes place at the house in Todi, where you will stay during the course.

Cooking in Rome.

This is our new cooking course for 2019. 
A whole new concept at Il Ghiottone Umbro - we will relocate to bella Roma for a long weekend both in the spring and autumn.
For 3 days we will be eating and cooking our way through the delicious roman food and other regional delicacies. We have borrowed the charming kitchen from our friend Alice at Latteria Studio - a cooking studio on the border between Trastevere and Monteverde.
The 2 cooking lessons will be "market to table" cooking - nothing is planned - we will go to the market together in the morning and see what's available - and together we will walk back to the kitchen to cook up a nice lunch. We will be making lots of delicious antipasti, different homemade pastas, gnocchi, sauces, pestos and tasty desserts. 
You will also enjoy aperitivi at local enotecas, welcome dinner at the one and only Armando al Pantheon and pizza night at Emma pizzeria.

The dates are:
4th to 7th of April 2019 - just 1 spot left - grab the last spot for €525
10th to 13th of October 2019 - 4 spots left

The price is € 600 per person and include: welcome aperitivo, dinner, 2 market to table cooking lessons, aperitivo and pizza dinner. The price does NOT include accommodation in Rome.

Italian Summer Cooking

This course will celebrate all the sun ripened veggies of the summer - not strictly vegetarian - but vegetables will be the main player. During the 3 cooking lesson, we will concentrate on all the delicious anti pasti and primi dishes of the summer - fill the table each night with simple dishes, that you can easily recreate back home. 
We will also visit a local organic farm, that makes some of the best goat's cheese around. We will go for a walk in the stables and talk to Anne-Line about life in the Umbrian country side, see the animals, then of the dairy for a talk about how to make cheese and finally a tasting of the different cheeses produced on the farm.
Wine will also be part of the course - one day we will visit a local biodynamic vine yard - that more or less makes wine, like in the old days - everything is concentrated around the concept, that you should always give more back to the earth than you take. We will go for a walk in the vine yards, talk about this biodynamic way of making wine, then of the the cellar for more info before we sit down for a tasting of the wines.

The dates are:
24th to 28th of July 2019

The price is € 850 per person. This include 4 night stay in a double room, breakfast, welcome dinner, 3 cooking lessons and visits to organic farm and vinery.
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Tuttomato

The summer is still full on and hopefully the garden and the fields are full of sweet tomatoes - this course is all about tomatoes. A part of the course will be all about preserving and canning the tomatoes for the winter to come. Peeled tomatoes and passata for the larder. We will also be making the sicilian sun dried tomato paste - Strattu. Each cooking lesson will be filled with red and sweet tomatoes in various anti pasti, primi, secondi and even sweets.
We will also visit a local vinery for a great tasting of biodynamic wines.

The dates are :
21st to 25th August 2019

The price is € 750 per person and include a 4 night stay in double room, breakfast, welcome dinner, visit to local vinery and 3 cooking lessons.

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Nostra bella Umbria

Here we pay special focus on our beautiful region of Umbria and all it has to offer - a week long cooking course emerged in Umbria and all its glory. During the 3 cooking lessons we will cook all seasonal food, packed with flavour but still easy to do. Expect lots anti pasti, home made pasta, gnocchi, rich soups a hearty stew, breads and sweets.
One of the mornings we will be spending time with a local guide from Assisi - getting to know this amazing town and all its history and about the legend Francesco of Assisi. This is followed by a rustic country lunch full of grilled meats.
We are also going truffle hunting one morning - we will spend a few hours together with Bruno and his dogs looking for this priced mushroom. All the walking and hunting will have left us hungry - so we will walk to the restaurant for a truffle lunch.
We will also be visiting a vine yard and have a tasting as well as making a visit to a farm with production of organic goat's cheeses.
A busy week - but still time to relax and absorb all the experiences of bella Umbria.

