Rome Travel Guide
Eating Rome
A food lover's guide to the Roman table — the four great pastas, pizza by weight, fried street snacks, Roman-Jewish artichokes, coffee rituals, gelato, markets and the neighbourhoods where Romans actually eat.
Roman food is not the cuisine of Italy; it is the cuisine of Rome, and it is proudly specific. It is built on a handful of ingredients — pecorino romano, guanciale, black pepper, artichokes, offal, bread — and a tradition of making brilliant meals out of very little. Learn its grammar and you will eat superbly; ignore it and you will pay a lot for mediocre carbonara by the Pantheon. Here is how to eat Rome.
The four Roman pastas. Every trattoria worth its name serves them, and comparing versions is half the fun. Cacio e pepe is the simplest and hardest to perfect: pasta, pecorino and black pepper emulsified with starchy cooking water into a creamy sauce. Gricia adds crisp guanciale, the cured pork cheek that gives Roman cooking its depth. Amatriciana adds tomato to the gricia, and carbonara swaps the tomato for egg yolks, creating a silky, golden sauce — never cream. Rigatoni, tonnarelli and spaghetti are the usual shapes. Order one as a primo and share a second.
The rest of the menu. Antipasti might include fried courgette flowers stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy, or bruschetta. Among the secondi, saltimbocca alla romana — veal with prosciutto and sage — is the classic; the old offal tradition of the Testaccio slaughterhouse lives on in dishes such as coda alla vaccinara, oxtail braised with celery. Vegetables are a highlight: puntarelle, the crisp chicory shoots dressed with anchovy and garlic in winter, and, above all, artichokes, served either alla romana, braised with mint, or alla giudia, fried crisp in the Roman-Jewish style. The Jewish Ghetto, near the Portico d'Ottavia, is the place to try the latter in season, roughly late winter to spring.
Street food and quick lunches. Pizza al taglio, rectangular pizza sold by weight and cut with scissors, is the Roman lunch; point, ask for a piece of the size you want, and eat it standing. Pizza bianca, plain and olive-oiled, from the bakeries around Campo de' Fiori, is the purest version. Supplì are fried rice croquettes with a molten mozzarella heart, nicknamed al telefono for the string of cheese that stretches like a telephone cord when you bite in. The trapizzino, a pocket of white pizza dough stuffed with Roman stews, was invented in Testaccio and is now found around the city. In the morning, try a maritozzo, a sweet bun split and filled with whipped cream.
Pizza for dinner. Roman pizza tonda is thin, crisp and slightly charred, quite different from the soft Neapolitan style, and it is an evening food served in noisy pizzerias, often with fried starters first. Expect to share tables and wait at popular spots.
Coffee and gelato. Romans take coffee standing at the bar, fast and cheap; pay at the till first if there is one, then order. A caffè is an espresso, a cappuccino is a morning drink, and a caffè shakerato is the summer iced version. Two historic coffee bars near the Pantheon, Sant'Eustachio Il Caffè and Tazza d'Oro, are pilgrimages in themselves. For gelato, look for natural colours and metal tubs with lids rather than towering neon mounds; the area between the Pantheon and Trevi has some of the city's best-known gelaterias, including the long-running Giolitti.
Markets. Campo de' Fiori's morning market, Monday to Saturday, is the most famous and the most touristic; it is still a fine place for fruit and a slice of pizza bianca. For a more local experience, go to the Testaccio Market, a modern covered market full of food stalls where Romans shop and lunch, or the Trionfale Market near the Vatican. Visit in the morning, and bring cash for small purchases.
Where Romans eat. Testaccio, south of the Aventine, is the traditional heart of Roman cooking, with trattorias that have served offal and pasta for generations. Monti mixes old wine bars with new restaurants. Trastevere is lively and atmospheric, though choose carefully away from the main piazza. The Ghetto is the place for Roman-Jewish cooking. Prati, near the Vatican, has excellent restaurants for those staying on that side, and San Lorenzo, near the university, is cheap and youthful.
How to order and pay. Dinner starts around eight or later; lunch from around one. You need not order every course: an antipasto to share, a pasta each and a vegetable is perfectly normal. House wine by the carafe is usually good value. A per-person coperto, or cover charge, is normal; tipping is a small rounding up rather than a percentage. Water is ordered still (naturale) or sparkling (frizzante), and the free public nasoni fountains provide excellent drinking water around the city.
Seasonal eating. Roman menus follow the calendar. Winter brings puntarelle and hearty braises; late winter and spring are the artichoke months, along with fava beans eaten raw with pecorino around May; summer means fiori di zucca, tomatoes and cold dishes; autumn brings mushrooms and the new olive oil. A trattoria that changes its menu with the seasons is usually a good sign, and a waiter who recommends the dish of the day is worth listening to.
Red flags. Touts at the door, laminated photo menus in many languages, and restaurants with direct views of the Pantheon, Navona or Trevi tend to trade on location. Walk two streets away, look for places full of Italians, and book ahead for dinner on weekends. Do that, and Rome will feed you better than almost any city on earth.