What To Eat In Rome

What to taste in Rome , besides pasta and pizza? Let's learn more about Roman cuisine , as well as dishes that you must try there.

In Italian cuisine, as in any other country, the cuisine is divided into regions. Roman cuisine stands out a little in this list - it's like our Odesa. That is, there is Galician cuisine, Bessarabian, Crimean and Slobojan cuisines, there are cuisines from Liguria, Basilicata, Tuscany, Lombardy, Campania and Calabria, and there is Odesa and Roman cuisine .

Romans are very proud to be Romans and fiercely protect their heritage, including culinary heritage. Cucina Romana, it is "Roman cuisine", on the one hand, closely intertwined with national cuisine, but at the same time, as Odessans say, these are "two big differences".

Mandatory condition of Roman cuisine : cook only with local seasonal products. That is, no Turkish tomatoes in winter and Dutch eggplants in early spring. There is a time for everything, as they say.

A typical seasonal dish in Roman cuisine , for example, fiori di zucca - fried zucchini flowers. In Italy, the zucchini season begins in July and lasts until mid-September. Eat zucchini and flowers, respectively, also only during this period. The flowers are carefully plucked, stuffed, usually with mozzarella and anchovies, then dipped in batter and fried in a large amount of vegetable oil.

Roman recipes are also typical among pasta recipes. For example, pasta amatrichana. Amatrichana is a sauce made with guanciale (dried pork cheeks), tomatoes and pecorino cheese. Traditionally served with bucatini - thick spaghetti with holes inside.

In addition, the popular dish spaghetti carbonara is also a typical dish of Roman cuisine . Carbonara is also a sauce. It is prepared on the basis of crushed guanciale with the addition of beaten eggs, salt, freshly ground pepper and grated pecorino cheese. Guanciale is often replaced with pancetta - an analogue of our bacon or brisket (fat with a layer of meat).

Be sure to try trippa. It is beef stomach cooked with tomatoes, wild mint and pecorino cheese. It can be served both as a soup and as an independent dish - for example, with a side dish or with bread. They say that this dish was prepared even in the times of Ancient Rome . And if earlier cooking offal was considered a sign of bad manners and was done, as a rule, only by very poor people who could not afford to throw away meat scraps, now cow carcasses are considered almost the national pride of Rome .

In some restaurant, order saltimbocca alla romana. Thin schnitzel (usually veal, less often pork or chicken) with prosciutto and sage. The meat is first soaked in marinade (based on water or wine - who likes it better), and then fried. It can be served both in the form of rolls, and simply in a layer, on which a slice of prosciutto and a leaf of sage are pricked with a toothpick.

Also try the suppli - fried rice cakes stuffed with beef stew and mozzarella. In appearance, these are ordinary cutlets, which were molded from boiled rice in breadcrumbs and then fried in a deep fryer.

Eat artichokes in Rome , they are artichokes. Italians literally go crazy for artichokes. Here they are boiled, stewed, fried, marinated, stuffed, eaten raw, ground into puree and even strong tinctures are made on their basis.

A typical Roman artichoke dish  is called carciofi alla romana (artichokes in Roman) - whole artichokes are started with a mixture of garlic and parsley and then cooked in olive oil. Another popular dish , carchofi alla Judea means artichokes in Hebrew, it has long been prepared by the inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto of Rome . They are prepared very simply: unpeeled artichokes are fried together with chili pepper. This method makes the outer leaves of the artichoke crispy, like potato chips, under which the pulp is enclosed.

Try the pint. And don't confuse it with pizza. If pizza is only round, then pinza can be round, oval, rectangular, small, or large (it is sold in portions at street food outlets). The main difference between pinza and pizza is that in pinza, the filling is placed on already prepared bread, while in pizza, the dough is baked together with all the additives.