The dates are:

16th until 22nd of September 2019

The price is € 1500 per person - this include a 6 night stay with breakfast, 3 cooking lessons, guided city walk in Assisi with lunch, truffle hunt with lunch, visits to vine yard and farm with tastings.

Happy sunday to you all - sundays are made for sleeping in long, a good book and a cup of milky tea in bed before a good and long breakfast with the sunday paper - well that is the dream - we know it rarely looks like this - but you can always dream.
What we always try to do is go for a long walk - get some fresh air and go for a coffee in the piazza. These days the word "sunny Umbria" isn't really true - this time of year can be freezing cold, foggy, humid and windy - so when we get back from a long walk - a bit cup of tea and some freshly baked cookies are really needed.
Are you a fan of cookies and brownies - well then these crinkle cookies are going to do the trick - they have and almost brownie texture and are so easy to make. You can even make the dough beforehand and just keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days - pure magic. Just perfect for a lazy sunday or when unexpected guests shows up at your door step.

Makes about 20 cookies

175 g dark chocolate, chopped
60 g unsalted butter
175 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 fine salt
2 eggs
150 g caster sugar
60 g icing sugar

Melt the chocolate and the butter in a bowl over a small pan of simmering water. Cool slightly. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
Beat the eggs and sugar until pale, about 4 minutes. Reduce the heat and add the chocolate mixture. Add the four mixture until blended together. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 90 minutes or up to 2 days.
When ready to bake preheat your oven to 150c degrees.
Put the icing sugar in a small bowl. Shape the dough into 4 cm balls and roll in the sugar. Place them on baking sheets lined with baking paper and press down lightly with your hand to flatten. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Onions can do wonders to all types of cooking - and very often they are the corner stone and base for a lot of great tasting dishes. They provide back ground, sweetness, structure and umani. What would classic sugo be without a serious sofritto or a creamy risotto without the sweetness of the slow cooked onions.
Yes - you wont be without this little cheap fellow in your kitchen.

But today we are going to give this little fellow the lead role....Use these crispy onions as a snack with aperitivo, as a garnish on soups, salads, carpaccio - or as little extra touch on your maincourse - and they are dead easy to cook.

All you need is:

white onions
milk
fine polenta flour
regular flour
sea salt and black pepper
you could add herbs as well
sunflower oil for frying

Cut the onions in thin slices. Bring some milk to the boil and blanch the onions in the milk. Once back to the boil, remove from heat and leave to cool in the milk and until you are ready to fry. This can easily be done well in advance.
In a tray mix half polenta and regular flour. Season and add finely chopped herbs, if using.
In a medium pan with low sides, heat about 5 cm of sunflower oil.
Lift out some of the onions from the milk and turn in the polenta mix. Coat well and shake of excess. Now fry until golden and crispy - do this in batches, so the temperature of the oil doesn't drop.
Once cooked lift out of the onions and place on kitchen paper to remove excess oil. Season with salt and EAT right away......

Brutti ma Buoni
A typical cookie from Rome - not so much a christmas sweet, but with the abundance of hazelnuts, we feel it deserves it place among our favorites for the season to come. As the name suggests - Ugly but good - this little cookie/meringue really shows what roman cooking is all about - few ingredients, great taste - and maybe not so much consideration for the appearence. Bake them at home or try them next time you're in Rome - our favorites are from Roscioli, Antico Forno in Campo di Fiori or from Biscottificio Artigiano Innocenti in Trastevere.
We always make these little beauties when making pasta or ice cream - a great use for left over egg whites.


