When Elizabeth Gilbert decided to take a
year off to retrospect on her life and ‘Eat,Pray and Love’, she chose Italy to
do the eating in, and that pretty much sums it up. If you are going to eat your
way to self realization , then Italian food is the way to do it. We spent a
gorgeous two weeks in rome and the Mediterranean region, and this food trail is
all about Rome and all the ‘cucina’ it has to offer.
I found this beautiful quote of the
internet by Robert Farrar Capon, “Give us this day our daily taste.Restore to
us soups that spoons will not sink in and sauces which are never the same
twice. Raise up among us stews with more gravy than we have bread to blot it
with. Give us pasta with a hundred fillings,”
My husband and I walked the length and
breadth of Rome in search of quaint churches with exquisite art and little trattorias and osterias which
served great food. We pretty much ate our way through the streets of Rome. Here
I have compiled our favourite 3 places for pizzas, pastas, and gelatos.
Pizza
No food is more universal than a Pizza, It
is available in almost every single part of the world. Before Rome we had had
our fair share of Pizzas, whether the Dominoes home deliveries, or the pizza
hut take away, or the more upscale Italian restaurants which boasted the ‘wood
fired pizzas’, but the Pizzas in Rome were a revelation. First, the Italians
atleast the ones in Rome like their Pizza with a lovely fluffy dough. I loved
that!! In all the snooty ‘Italian restaurants in India, especially the ones in
5 star restaurants they will serve you Pizzas which are no more than crisp flat
rotis and look down at us commoners who much preferred the substantial dough of
Dominoes fast food. Secondly, there are electric oven Pizzas and wood fired
pizzas, the wood fire ovens are allowed to be lit only after 7 pm Rome, so if
someone is offering wood fired pizzas for lunch, they either they are lying or
operating an illegal wood fire oven. Oops! Thirdly, Pizzas can come as by the
slice pizzas, or round pizzas, the advantage with the sliced Pizza is that you
can have a pretty small slice and they charge you by the weight. But, the most
eye opening were the topping! Pizza was always the champion of ‘junk food’ or
‘fast food’, but here in Rome it is just food, it is something the people eat
almost every day, especially the working people who slip down to the nearest
Tabachchi for a slice Pizza. So the toppings were always fresh seasonal
toppings. We hadsome weird and wonderful toppings such as a cabbage and
broccoli pizza, a cabbage and prawn
pizza, and one with zucchini flowers and slices zuchchinis.
Our favourite pizza places in Rome ?
1. Pinsere Roma: This little hole in the wall place serves pizzas only, and is open
from 9 am to 4 pm. Most of the places in rome had wonderful touristy atmosphere
and Christmas decorations, but not this place. This place is all about
functionality and the only accessory that the pizza place had was the smiles on
the servers faces. There are no tables and most people just eat out on the
street or take away their pizzas. This place was also the number one pizza
place in Rome according to trip advisor, and the number 2 place to eat
according to trip advisor. We ate pizzas every single day of our trip to Rome
and we finally agreed that this truly was the best that we had had. Great value
for money, fresh ingredients, exotic combination of toppings, and the most
amazing pizza base. The base was crisp at the bottom and light airy and fluffy,
they had large air pockets throughout, making it seem like biting into a pillow
with a crisp bottom. It’s on Via Flavia road near hotel Medici. Take the train
to termini and walk.
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| zuchini and zuchini flowers and pesto sauce |
2. Cantina e cucina: Located near Piazza Navona ,this place was a real find. We were
actually searching for a particular restaurant for dinner, but because of the
many little streets around the piazza , we found ourselves walking in circles
and crossing this restaurant many times during our fervent search. Now there
are 3 golden rules to eating in Rome (or any place for that matter): first,
always go to a place filled with other patrons especially if they are local
patrons. Secondly, never go to a place where they are standing outside trying
to lure you into the restaurant. Thirdly, veer clear of places situated very
close to tourist destinations like trevi fountain, the Spanish steps or the
piazza Navona. It’s advisable to walk into the little alleyways a bit further
away from the main sight of attraction because that is where the real gems of
restaurants lie. Cantina e cucina had extremely friendly staff , who not only
tried to invite us into their restaurant, but even after we rebuffed them
thrice and only went in after we were totally lost, we were served with smiles. The food was great, the décor of the
place had a lovely warm glow, and the pizza was hearty as well as tasty. The
best part, it tasted even better the next day, straight out of the hotel
refrigerator. It’s on Via del governo vecchio.
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| fried artichokes, a must eat in Rome |
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| Thats one huge pizza! |
3.
