What to eat Rome? culinary specialties and gastronomy

In Rome, a meal begins with antipasti. These appetizers can be very varied and consist of small appetizers such as supplì alla romana (from the French "surprise"), tomato risotto balls, filled with a piece of mozzarella cheese, then breaded and fried. Very similar to the Sicilian arancini, supplì can also be prepared without tomato sauce, in which case they are called supplì in bianco and are sometimes garnished with ham. The frittelle di fiori di zucca - or zucchini flower fritters - are also very common in central and southern Italy. In the same genre, filetti di baccalà are simply cod fritters. Still on the sea side, calamari fritti alla romana, delicious rings of squid fried to perfection, are always eaten with a wedge of lemon. Small cubes of pecorino romano, a sheep's milk cheese produced in Rome, can also be eaten duringaperitivo, as well as thin slices of pizza. Although this unavoidable speciality does not originate from Rome but from Naples, the Roman pizza is nevertheless a proven variant, especially known for its thinner crust, unlike the thicker and softer Neapolitan version

Vegetables are very popular in Lazio. First of all there is misticanza, a salad traditionally made with wild herbs but nowadays prepared with cultivated varieties (rocket, chicory, fennel and dandelion), seasoned with olive oil, garlic and crushed anchovies. The puntarelle or chicory from Catalonia is served raw, in a salad, or cooked in an omelette or with spaghetti accompanied by a light caper and anchovy sauce. Cicoria ripassata is another variety of chicory, sautéed in oil with garlic and chilli pepper. Finally, artichokes remain inseparable from Rome. In the recipe for carciofi alla giudia, the artichokes are fried, while carciofi alla romana are artichokes delicately candied in a white wine, olive oil, lemon and mint sauce

As in the rest of Italy, a traditional meal in Rome is divided into several courses and pasta is served as a first course which can be considered the equivalent of an appetizer. Lazio cuisine has many pasta specialties including the famous spaghetti alla carbonara. One would think that this dish is no longer to be presented, yet the many twists and turns that the French make to the original recipe are enough to make our Italian neighbours grind their teeth. The real spaghetti carbonara consists of a base of guanciale (or sometimes pancetta), grilled to perfection before adding the pasta off the heat, then beaten eggs and a good quantity of grated pecorino. Before serving, a few turns of the black pepper mill and it's ready to eat. And above all no cream! The bucatini all'amatriciana are served with a spicy tomato sauce with small guanciale cubes and lots of pecorino. Simpler but just as spicy, penne all'arrabbiata are eaten with a tomato sauce flavoured with garlic, chilli and basil. Finally, spaghetti cacio e pepe, with their creamy pecorino and pepper sauce, are usually prepared with tonnarelli or spaghetti alla chitarra, cut in a press giving square pasta instead of round. The gnocchi alla romana are quite different from the classic potato gnocchi, which are better known in France. Indeed in this recipe the dough is prepared from semolina, milk and eggs and the gnocchi are moulded into patties before being poached. They can be quickly fried with butter and sage or woken up with a tomato sauce and pecorino. More surprisingly, the stracci di antrodoco, thin pancakes stuffed with a simple beef stew, are topped with tomato sauce and grated parmesan cheese and then baked au gratin in the oven.

If the inventiveness of Roman chefs is no longer to be proven as savoury creations, desserts are perhaps the weak point of the cuisine of this region. There are very few sweet specialities really worthy of interest, except perhaps for the crostata ricotta e visciole, a tart filled with morello cherries and ricotta with an astonishingly crispy dough where the butter is replaced by mascarpone. The zuppa inglese is also a dessert from central Italy, made of layers of custard and biscuits soaked in alkermes, a red liqueur perfumed with cinnamon, vanilla and orange blossom. Finally, tiramisù, panna cotta and other cannoli, although not from Lazio, are commonly found in restaurants.

Although the Lazio cuisine offers a wide variety of vegetable and pasta recipes, meat is the central element of the region's gastronomy, whether it be cold cuts or main courses(secondo). Pork is particularly popular, and to a lesser extent beef and chicken, while cooks are brimming with originality to highlight the offal that goes into the composition of many specialities

In Roman cuisine, quinto quarto (literally "fifth quarter") is the term used to designate offal. The name has meaning in more than one way. The giblets account for about a quarter of the weight of the carcass, and it also underlines the importance of giblets in Roman cuisine. In the past, slaughterhouse workers were partially paid in kind with a share of the offal. The latter were eaten in abundance in the spring, when beef and pork offal, but also suckling lamb and kid, appeared on the menus of trattorias. Typical dishes include pajata (intestines of suckling lamb or veal), coratella (heart, lung and liver of lamb or kid, sautéed with onions) or testarelle di abbacchio (roast lamb's head)

