Tag: cibo
The Fifth of the Four Roman Pasta Sauces
June 12, 2021 M's Adventures
Just as Roman cuisine is famous for using the "quinto quarto" (fifth quarter) of the animal, Rome famous for four pasta sauces — with one that is made from the part of the animal that no one wants to mention — the fifth quarter. Or is it the opposite?
In most restaurants, you order your pasta dish by the sauce as there are traditionally certain pastas for certain sauces. In a few, by the shape of the pasta, although most places will have already decided which pasta they are cooking that day. I find that many restaurants use the large tubular pasta as it fills the plate better. There are officially 350 shapes of pasta but many have different regional names and new shapes are being invented constantly. Italians will tell you that the pasta should fit the sauce so that the sauce sticks to the pasta. Some Romans will tell you that only certain sauces go with certain types of pasta.
A basic thing about Roman cooking. It's simple with few ingredients and use the best quality that you can afford. Also, almost no garlic or chili. The Italians are sensitive to regional names so even describing something as "like bacon" can be controversial.
Cacio e pepe spaghetti
Cacio e Pepe (catch-ee-oh-eh-peh-pa): Basically it's called "cheese and black pepper" and that's what it is. Usually a long string-like pasta like spaghetti although traditionally, tonnarelli (a rougher hand cut "square" long pasta) is used. Spaghetti means "strings." The cheese used is Roman Pecorino, the sheep's milk version similar in hardness and age to Parmesan (which comes from Parma), and pepper. One makes the sauce by using hot water that the pasta has been cooked in. There is no cream added. It's a very simple sauce.
Spaghetti alla carbonara (although the pasta may have been a slightly thicker kind).
Carbonara (cARR-boh-nar-ah): This is the one with the famous story about how the American GIs missed eggs and bacon and so this pasta sauce was made to cater to them. Not true but a nice story. This sauce involves pork jowl, guanciale, fried to bacon bits (they will tell you not to use bacon — but if that's all you have…), grated pecorino, and an egg yolk. The result is a thick golden sauce.
Tonnarelli in gricia sauce (you can see how the pasta is square).
Gricia (gree-CH-ah): Is basically carbonara without the raw egg yolk. If you like bacon bits but don't want the cloying creaminess of the carbonara, this is the one for you. It's often used with tubular pasta like rigatoni.
Tonnarelli amatriciana.
Amatriciana (ah-mah-TREE-chee-ah-na): If you like the pork jowl bacon, you like the Pecorino, but you don't like the egg yolk, and you wish they'd add some tomato sauce, then get the amatriciana. It's called that because the pork comes from Amatrice, a town in northern Lazio (the region where Rome is located, south of the famous Tuscany).
And the fifth… is hard to find these days and never on the English language version of the menu (some traditional Roman restaurants will have a printed menu in English for the foreigners and a hand written on for the locals). It's a dish called "rigatoni alla pajata" and is rigatoni with veal's intestines (or bowel, as they will say here). It's that particular part of the intestine from newborn calves who have only had milk. When the calf is slaughtered, the undigested milk is still in the intestine and it looks a bit like a creamy sausage.
None of these are my favorite pasta sauces. I like spaghetti alle vongole/spaghetti con le vongole (spaghetti with clams) and aglio e olio (garlic and oil) with chili flakes, a dish so simple that it's almost never on the menu in restaurants. Apparently, it's a drunk food that people make when they come back from being out on the town. Both of these dishes are from Naples. Many of the Italian immigrants to the United States were from Naples so the American idea of Italian food is often shaped by that. This is evident in the New York style pizza which is most like a Neopolitan pizza.
Oh, I also like penne with canned/preserved tuna or salmon. It's one of the most common things to get in a Roman cafeteria. It's easy to make and all the ingredients are already in the pantry.
food, history, restaurant, travel bacon, carbonara, cibo, cucina romana, food, guanciale, italia, italy, m's adventures, madventures, madventures.me, pasta, pork jowl, quinto. quarto, restaurants, rigatoni alla pajata, roma, roman food, rome, sauce, travel
Eating Monk's Beard
March 24, 2021 March 25, 2021 M's Adventures
In March, I saw clumps of grass being sold at the markets. I asked what it was and was told, "agretti" — in English, this vegetable is called Salsola Soda or Opposite-Leaved Saltwort (although I don't think it's a common thing to eat in English speaking countries so the name may not be so important). In Italian, the fun name is Monk's beard.
I asked the vegetable seller how to cook it and she said, to cook it in salted water for ten minutes, dress with olive oil and lemon juice, a bit of salt and pepper, and eat. Some recipes say to add garlic so I may do that. I like this recipe because I like the idea of cooking it with spaghetti so that the shapes are similar. First I tried it without any flavorings so I can see what it tastes like.
I over cooked the pasta… I was too busy taking photos!
For those who live in the U.S. and want to grow Italian vegetables, this site also provides some information on them. This vegetable is supposedly becoming more popular with chefs. Other season vegetables right now are wild asparagus and artichokes. I even saw some sunchokes, Jerusalem artichokes, at the market the other day.
While the appearance is a bit like chives, it tastes more like… grass, and has a nice slippery texture. I think this would be a very healthy vegetable and it could be fun as a dish by itself. I made it with spaghetti so that the shapes matched. Of course, I put cheese on it.
food, health, inherited wisdom, innovation/inventions/ideas, restaurant, travel agretti, barba di frate, cibo, cucina italiana, food, italia, italian food, italy, monk's beard, opposite leaved saltwort, roma, rome, salsola soda, vegan, vegetable, vegetables
Square Pizza — Culture Shock in Italy
November 19, 2020 M's Adventures
Culture shock seems like an outdated phrase from the 1980s, but then again, I find that the 1980s are still around… for example, when I was traveling in Kenya in 2012, the radio stations all played Michael Jackson's songs as if they had just come out. Now in 2020 in Italy, the down jacket is back from the 1980s. Not really back, as it never left as it is still the fashion to dress like Hans Solo in certain other Latin countries.
In a way, the down jackets remind me of the "pizza bianca" or "white pizza" that is a common food here in Rome. It's a bit shocking that the pizza is square, sold by weight, and can still be pizza — even if it has no sauce or cheese. Yes, it really can still be pizza. In a way, in its purest form if one reads the etymology of the word, pizza.
More shockers another time. I need to go get a pizza and put some cheese and ham on it, and call it a sandwich.
clothes, expat life, food, inherited wisdom, social media, travel 1980s, bread, cibo, down jacket, fashion, foccacia, food, hans solo, italia, italy, m's adventures, madventures, meal, pane, pizza, pizza bianca, puffer jacket, roma, rome