The best restaurants to try out and savour the typical Sabine and Lazio cuisine
Sabina is the land of excellent agri-food products, so much so that many of these products can boast numerous awards: the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), PGI (Typical Geographical Indication), PAT (Traditional Agri-food Product) and De.Co. (Municipal Designation) trademarks.
The Sabina extra virgin olive oil – DOP certified – still produced today according to the ancient method of processing that preserves the qualities of this fruit, certainly stands out among all the local products and is without a doubt the true pride of this land. Exported all over the world, a natural condiment of typical dishes; a few drops of this yellow gold enhance every dish you’ll be eating when you are in Sabina.
And with products like this, you’ll be licking your fingers at the table!
Here are our recommendations on some restaurants where you can enjoy the taste of local cuisine made with typical local products.
Agriturismo La Montagnola
At La Montagnola, not only will you enjoy a culinary experience, but you can also enjoy an authentic experience of life in Sabina. When Claudio and Marta found this place, they only found the ruins of an old barn covered in brambles. Today it is a farmhouse that blends in perfectly with the landscape, surrounded by 23 hectares of land and woods that you can safely explore by following the paths they have marked themselves. When you get tired of “losing yourself” in nature, relaxation awaits you in one of the niches dedicated to reading and meditation. And then a lunch or a dinner, made with truffles. Truffles that Claudio and his cockers search for and collect personally.
Specialties:
At La Montagnola, the dishes are seasonal, made with truffles and the products are harvested from their very own synergistic garden. Depending on the period you can taste fine white truffle, summer black truffles, scorzone or brumale.
Among their proposals you’ll find: egg with truffle, stracciata vaccina with truffle, local ricotta with honey and truffle, local walnuts, wrapped in lard from Colonnata with torrese honey and brumale truffle leaf, homemade gnocchetti with clarified butter and white truffle, homemade fettuccine with porcini mushrooms and truffles, gnocchi with courgette flowers and truffles, buffalo milk ice cream with truffles.
There are numerous options also available for vegetarians.
Take away products:
Sabine extra virgin olive oil, which they themselves produce from the olive trees on their land, and truffle (when available)
To book and reach the restaurant:
Agriturismo La Montagnola ·Vocabolo Palombara snc – 02049 Torri in Sabina (RI) · 3485762515 · www.lamontagnolainsabina.it
Distance from Le Residenze del Borgo di Cicignano: 15 km
The Agri-refreshment Bar Catino
In Catino, right behind the Torre Longobarda – once a point of sighting and control over the entire valley – you will find Roberto and Valentina, father and daughter, who have always run this place. Initially it was just a bar, whose plus was (and still is today) a great artisan ice cream. But also homemade bread, aniseed doughnuts and desserts, especially San Giuseppe cream puffs.
In small villages like Sabina, where there are no supermarkets, it is not unusual that bars also produce and sell some basic food, such as bread.
The bar has become, over the years, an Agri refreshment stop, which takes advantage of the magnificent balcony that is right in front of the restaurant. Making it an unparalleled location. From here, one dominates the entire valley, overlooking the green scenery that dominates the landscape, right up to Soratte and beyond. The lights shining from Rome can often be seen on the horizon.
During summer evenings this location reaches its maximum splendour in our opinion. Here the temperature is a few degrees lower than in the valley and the small village square is full of people of all ages sitting on the benches, while the children play freely.
Specialties:
Undoubtedly the homemade pasta, seasoned with traditional sauces. Above all the Amatriciana sauce, strictly with Amatrice guanciale (an Italian cured meat product prepared from pork jowl or cheeks). But you will also find pastas such as carbonara, gricia (just guanciale), cacio (cheese) and pepper, artichokes and bacon (if you happen to be there during the artichoke season). Made with decidedly plentiful portions, your dish will come directly from the pan!
To book and reach the restaurant:
Agri RISTORO Bar Catino C ‘è · Piazza Belvedere, 7 – 02040 Catino (RI) · 0765 411024
Distance from Le Residenze del Borgo di Cicignano: 20 km
Ecofattorie Sabine
It used to be a barn, then it was renovated – while maintaining a rustic style – and became Ecofattorie Sabine! Every day, however, they continue to look at that farm’s past and produce excellent cheese thanks to the breeding of cattle and sheep that graze freely in the land of the Sabina.
One of the most awarded cheeses in the Sabina area is produced in their dairy: Caciomagno, which gets its name “magno” from Carlo Magno (Charlemagne). The story goes, in fact, that the Emperor a few days before his coronation, on the road to Rome, stopped over at the Farfa Abbey. Here, the friars welcomed him with tastings of typical products, including this cheese that delighted Carlo Magno, to the point that he decided to take some wheels with him.
Specialties:
At Ecofattorie Sabine you can find natural and organic foods and a menu that changes according to the seasonal raw materials. The plus here is certainly, as you may have guessed, the cheeses. But also the meat, grilled in their maxi external BBQ, which is a must to be tasted. Their specialties, among the first courses, are homemade fettuccine, gnocchi and strozzapreti seasoned alla ‘pecorara’, with mutton, amatriciana and gricia sauce. You’ll only find authentic flavours here!
Take away products:
In their internal store, you can buy cheeses, meat, vegetables, legumes, sauces. You will also find a selection of wines and Sabina extra virgin olive oil.
To book and reach the restaurant:
Ecofattorie Sabine · Via Ternana, 2 – 02047 Poggio Mirteto Scalo (RI) · 0765 26016 · www.ecofattorie.it
Distance from Le Residenze del Borgo di Cicignano: 23 km
Osteria La Chianina
The Osteria La Chianina restaurant is part of the butcher shop that Stefano opened in 1987 in Poggio Mirteto. So if you are craving for meat raised and produced by Sabine farms, this is the ideal place.
Specialties:
Here you can taste and savour the Chianina. The cattle are raised in a healthy and uncontaminated environment, free to graze and feed on natural products. Here you will find the Large White, one of the most prized breeds of pig, bred in the wild in the Cottanello meadows, and the Cinta Senese, also bred in the wild, in Casperia.
A further plus: at the Osteria La Chianina you will find pasta made with the ancient Senatore Cappelli wheat; wheat that Stefano and his family personally produce since 2013 in their farm fields.
Take away products:
The same meats and Senatore Cappelli pasta that you can eat at the Osteria can be purchased in the butcher’s shop, which is part of the restaurant.
To book and reach the restaurant:
Osteria La Chianina · Via Matteotti, 23/p – 02047 Poggio Mirteto (RI) · 0765 22197
Distance from Le Residenze del Borgo di Cicignano: 23 km
