Typical Roman and Lazio recipes

“It has a fine being caput mundi, capital of Italy and of Christianity: its cuisine is the most plebeian that exists in the peninsula; very savory, certain, aggressive, polychrome, but rugged, born from the taste of goatherds, cowherds, shepherds, buffaloes and civilized by the recipes of the ghetto. Its condiments are lard, lard, bacon, ventresca. Impingu the pasta with the ricotta, with the eggs and with the guanciale, grate the acute pecorino on it.”

These are the words of someone who, if we exclude the heavy years of the last season, knew about cooking: Paolo Monelli. Critical words, to put oneself on the defensive, and yet such as to underline the immediate derivation, cooking I mean, of one’s roots. They cite the very first among the condiments, the lard. And if the lard is absent, in the spaghetti alla amatriciana as well as in those alla carbonara, the guanciale (that is the pork jaw; much better here than the pancetta) takes its place: the guanciale sizzles under the tooth and breaks where the bacon would get soft and force you to mumble) and in soups mincemeat, and in beans the rinds.

Cuisine of poor origins, yet rich like few others; capable of the delicate compositions of a stracciatella and sweetbreads with ham, but more disposed,  at the table no delays are allowed, at the table one sits down to eat and nothing else, at the table for cheerful words, and cheerful, for suggestions, to fat conviviality of the garofolato, loaded like a military breast with decoration and lardons, and of the oxtail and selected fried food (more than selected, very large, since it ranges from lamb brains, to veal sweetbreads, from the head to the liver, from the very tender artichokes of the hills to pandorato).

Immediate derivation, we have written, from its own roots; here therefore, in the forefront, the products of the surrounding countryside; the pre-eminence of household drugs: cloves, cinnamon and chilli pepper, and of household smells: garlic, onion, basil, rosemary, parsley, bay leaf, marjoram, mint, sage and above all celery, each capable with its mere presence of characterizing a dish. Think spaghetti ajo e ojo, think stew with sellero (celery).

And from the surrounding countryside, for a cuisine that is still truly Roman, every other product: oil, olives, cheeses, lambs, vegetables.

Starters

First Courses

Main Courses

Desserts