on the road – al solito posto

Have I told you lately how much I love Slowfood’s guide book Osterie d’Italia? When in doubt, it is my bible. If I am clueless about where to eat -whether it is a big city like Torino or a small village in the middle of nowhere – I can always count on the Osterie d’Italia to steer me in the right direction.

Last Sunday we dropped off my daughter Emma at the airport in Rome at noon, and then were heading down to Ravello. I wanted to find some place to eat lunch along the way, but had a few tricky requirements. It had to be about an hour south of Rome, and not too far off our course. Also, it had to have outdoor seating since we were traveling with doggie Pico. And of course, I didn’t really want to leave our fully loaded car parked unattended too close to Naples either.

I pulled out my Osterie guide and opened the section to Lazio. One of the reasons I love this guide is that it has a map for each region, with the restaurants located as little dots. So I was  able to pinpoint what would be the perfect area and where there were dots. I quickly zeroed in to the countryside around Frosinone. A few phone calls later and I had reserved at Al Solito Posto.

Slowfood guide-wise it looked promising. Two sisters – Chira and Cinzia – running a simple country restaurant that focused on local ingredients.  When I called I  asked to be seated outside, since we had ‘un piccolo cane.’ No problem. They would set our table ‘sotto il portico.’

We entered the exact address into our GPS and were on our way. If you’ve ever passed by Frosinone, you know that it is mostly big factories that line the autostrada at this point. But once off the highway it was as if we had entered a magic valley. Barely any houses, small villages dotting rolling hills and even meandering streams.

We arrived exactly on time, 1:30. Except we were sure the GPS had made a mistake. As we parked our car amid an olive grove, it seemed like we had arrived at a private home and not a restaurant. And we had, kind of.

Il Solito Posto was opened by Chira and Cinzia, who 11 years ago turned their home into a restaurant. And it still feels very much like a home. The ‘dining rooms’ are just their living rooms with more tables than you would expect.

The menu is fixed, so once we sat down (sotto il portico) the food just started coming. Everything was locally produced, most of it from their very own vegetable garden. Crostini with pate’ di olive, home made salami (both buffalo and pig); big balls of local buffalo mozzarella as well as slabs of buffalo ricotta drizzled with rose petal syrup.

And then the fried stuff started: light as air zucchini flowers, served piping hot on butchers’ paper. Thin slivers of zucchini, coated in semolina flour then deep fried. My favorite were the cubes of eggplant, also dipped in semolina, fried, and then dressed with chopped tomatoes, olives, hot peppers and lots of mint.

Next came pasta di grangnano, tossed with a barely-there sauce of zucchini, ground pork and loads of basil.

The main attraction – and what most people make the hour-long drive out here for – was the slowly stewed buffalo. Cooked in a bit of wine, a lot of olive oil, and rosemary, the stew was incredibly tender and went perfectly with the best roast potatoes we’d ever had. I think she must have rolled them in the ubiquitous semolina flour, since they were crackly crunchy and golden on the outside, moist yet fluffy on the inside.

Home made apple cake finished off meal.

If it hadn’t been raining, I think we all would have plopped down in the yard for a much needed post pranzo siesta. Instead, we downed our coffee and hit the road again, heading south.

One more thing: the entire meal was 27 euros a person plus wine.



















Al Solito Posto
Via Auricola 8
Amaseno (FR)
0775 65428