Five things I ate in Rome 🍝
Buongiorno and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I share my favorite eats in Rome. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Nocciola and Valrhona chocolate gelato at Gelateria Artigianale Il Capriccio di Carla Roma Monti
Via Agostino Depretis, 61, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
I ate far, far more than five things in Rome. In fact, I probably ate more than five gelatos in my three days in the city. There’s a gelateria about every 100 feet in Rome, and about as many beautiful sculptures, truly my dream vacation. Friends sent me a long list of shops to try, but my favorite was actually the one that I walked into on a whim. Gelateria Artigianale is a little shop in Monti with a big cardboard ice-cream cone cut-out at the door, so you can’t miss it. I got one scoop of nocciola (hazelnut, my favorite flavor) and one scoop of Valrhona chocolate. Both flavors were vegan, but they were even more flavorful than most of the dairy-full scoops I ate on the rest of my trip. If only they’d deliver to NYC.
Linguine with porcini mushrooms at Pasta Chef Monti
Via Baccina, 42, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
Throughout the course of this late-night solo meal at Pasta Chef, the entire waitstaff of the restaurant — including the head chef — trickled out one-by-one into the alleyway to take a cigarette break among the motorcycles. Nicotine is alive and well in Italy, and so is the pasta — the country’s reputation for noodles is well-earned. Even fast-casual places with hokey names like Pasta Chef serve better pasta than three-dollar sign restaurants in New York (sorry!). I ordered linguine with porcini and a tiny bottle of red wine, and the meal clocked in at 14.50 euros, which is the cost of a sandwich in Soho. The dish was simply prepared — just linguine, butter, parsley, and porcini mushrooms — but it was divine, the noodles thick and chewy, the mushrooms melt-in-your-mouth tender. As Careless Whisper blasted on the loudspeaker, and the smell of scented Juul smoke wafted into the night, I savored every bite.
An afternoon cappuccino Pasticceria Regoli
Via dello Statuto, 60, 00185 Roma RM, Italy
Pasticceria regoli is an old-school (more than 100 years-old) pasticceria that’s split in two. One half is skinny and narrow, featuring only a pastry case with the most beautiful tiny treats. The other half features a shiny case heaping with gelato and a black-and-white checkered tile floor, along with an espresso machine and a selection of pastries. There are tables here, so order a cappuccino and a tiny pastry or a maritozzo, and sit for a bit. You’ll see Roman children toddle in and point at the flavors of gelato behind the glass as you enjoy your caffeine. After 36 hours of no sleep and one long flight, the cappuccino I ordered, plus the two cookies — one marzipan flavored treat and a butter cookie filled with apricot jam — were just the thing to refuel my tank. The pastries were so buttery, the apricot jam so intensely apricot-flavored it put all the other jams I’ve ever eaten to shame.
Strozzapreti with clams and porcini mushrooms at Piccolo arancio
Vicolo Scanderbeg, 112, 00187 Roma RM, Italy
Piccolo arancio is a hidden gem in an extremely touristy area — well, as hidden as a gem can be in a city as popular as Rome. Little candles line the path on the side street to this restaurant. I walked in, alone, at the end of a long day, and was immediately greeted with a glass of prosecco, before I even glanced at the menu. I ordered what was clearly becoming my favorite pasta dish, pasta with porcini mushrooms, plus a light salad to start, and a carafe of house red. The pasta was thick and chewy, the mushrooms so tender, the clams tiny and salty, the whole thing coated in the most silky sauce. Nothing was overstated, but everything was so well done. In fact, the pasta reminded me a lot of udon — the noodles were fresh and thick and chewy, and the porcini were so umami they were like shiitake. As the older couple beside me held hands across the table, I dissolved into my dinner and the moment. Bonus points to the fact that none of the waitstaff were weirded out by my intense, blank-eyed stare as I pondered life, the universe, and the latest book I was reading.
The Last Spritz at Samovar
Piazza di S. Calisto, 15, 00153 Roma RM, Italy
For my last meal in Italy, I chose to return to this little cafe in Trastevere (the “West Village” of Rome, if only in essence) where I began my journey to eat one more glorious meal by myself. I ordered a watermelon gazpacho that came with a whole ball of burrata (lactose intolerance be damned!) floating in the center, plus focaccia and a drink called the Hugo, a minty spritz. Everything was beautifully plated (the soup came with a heart-shaped petal and flecks of verdant green olive oil dotting the surface) and tasted just as good as it looked. So our hero ends her journey just as she started it — eating alone gazing into the Italian sunset, sipping her drink and weirding out fellow patrons with her stare into blank nothingness, as German disco music plays in the background, and church bells chime in the distance.
P.S.: When in Trastevere, make sure to check out my favorite church in Rome — Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, which dates back to 340. When I was there, a wedding ceremony was taking place, and tourists formed a silent line in the back, cameras flashing. Only in Rome!
Ciao,
Soph