Le Forre del Treja restaurant

Eating on an organic farm

The Le Forre del Treja restaurant is in the farmhouse, at Via Castel Sant'Elia, 5, in the countryside of Civita Castellana. It is a family-run holding of 112 hectares, certified organic for more than 25 years, where they raise cattle and sheep and grow cereals. Much of what reaches the table comes from here: the farm has its own butcher's, with animals raised on pasture and on organic feed from the estate, and its own line of pasta.

From Calcata it is about 15 km by road. It makes a good lunch after a morning in the Treja valley, especially with children: there are fields, animals and space all around.

The house pasta

The pasta is called Eredi Strampelli, after Nazareno Strampelli, the agronomist who developed wheat varieties in this area in the early 20th century. The farm grows several of these ancient wheats, among them Senatore Cappelli, and makes from their stone-ground flour a bronze-drawn pasta, dried slowly at low temperature, with only flour and water. It is sold in nine shapes in the farm shop and on its website. The website does not publish the restaurant's menu.

When it opens

Only Saturdays and Sundays, from 12:00 to 17:00, and also for people not staying at the farm. The kitchen closes at 14:00: arrive before 13:30. Book on WhatsApp at +39 393 880 9511 or by phone on 0761 598416.

If you want more than a meal, the farm runs, by reservation, a three-hour pasta workshop that ends with lunch and wine (€95 per person), a two-hour guided tour of the farm (€45) and an Italian cooking class (€125).