Easy Italian Recipes

Capital Fare

The food of Lazio is a culinary bridge between Umbria and Tuscany to the north and Campania to the south: hearty cooking of home and farm that has centered, cince the days of ancient Rome, around lamb, pork, bread, cheese, seasonal vegetables, and olive oil, with fish from Lake Bolsena and seafood from the Tyrrhenian Sea added to the mix. The cooking of the capita!, much of which developed in trattorias, osterie (neighborhood eateries), and restaurants, is a cuisine in its own right. Roman food is bold, flavorful, and resourceful, making the most of every ingredient, from variety meats and vegetables (especially artichokes and greens) to dried pasta, including spaghetti and bucatini.

Culinary Signature:

Variety Meats In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, workers in the slaughterhouses of Rome's Testaccio district would be given, as part of their pay, the parts left over after carcasses were quartered. These parts became known as il quinto quarto, the fifth quarter. Neighborhood trattorias and home cooks devised all kinds of inventive uses for them, many of which have become classic Roman specialties, from oxtails and sweetbreads to pajata (milk-fed calf or lamb intestines, stili filled with coagulated milk) and coratella (heart, liver, and lungs cooked together).

Regional Specialties

Guanciale salt-cured, air-dried pork jowl, used like pancetta

Pasta all'amatriciana sauce of tomatoes and guanciale or pancetta, tossed with bucatini

Tonnarelli cacio e pepe sauce of pecorino and black pepper with square-cut spaghetti Spaghetti alla carbonara spaghetti with eggs, pecorino romano cheese, guanciale or pancetta, and pepper

Gnocchi alla romana disk-shaped dumplings made with semolina flour

Abbacchio milk-fed lamb, often served roasted or stewed

Saltimbocca veal cutlets, layered with sage and prosciutto

Coda alla vaccinara braised oxtails

Artichokes tender local specimens are prepared in a variety of ways, including alla romana (braised) and alla giudia (fried)
Puntarelle type of chicory with long, jagged, arrow-shaped leaves, served as a salad with a dressing of anchovies, garlic, and olive oil

photo: Artichokes are the signature vegetable of Rome, where they liven up the table in winter and spring. They are most often fried or braised, but also star in frittatas and pasta dishes.