If there’s one thing that people love about Italy (and Rome, in this case), it’s food. Eating out, experiencing new dishes and discovering food traditions is part of the excitement of traveling or living here. I love the Roman cuisine and my mom and grandma taught me how to cook the best Roman dishes, so it’s time to share some family secrets and let you have the best Roman food.
AMATRICIANA
The amatriciana is a sauce made with tomato, guanciale (the cheek of the pig), pecorino cheese. Remember to not add onion or garlic to it.
Ingredients: pasta (bucatini), plain tomato sauce, pecorino cheese, guanciale.
How to: start to boil the water to cook your pasta. Throw the guanciale in a pan and let it cook, when it starts to look brownish (not too much), add the tomato sauce and let it sit for 20/25 minutes, so the flavors can melt with each other. Add the pecorino cheese and stir. Throw the pasta in the boiling water, cook it al dente, then unite the sauce and the pasta. Stir throughout and place it in a plate. Grate some fresh pecorino cheese on top.
CACIO & PEPE
The cacio & pepe is a must here! Easy, cheap, tasty and fulfilling. This dish was cooked very often during the winter, in old times, because the pepper would create some kind of spiciness (hence, warming you up) and the cheese would come from the many goats they would have in their farms. Do not add cream into this dish.
Ingredients: pasta (tonnarello), pecorino cheese, grounded pepper
How to: start to boil the water to cook your pasta. In a small bowl, grate the pecorino cheese and add the pepper. Stir a little bit, and when the water is boiling throw the pasta in it. With a spoon, take some water that you will slowly put in the bowl with the cheese and pepper, creating sort of a cream. When the pasta is cooked, add the cream and stir until it looks creamy and saucy. Ground some more pepper on top.
CARBONARA
The carbonara is called like this because the carbonari would use three simple ingredients from their farms: eggs from the chicken, cheese from the goat and guanciale from the pig. Everything was already in their houses and that’s why our food is simple, but incredibly tasty at the same time. Do not add cream!
Ingredients: pasta (spaghetti or mezze maniche), fresh eggs, pecorino cheese, guanciale, grounded pepper
How to: start to boil the water for the pasta. Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a bowl, adding the cheese and the pepper. In a pan, cook the guanciale (without oil, garlic or onion). When the pasta is cooked, add slowly the cream created with the eggs and the cheese, and the guanciale. Mix and ground some pepper on top.
CARCIOFI E PATATE
This recipe is my mom’s best dish! We use artichokes a lot, and we cook and prepare them in different ways. This is definitely my favorite artichoke dish.
Ingredients: garlic, oil, salt, parsley, artichokes, potatoes
How to: clean and cut the carciofi and get them ready to be cooked. In a deep pan pour some oil, then add a few garlic cloves. Put the carciofi with their stem up after you have had oiled them and flavored them with parsley and salt. Add cut potatoes and throw them in the pan. Add a glass of water and let it cook until the artichoke and the potatoes are tender. You might need to add water along the process, because of course while cooking it will be absorbed.
CICORIA RIPASSATA
There’s nothing better than a big plate of cicoria ripassata. The cicoria is a vegetable that can be quite bitter, but every person (almost) that I know that wasn’t from Italy, that has tried it, was enthusiastic about it. Here’s how you should eat it.
Ingredients: oil, garlic, salt, red hot chili pepper, cicoria
How to: boil the cicoria in water with salt, until it’s tender. Let it cool down, and in another pan pour a bit of oil, two/three garlic cloves and the red hot chili pepper (or a few seeds out of it). Add the cicoria and stir, adding some salt. Delicious!
SUPPLI’
These small balls of rice, deep fried, are our favorite! You can eat it anytime, and anywhere. Delicious as a mid afternoon snack, great before the pizza as an antipasto! And very easy to make at home (I will share with you the vegetarian option, but you can make your own version using any ingredient you want. For the authentic one, you should use ragù instead of plain tomato sauce).
Ingredients: cooked rice with tomato sauce, eggs, breadcrumbs, mozzarella
How to: beforehand cook the rice and make kind of a risotto. Add the tomato sauce (remember to cook the sauce with garlic, onions, basil, so you can flavor the sauce). Beat two eggs in a bowl, and put the breadcrumbs in another one. Create oval shaped balls and in the middle stick a piece of mozzarella (that you will have cut in advance). Close the ball, so the mozzarella is fully inside, pass them in the beaten egg, then breadcrumbs, then again eggs and breadcrumbs. Fry them at a high temperature and enjoy them!
roman gal goes around 