About 20 cookies:


250 g hazelnuts
250 g sugar
100 g egg whites, from about 3-4 eggs
pinch of fine sea salt


Preheat your oven to 200c degrees.
Place hazelnuts on an oven tray and roast them in the hot oven for about 10 minutes. Give them a toss after 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and place them in a kitchen towel. Rub the hazelnuts against each other to remove some of the skins. Leave to cool. Place hazelnuts in a food processor and process until fairly fine - you still want some chunks. Add ground hazelnuts to a bowl together with the sugar and mix.
Lower your oven to 150c degrees.
Whisk egg whites together with salt until soft peaks. Add hazelnuts to the egg whites and mix with a spoon. Pour mixture into a thick bottom pan and place over low heat. Cook for 10 minutes stirring with a spatula. The mixture is ready when it starts to go stringy and doesn't really feel sticky.
Use 2 table spoons to place dollops of the mixture on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until lightly golden. They should rise a little and they shouldn't be really firm, as they firm up during cooling. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container.

Yes - we did it again.......planted way to many zucchini plants - and now we are once again harvesting way to many for us and our guests to eat. When will we ever learn....
So you can be use to have a few zucchini for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the moment....maybe spiced up with the occasional tomato - they have also started to produce like crazy....

So this is a really easy antipasto or contorno to be cooked over the next couple of months....The name of the dish is Zucchini Trifolati - some says it comes from the idea, that they zucchini are sliced thin like truffles - but we always cut them on the thick side, so they get really creamy during cooking. As always rule number one, when it comes to zucchini - get them while they are still on the small side....

Again we have skipped the measurements, as this is really just about getting your surplus of zucchini used - so make a big portion.

 For "Zucchini trifolati" - you need:

Extra virgin olive oil
Zucchini, sliced in thick slices, about 1 cm
Garlic, finely sliced
Fresh chili, chopped
We used thyme, because the mint was suffering in the heat.
Sea salt and black pepper
Lemon juice
Toasted hazelnut, roughly chopped

Take a large frying pan or pan with low sides. Pour in a thin layer of olive oil and heat. Add the zucchini and fry on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, until they start to brown a little and soften a bit. Add garlic, chili and thyme if using and continue to cook for 5 minutes. If using mint - the original version - add this at the end. Now pour in a little water, so you just cover the base of the pan. Continue to cook, scraping any brown bits of the base. Once the water has evaporated and your zucchini has gone really soft and creamy, remove from the heat and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

When serving - these are really tasty at room temperature, sprinkle over the hazelnuts.
We like these on a bruschetta, with mozzarella or burrata or as a side for fish or chicken....

Yes - we are still here...so much for all the promises about posting more often in the new year - but the season started really early this year - no excuse - but the guests kept on arriving and we got all caught up in playing the good host and spreading a little good old fashioned "hygge".....so we never really got to the computer.....but let's change all that now....

For the next couple of months we are going to celebrate all the glorious seasonal veggies out there and write down all the super easy recipes, that we cook here at the house - for our guests or just for ourselves. These dishes are very often a full meal - maybe throw in some good bread, a little salad and a chunk of cheese.

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Today it will be a little easy recipe, using an all time favorite in the house - the fennel - even though fennel is really at the hight of its season in the winter - these days it's an all year veggie - that can really boost the flavours in your kitchen. We eat them raw as prinziminio with strong olive oil and sea salt, in salads - the classic being with orange and green olives. But one of our favorites is to braised them till sweet surrender - and the fennel is one of these veggies that really benefit from a long and slow cooking. Being crisp, aniseed and fresh tasting as raw, the fennel turns super sweet, creamy and subtle when cooked until completely tender. Here there isn't any half measure - once you start to cook the dear thing - you have to cook it until well done....

In todays recipe, we slow cook the fennel with garlic, tomatoes and a few black olives and just a touch of water - they kind of cook in there own juices. We had this as a light lunch - but you could serve it on top of a bruschetta with some fresh ricotta as an antipasto or as a contorno for fish or chicken.

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We don't really give measurements for these recipes - play around in the kitchen - use what you have in the fridge and the cupboards - but for this dish you would need something like:

extra virgin olive oil
fennel
garlic, in thin slices
sea salt and black pepper
cherry tomatoes, cut in half
black olives

Start by cutting your fennel into smaller pieces. If you cut it in half first and then cut each into 4 wedges, making sure, that you cut through the root. This way the wedges will stay together during cooking. Keep the fennel tops for later use.

