fiori di zucca

Early on in my Rome program, we took a cooking class at a local restaurant in Rome. We learned to make some of Rome's most famous foods: fiori di zucca, arancini, carbonara and amatriciana pastas. Fiori di zucca are fresh zucchini blossoms stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies and then battered and deep fried. Arancini are actually a Sicilian specialty with origins in African cooking culture. Under Arab rule, the original arancini recipe included deep fried saffron rice balls stuffed with meat, peas, and carrots. Today, in Rome, there is a version of arancini called supplì. These deep fried rice balls are stuffed with mozzarella. When you pull apart the supplì, the mozzarella stretches really long, almost like a shoe string. In the realm of pastas, carbonara and amatriciana are perhaps the most iconic dishes in Rome. We made our egg pasta from scratch for the two dishes - delicious! Carbonara sauce is made with egg yolks and bacon (pork cheeks!), while amatriciana is made with bacon and tomatoes. They are both fantastic (obviously).

Fiori di zucca:

Pasta:

Supplì: