What to eat in Monte Porzio Catone and the Castelli Romani

For generations Romans have come up to the Castelli Romani for the Sunday outing, and the outing ends at the table. The cooking of Monte Porzio Catone is that of the whole area, home style Roman and Lazio food, and it revolves around a wine, Frascati, which grows on our hills.

What kind of food is it?

It is simple, filling food, built mostly on pasta, meat and vegetables, with Roman and Lazio recipes that every family makes its own way. In the Castelli the wine comes on top: the table is made for a cool local white, which goes well with starters, soups, pasta, white meat and cheeses that are not too aged.

Here at Il Tinello it means:

• handmade pasta and gnocchi, with slow cooked ragù;
• the grill always lit for the meat;
• polenta in winter;
• wine from the Castelli on the table.

The menu changes with the season and with what we find, which is why we do not publish it.

What is a fraschetta?

The fraschetta is the most typical tavern of the Castelli Romani. The name comes from frasca, the leafy branch that wine makers hung outside the door to say that the new wine was ready and the place was open. Its origins go back to the Middle Ages and to the farming world of wine.

At first the wine was everything: growers sold their own and put little else beside it, bread, cheese, cured meats. Over time the table grew richer, and today the fraschetta is linked above all with porchetta, slow roasted pork. The idea behind it has not changed: wooden tables, local wine and good things without fuss.

What is the typical sweet of the Castelli Romani?

Ciambelline al vino, wine biscuits, which in dialect are called ‘mbriachelle, “little drunk ones”. They are crumbly, amber coloured rings covered in sugar, made with very little:

• flour;
• extra virgin olive oil;
• wine, ideally from the Castelli;
• sugar and a little raising agent.

There are no traditional quantities: you measure by eye, with a glass. In Lazio they used to be made mainly for feast days; today they end the meal all year round, in fraschette and trattorias, to be dipped in your glass of wine.

What wine do people drink with the meal?

Almost always a local white. Frascati is the wine of Monte Porzio Catone, Frascati and Grottaferrata; to finish there is Cannellino, the sweet Frascati. Their grapes, history and rules are covered in the article on Frascati wine, and to see the vineyard and the cellar there is the Wine Museum in the old station.

In short

• The food: home style Roman and Lazio cooking, pasta, meat and vegetables.
• The fraschetta: the tavern of the new wine, marked by the branch at the door; bread, cured meats, cheese, porchetta.
• The sweet: ciambelline al vino, the ‘mbriachelle, for dipping.
• The wine: white Frascati; Cannellino with dessert.