Heat some olive oil in a large pan, and place the fennel in the pan in one layer. Have the heat on medium to high and lightly brown the fennel on both sides. Once the fennel has taken on some colour, add the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Let it cook for a few minutes. Now pour in some water - about 100 ml - depending on the size of your pan. Place a lid on the pan and let the fennel simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove the lid, if you still have a lot of water in the pan , let it cook without the lid for a few minutes,  so most of the water evaporates. Now add the tomatoes and olives, shake the pan, so they nestle in between the fennel. Cover with a lid and cook for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the tomatoes start to break down. It's ready when the fennel is super tender and the tomatoes have created a little sauce in the base of the pan. Adjust the seasoning and remove from the heat. Drizzle generously with fresh olive oil and scatter of the chopped fennel tops.

The  season has more or less come to an end....guests celebrating the new year have all checked out....and a beautiful zen kind of feeling descend upon Todi.....the weather can still have lots of sunny spells, the streets are more or less empty, misty mornings where you feel the sun just hiding above, long lunches with friends, long walks in the nature, short days with candles and the fire place at full blaze in the evening.....well doesn't that sound just perfect..??????

Well just to make it clear - it isn't always like this.....this is also the time of the year where we get down to serious business and manage to do all the heavy lifting.....this year so far the kitchen got a fresh coat of paint, the Small Room is right now getting a total makeover, more painting in the other guest rooms and next week we are starting to make a small berry garden at the back of the house with plenty of space to lounge around on comfy chairs while enjoying a chilled Umbrian vino and a sunny spell.....

This is also the months where we clean out the cupboards after a long season....you all probably know the feeling of all those half used bags of pasta, rice, beans and grains you have lying around....well January and February are the months where we cook and eat all those goodies hiding in the back......and must say - soup is a great way to cook with those leftovers and what is better on a cold winter day......

So the other day it was time to tackle that small bag of Risotto rice in the cupboard.....but to be honest the fridge was empty except for half a raddichio....so what to do.....well we went to the larder and grabbed a jar of preserved tomatoes, had an onion lying around together with a few cloves of garlic...and then on to the stove....

In summer time we really like to cook the traditional Pomodoro e Riso - a real classic, that a true italian will eat all summer...it can be eaten warm or cold...basically a tomato stuffed with rice, parmesan and herbs and then baked in the oven until really well done and the rice is beautifully cooked......
But the other day it was cold, and the season of tomatoes is still a few months out - hence the preserved tomatoes and the soupy idea.....

Serves 3-4

extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, fine sliced
3 sprigs of rosemary, leaves only
pinch of dried chili
400 g of tinned tomatoes, drained
150 g risotto rice, we used Carnaroli
700 ml water
sea salt and black pepper
splash of red wine vinegar
1/2 raddichio, shredded (optional) or other herbs

In a medium pan, heat the olive oil and saute the onion, garlic, rosemary and chili for 15 minutes on medium to low heat without taking any colour. Add the drained tomatoes and break them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Let the tomatoes cook down a little - adding salt at this stage helps to break them down as well. Add the rice and turn to coat them in the tomato. Pour in the water and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes until the rice is cooked - you still want a little bite to the rice....Stir every once in a while.....The soup is ready once the rice is cooked and has thickened the soup - if too thick loosen with a bit more water and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and a little vinegar.....stir in the raddichio if using and let it cook down a minute or so. Drizzle with olive oil when serving..

This is great served with some good toasted bruschetta with lots of olive oil - or do as we did.....had a piadina lying around and a little gorgonzola......so a tasty side for the soup...piadina with gorgonzola and some wild yellow mustard from the garden....a weed - and it grows like crazy...but luckily its really tasty as well......

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