Theme of the month
Regione Lazio – Home to Rome
The area
Dear food lovers,
Welcome to the first chapter of our Qualitalia Themed Month Project!
Every month, we’ll travel to a new Italian region, uncovering its stories, flavours, and traditions through food, masterclasses, recipes, and carefully selected regional products.
Throughout the months, we’ll bring Italian culinary culture & history to life through Masterclasses & Themed Dinners. All Qualitalia’s partners and suppliers will have a sport reserved to our masterclasses, but there will be enough space for walk-ins, so do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested!
This month, we invite you to travel to the very heart of Italy: Lazio, the region that surrounds Rome and has shaped Italian cuisine for centuries. Here, history isn’t confined to museums: it lives in the countryside, in ancient traditions, and above all, on the plate.
Lazio’s cuisine is rustic, generous, and unapologetically flavourful, built on techniques that respect tradition above all else. While simplicity and quality ingredients are the backbone of Italian cuisine in general, Lazio still stands out for its bold, pork-forward dishes, iconic Roman pastas, and street foods like Supplì, reflecting a culinary identity that is unmistakably Roman.
Recipes ideas
Ingredients
PASTA ALLA GRICIA
THE CHEF'S RECIPE
Serves: 4 people
Time: 20 minutes
- 400 g rigatoni or bucatini
- 150 g guanciale, cut into strips
- 80 g Pecorino Romano D.O.P., finely grated
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Salt (for pasta water)
How to prepare
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- In a cold pan, add the guanciale and turn the heat to medium-low.
- Let the fat slowly melt until the guanciale is golden and crisp.
- Turn off the heat.
- Cook the pasta until al dente (see on package). Reserve a cup of pasta water.
- Add the pasta directly to the pan with the guanciale.
- Add a little pasta water and toss to create a glossy sauce.
- Remove from heat, add the Pecorino and lots of black pepper. Chef's note: whisk 4 egg yolks with the Pecorino and black pepper to get a Carbonara Sauce!
- Stir quickly — the sauce should be creamy, not stringy.
- Adjust with more pasta water if needed. Serve immediately.
A region shaped by Rome
Located in central Italy, Lazio has been dominated by Rome for more than 2,000 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city became the spiritual centre of Christianity and the home of the Popes, attracting pilgrims, traders, and influences from far beyond its borders.
Moving on the outside of the capital, however, Lazio remains deeply agricultural. From the rolling hills of ‘Ciociaria’ to the coast near Gaeta and Civitavecchia, each
area has its own products, recipes, and identity, yet all are united by a shared culinary philosophy: honest food, made to satisfy.
A key part of this rural heritage is 'transumanza': the ancient seasonal migration of shepherds and their flocks between mountain and lowland pastures. For centuries, these slow journeys shaped Lazio’s landscapes, economies, and food traditions, spreading techniques, recipes, and ingredients across villages and regions. Recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, the ‘transumanza’ reminds us that Lazio’s cuisine is inseparable from its land, its rhythms, and its people.
The foundations of Lazio’s kitchen
As mentioned above, the regional cuisine is simple and hearty, with an emphasis on quantity and quality. Pasta, pork, artichokes, Pecorino cheese, and olive oil form the backbone of daily cooking. Sauces are rarely elaborate: onion, garlic, olive oil, and good tomatoes do most of the work, letting ingredients speak for themselves.
Vegetables thrive in Lazio’s mineral-rich soil, and just outside Rome lies Centro Agroalimentare Roma, one of Italy’s main fruit and vegetable trade centres, providing the largest platform for wholesale trade in the country and ranking as the third-largest wholesale market in the EU by turnover and space, supplying the capital and much of the country. It’s no coincidence that local cooking celebrates produce such as artichokes, prepared braised or fried, rucola and ‘puntarelle’; while also being home to most of the production of watermelons in Italy: a perfectly healthy ice-cold snacks during Roman summers.
Products, dishes & stories from Lazio
Roman cuisine does not hide behind complexity. Instead, it relies on a few ingredients treated with respect. Pork is at the heart of Lazio’s identity. Porchetta, slow-roasted and scented with wild fennel, has been prepared since Roman times for feasts and markets. Spianata Romana is a flat, gently spiced salume, while salamelle remain a daily staple, grilled quickly for simple meals.
Pasta, guanciale, pecorino, black pepper, artichokes and olive oil represent the backbone of daily cooking. Sauces are rarely elaborate, with ‘Pasta alla Gricia’’ (guanciale & pecorino cheese) acting as blueprint for all other pasta dishes: add eggs to it and you will get a Pasta Carbonara, or add tomato sauce and you will get a Pasta Amatriciana, or, for our vegetarian guests, substitute Guanciale with pepper and you will get a very tasty Pasta Cacio & Pepe.
Street food is ruled by Supplì, golden rice croquettes with a molten mozzarella heart, once eaten by workers and now loved by everyone. Their nickname “al telefono” (literally, “on the phone”) refers to the long mozzarella cheese strands that create when the two halves are pulled apart, holding the two sides of the Supplì together like a telephone wire.
Lazio is also the birthplace of Pinsa, often confused with pizza but fundamentally different. Inspired by ancient Roman flatbreads (pinsere means “to stretch”), Pinsa is oval-shaped, lighter, and made with a blend of flours and long fermentation, resulting in a highly digestible base. While pizza evolved in Naples, Pinsa remained tied to Roman baking traditions and has only recently returned to prominence.
Sweet traditions are humble but deeply symbolic: the famous Maritozzo tells a love story; once given by young men to their future brides, sometimes hiding a ring inside the soft bun filled with whipped cream. Today it’s a Roman breakfast classic, enjoyed with coffee in the early morning hours.
All of this is best accompanied by a glass of Frascati, Lazio’s most famous white wine: fresh, lightly aromatic, and designed to support food rather than dominate it. But Lazio’s wine story goes far beyond Frascati: the region boasts a rich variety of DOC wines, from crisp whites like Malvasia Puntinata and Bellone to elegant reds such as Cesanese del Piglio and Cesanese di Olevano Romano. Each wine reflects the diverse soils and microclimates of Lazio, from the volcanic hills around Rome to the coastal plains, offering a perfect pairing for the region’s cheeses, cured meats, and hearty pasta dishes.
Ancient Bites:
If we look even further back, ancient Roman cuisine offers fascinating inspiration. In the writings of Apicius, we find “Isicia omentata”: seasoned pork mixed with egg, spices, and wine, wrapped in caul fat and cooked gently. Often described as an ancestor of the modern meatball or even an early cousin of the hamburger, it reveals how Romans already understood the magic of pork fat, eggs, and bold seasoning, combinations that still define Lazio’s cooking today.
Package of the month
Package of the month coming soon!