La renella: We went to this place as
part of our twilight trastevere food tour by eating Italy food tours. The
highlight was the visit to the kitchen and the Pizza ovens. Not only do they
have wood fired pizzas but they have hazelnut shell fired pizzas. The hazelnut
shells provide a mild nutty aroma to the base as well as there is reduce ash
formation by burning hazelnut. Frequented by local Italians for their Pizzas as
well as their breads this place is an institution in itself.
Pasta
Italian food and pasta are almost
synonymous to each other, and the varied shapes and sizes are mind boggling ,
but the consistency of all the pastas are the same, ‘al dente’, meaning they
should be firm and have a bite to them. Our food tour guide Sarah told us that
the reason that Italians have mounds of pasta and still stay thin is because
they prefer al dente pasta, and the more al dente ,the more healthy it is.
Personally I preferred the soft and tender pasta, more in consistency to the
Chinese noodles. Here is the lowdown on some of the best pasta we had.
1.
Osteria del sostegno: So basically
there are three typical Italian pastas that you just must try when in Rome, and
those are carbonara, amitriciana and cacio pepe pasta . Cacio pepe, is supposed
to be the simplest of theses three pastas, but it was the most tasty.
Spaghetti, pecorino and pepper. And this place osteria del sostegno made it
beautifully. This place is near the pantheon, and we managed a table here on
our last day in Rome, even though we didn’t have a reservation. Tiny place but
makes a number of great Italian food. No pizzas served here though.
2.
Taverna del Seminario: We
ordered the fixed meal plan here and that entails a primi, a secondi and a
dessert. So that’s a pasta dish, a protein dish and the dessert. We had
free wifi and plenty of time on our
hands, which is a good thing because the servings were enormous. I ordered the
Amitriciana this time and I loved it. Maybe because I love my tomatoes, and
tomato and pasta is my favourite combination. This place is also the best place
for tiramisu. Ahhh what I wouldn’t give to have another bite of that bitter
sweet melt-in-your-mouth tiramisu!
3.
Annicinquanta: Now I know I
should have been writing about the best carbonara, but frankly I didn’t like
any. We tried it at a number of places until I gave up on my quest . They were
either too heavy or too dry for my taste. So here is a great place for Gnochi.
This place is packed with locals, and we looked very out of place. The waiters
do not understand anything but Italian.But the other patrons were very friendly
and I ordered my dish after I saw one of the patrons, making sounds of
appreciation as he ate his gnocchi. Go for lunch here and maybe you can try
their buffet too which looked very appetizing.
Gelato
Italians are crazy for their gelato. Even
in the middle of December, people ate their double scoop gelato in their
overcoats, and woolen caps. We pretty much did what the romans did, ate gelato
twice a day. Gelato is made from milk, as opposed to icecreams which are made
from cream, so gelatoes are supposed to be more dense and with fewer ice
crystals, making them more silky in texture. Whatever the difference between
icecream and Gelato, the more important question is how do you recognize authentic
Gelato. Authentic Gelato, will not have artificial colouring, so mint flavor
will be white in colour, and pista gelato will be a pale green as opposed to
bright green. The gelato will be dense and not fluffy and copious mounds. From
these one thing is for sure , the gelatoes I have had in India, were definitely
fakes. We went around Rome, identifying the real and the not so real.
1.
Hedera: This tiny place is
immensely missable, because it is so small, but search it out, in the Vatican
area. It’s rated high and rightly so, because they make the most authentic
gelatoes we had. They don’t have a hundred flavours unlike a few places, they
don’t even have their gelatos on display in appetizing containers, infact some
of them had lids on them, but pista and hazelnut combination was bang on.
2.
Gelateria Giolitti: this place
is always teeming with people. Their helpings are huge, flavours exciting and
after the customary two scoops, you get a choice of whipped cream topping
absolutely free. The Christmas cheer was apparent in this lovely tourist
friendly place.
3.
That place near the Trevi:
There is a gelato place, at the fonana di trevi, on the left of the fountain,
as you face the fountain. This place had Good gelato , made great by its
location. It was named ‘Gelateria’ and had great big helpings of gelato, but
the best thing was that you could buy your Gelato and eat it while gazing at
the trevi amongst the buzzing crowd. The true ‘la dolce vita ‘ feeling of
contentment.
Cold gelato, crisp cone, a gorgeous work of art to gaze at , and
people young and old laughing making wishes and throwing coins with gay
abandon. Ah this is the sweet sweet life!
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| we hope you enjoyed our Italian food rail, as much as we did! |