Giblets are also used in less intimidating specialities such as susianella, a sausage made mainly of liver, pork cheeks and other normally unpopular parts, which is generously seasoned before being left to dry for between one and six months. As in the rest of the country, cold meats play a major role both as an ingredient and as an antipasti. Guanciale is essential to Lazio cuisine, religiously used in the composition of the emblematic spaghetti alla carbonara. This pork preparation contains a thick layer of fat. Seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar, herbs and spices, it is left to dry for three to four weeks. Although it is used in many recipes, it is also served as is. While pistachio mortadella comes from Bologna, mortadella di Amatrice is more like a large sausage with a thick strip of fat in the middle that forms a square pattern that is easily recognised when cut into thin slices. Sources attest to the existence of prosciutto di Amatrice since at least the 14th century. Now covered by a PGI, it must mature for at least 12 months. Finally, coppiette is probably the least known delicatessen in the region. Produced only in Castelli Romani, it looks like sticks of dried meat - usually from goats, sheep or donkeys - flavoured with fennel seeds and chilli pepper.

Among the offal secondi is coda alla vaccinara , a recipe for oxtail confit in a rich tomato wine sauce flavoured with cinnamon, cloves and garlic. Trippa alla romana are also cooked in a tomato-based sauce. Although often sold with bread as a sandwich, porchetta can also be served as a secondo. While its origins are uncertain, porchetta di Ariccia has been granted a PGI since 2011 - the whole pig is gutted before being salted and then seasoned with a mixture of rosemary, pepper and garlic, and it takes 3-6 hours to cook, depending on the animal. More delicate, the involtini alla romana are beef paupiettes garnished with ham and small vegetables cooked in a tomato sauce, while the saltimbocca is a thin veal cutlet rolled around a slice of raw ham with sage, all braised with white wine. Theabbacchio alla romana is prepared with lamb chops confit in a garlic and anchovy sauce. The pollo alla rom ana is a more country style recipe of braised chicken with caramelized peppers

To accompany so many tasty dishes, the Roman vineyards have no shortage of flavourful vintages. Lazio has been producing wine for nearly 4,000 years, which means that the region is a great place to discover new things. The territory is subdivided into 26 different DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) and 6 IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) covering every conceivable style of wine, from sparkling to white, rosé and red, including sweet, syrupy and raisin-based passito. In the area around Rome, around Lake Albano, there are hills that all offer their own wine production, including dry or sweet, golden and fruity white malvasia. But the name Castelli Romani refers to a wide variety of wines, from white to red. Frascati, Lazio's most famous white wine, made from trebbiano and malvasia, is produced on small estates north of Lake Albano. According to tradition, frascati is older than the city of Rome. The name of the wine comes from "frascate", the bushes under which hunters used to gather at night all around the city of Tiberius. It is very popular in Rome where it is considered the wine of every day. The production of red wine in Lazio is more disparate, ranging from Merlot and Sangiovese in Aprilia to the sweet red wines of Cesanese, Prenestina and Ciociaria and the vineyards of Montepulciano in Cerveteri, Cori and Velletri

Lazio has been the home of many civilizations, starting with the Etruscans, then the Romans who, from conquest to conquest, ruled over a territory that extended from Great Britain to the Persian Gulf and from Portugal to the Caspian Sea

Despite this power, the way of life of the working classes in Rome remains frugal. The diet of the early Romans consisted mainly of a cereal porridge (wheat, barley, etc.) called pulmentum, and embellished with goat cheese or vegetables, such as lettuce, leeks, cabbage, olives, beans, as well as aromatic herbs. Leavened bread appeared later, around the 3rd century BC. Garum was used as the main condiment at that time. This salted and fermented fish paste is the ancient equivalent of Vietnamese nuoc nam. The proximity of the sea allows the Romans to use salting extensively as a means of preservation. Meat is also appreciated although it is reserved for the wealthier classes. Pork, lamb, duck, but also game such as deer, wild boar, pheasant, partridge or woodcock are dishes of choice for the Roman aristocracy. The day is divided into three meals: jentaculum/breakfast, prandium/lunch and cena/dinner

If the Romans, even wealthy ones, had a rather austere lifestyle under the Republic, the expansion of the Empire towards it was introduced to Rome of more exotic customs and products from the Greek or Eastern world. Banqueting became more and more sumptuous, sometimes even decadent, and many authors of the time described this world of pleasures: the most famous remains Marcus Gavius Apicius whose posthumous collection De re coquinaria or L'Art culinaire is remembered for posterity. He described the first official recipe for foie gras, then called jecur ficatum, as well as other stranger specialities, the Romans craving pink flamingo meat whose language was apparently the height of refinement. Other authors are still known for having documented the gastronomy of ancient Rome, such as Caius Matius or Cato the Elder, to whom we owe the recipe for savillum, a kind of cheesecake with honey and ricotta. At that time, the wine, stronger than what we consume today, was often flavoured with spices, honey and especially diluted in water. The guests used to lie on benches and eat lying down