The perfect holiday in Italy is a well balanced mix of culture, landscapes sightseeing and, of course, good (excellent!) food. And Rome, the capital town, is no exception.
All the ingredients for a real Rome food experience
A city almost three thousand years old has a lot to tell. We could say that in Rome also the food smells like history!
Rome food heritage: the Roman – Jewish cuisine
Even the imperialistic attitude of Rome still influences, 1539 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD), the food that you can enjoy in Rome nowadays.
Mainly after the conquest of Jerusalem in 70 AD (celebrated by the Arch of Titus) and the deportation of Jews, a strong Jewish community will bring to Rome its own culture and the Kashrut, the set of religious dietary laws.
The Roman Ghetto, in the Rione Sant’Angelo is still the area in which you can find the traditional roman – jewish food: the aliciotti con l’indivia, a savoury pie made with anchovies and endive; the animelle con carciofi, artichokes and sweetbreads; the carciofi alla giudìa, Jewish – style artichokes, marinated in water and lemon juice, seasoned with salt and pepper and then deep fried in sunflower oil.
Rome food heritage: tales from the slaughterhouse
Other traditional Roman dishes are related to the Rione Testaccio, which was traditionally the area of the slaughterhouse.
And some poor dishes that have their origin in the need of using everything from the slaughtered animals are now dainty delicatessen: the coda alla vaccinara, oxtail in the butcher’s way; the pajata, rigatoni pasta with ringed intestines.
A not so spooky pizza in Rome…
Even if Pizza is definitely a born in Naples dish, the Pizzeria ai Marmi in Trastevere has an exceptional pizza and… a weird nickname: “l’obitorio”, literally the morgue, because of its marble tables!
While the pizza is probably the best that you can get in Rome, “l’obitorio” offers traditional Roman food as well: the fiori di zucca, zucchini flowers filled with mozzarella and anchovies and then fried; or the supplì al telefono, the “telephone supplì”, deep fried rice, egg, mozzarella balls.