Vaunted as the best carbonara in Rome, this was the first good carbonara I ate here. Beautifully presented with crispy bacon shards placed on top and swirled throughout the spaghetti, this carbonara is neither too heavy, nor too light, neither too rich, nor too eggy. A little bit goldilocks, this carbonara is just right. The spaghetti is cooked al dente, at first it might seem too much so, but they know what they are doing. Booking is essential.
Via Petrarca, 13. Esquilino area.Tel: 06 772 00111trattoriadadanilo.it
Da Enzo
Busy and bustling you couldn’t get a more Roman trattoria. The service is brisk but fun, “Why are you in Rome? English teachers? Can we have lessons?” The last time I went, we were early enough and lucky enough to get a table without a reservation, and by the time we left the queue outside was enormous. Another rigatoni alla carbonara, this pasta dish is cheesy and peppery with the eggy sauce left at the bottom to mix in yourself. Crunchy strips of salty guanciale (just how I like them) completed the dolce/salato, or sweet and savoury, effect. Yum!
Via dei Vascellari, 29. TrastevereTel: 06 581 2260daenzoal29.com
Da Sergio
Recommended by my friend Silvia as her especial favourite, Da Sergio is a smallish trattoria hidden away in the side streets around Campo dei Fiori. For those of you who like your food a little more on the rustic side, this is the sort of carbonara for you. Homely and rich with less attention paid to the presentation and more focus on the flavours. Maybe the pasta sauce isn’t quite as silky smooth as some of the others, maybe the spaghetti is not so al dente, but overall a carbonara here is a dish that tastes of home.
Vicolo delle Grotte, 27. Campo dei Fiori area.Tel: 06 686 4293
Flavio al Velavevodetto
Rigatoni alla Carbonara is served in this Testaccio institution. Generous strips of crispy bacon in a seemingly too bright yellow sauce that reflects the quality of the eggs. With a good balance of flavours, this carbonara was voted the 2nd best in the city, and the best pasta of the day by my fellow diners. Don’t worry about the big portion size in the photograph: it was taken of a large communal bowl!
Via di Monte Testaccio, 97. TestaccioTel: 06 574 6841flavioalvelavevodetto.it
L’Arcangelo
The food here is something finer and offers a little more than the average trattoria. However, for their carbonara they stick with tradition. The rigatoni are cooked to perfection and slicked in a silky, glossy sauce. Italian friends who dined with me agreed that this was the real thing. So good, none could possibly go to waste; one friend even fare la scarpetta – wiped his plate clean with bread (literally, “do the little shoes”). What better endorsement could there be?
Via Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli, 59. PratiTel: 06 321 0992
A POEM to The ARTICHOKE by PABLO NERUDAODE to The ARTICHOKE
The artichoke
With a tender heart
Dressed up like a warrior,
Standing at attention, it built
A small helmet
Under its scales
It remained
Unshakeable,
By its side
The crazy vegetables
Uncurled
Their tendrills and leaf-crowns,
Throbbing bulbs,
In the sub-soil
The carrot
With its red mustaches
Was sleeping,
The grapevine
Hung out to dry its branches
Through which the wine will rise,
The cabbage
Dedicated itself
To trying on skirts,
The oregano
To perfuming the world,
And the sweet
Artichoke
There in the garden,
Dressed like a warrior,
Burnished
Like a proud
Pomegrante.
And one day
Side by side
In big wicker baskets
Walking through the market
To realize their dream
The artichoke army
In formation.
Never was it so military
Like on parade.
The men
In their white shirts
Among the vegetables
Were
The Marshals
Of the artichokes
Lines in close order
Command voices,
And the bang
Of a falling box.
But
Then
Maria
Comes
With her basket
She chooses
An artichoke,
She’s not afraid of it.
She examines it, she observes it
Up against the light like it was an egg,
She buys it,
She mixes it up
In her handbag
With a pair of shoes
With a cabbage head and a
Bottle
Of vinegar
Until
She enters the kitchen
And submerges it in a pot.
Thus ends
In peace
This career
Of the armed vegetable
Which is called an artichoke,
Then
Scale by scale,
We strip off
The delicacy
And eat
The peaceful mush
Of its green heart.
Thanks to Emiko and Marco for bringing this to my attention.
If you’re in the southern hemisphere get to the markets quickly before the spring ends and some crucial ingredients disappear. This dish is a classic Sicilian plate originating in the west of Sicily. Late in the artichoke season throughout Italy, you will find fave beans being sold right next to artichokes, so it’s inevitable that they will find themselves in some recipes together. The further south you make your way in Italy you will see an increasing abundance of both artichokes and fave beans. The dish photographed above is from Trattoria Piccolo Napoli in Palermo A Slowfood listed restaurant specializing in seafood with a generous offering of vegetable antipasti and side dishes.
You may know fave beans as broad beans where you come from. Once they are removed from their pods they need to have their skins removed. (This is not absolutely essential and certainly wasn’t done in the past when every little morsel counted.) The easiest way to remove the skin from each bean is to toss them into boiling water for half a minute. Remove and refresh under cold water. You will notice the skin wrinkle and lift off the bean, which then can be easily removed with a knife or your fingers. You can also make this with dried fave beans which will need soaking overnight. It’s not the same as the fresh experience but the flavor is unmistakable. It’s also ok to use frozen peas but remember to halve the weight indicated in this recipe.
Definition : "Gabagool" is slang for "Capicola." It is not a mispronunciation, but is instead in Napolitan dialect, which is what the Sopranos and many Italian-Americans use. The rule in this dialect is to chop off ending vowels and to voice unvoiced consonants.Ricotta-"rigot"
2. Manicotti-"manigot ... Gabagool= Capicola Ham. "My wife sends me here to shop because they got good Gabagool." 3. Gabagool - The Sicilian pronunciation for the spicy deli ham "Capicola". "Do you want Provologne on your Gobagool sandwich?"
4. Gabagool - The Americanized version of the Italian word "Capicola" made popular by Tony Soprano and other ignorant 2nd & 3rd generation Italo-Americans who have forgotten how to speak Italian properly. Capicola is an Italian deli meat similar to ham or Salami.
