Lazio is a region of central western Italy, more extensive than ancient Latium, which includes Rome, Viterbo, Rieti, Frosinone and Latina. Land has been reclaimed in the Campagna di Roma and the Pontine marshes. Cereals and olives are cultivated. White wines are produced using predominantly Trebbiano grapes, the higher quality wines sometimes being flavoured with Malvasia. Frascati is probably the best known. Castelli Romani, Colli Albani, Marino an Velletri are similar. Orvieto wines can be very good. Very few red wines are produced in Lazio. If eating gnocchi in Lazio they are more likely to be made with semolina rather than the potato of the north.
A complex sauce from Sicily of the juices of meat or fish, often cooked on a spit, with wine or vinegar, ham, livers, capers and herbs, sometimes made more savoury with anchovy fillets. A tray is placed under the rotating meat to catch the juices and these ingredients are then mixed in. The tray is called a leccardu and the dish is also called by this name.
Leerfish. A fish common in the mediterranean. It is large and silver and grey, plump and oily with firm flesh and deeply forked tail. It is best grilled or bakedand should be particularly fresh. Oily fish do not keep well. It seems to have no English name, but is close in appearance to the Pompano.
Pompano. A small, plump, oily marine fish with a yellow to greenish-blue back. It has a deeply forked tail. It is fished in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and off the south east of North America. With its firm flesh it is suitable for many types of preparation, stands up well to baking and is frequently cooked en papillote.
