Trattoria Pizzeria Dai Medici- Naples, IT

After my semester in Rome ended, I had 3 weeks until my flight home to the USA. The first one of these weeks I spent in Naples with my roommate and travel buddy, Gina. Naples tends to have a less than shining reputation for being crime ridden, dirty, and all around unsafe, but despite this it managed to be one of my favorite destinations in Italy. Why you ask? Well, for starters, it was incredibly beautiful, especially along the coastline, a somewhat unexpected treat for us.  It also proved to be a city filled with much more than just trash (though there was PLENTY of that). Naples had art, culture, history, one of the friendliest populations we came across, and most of all fantastic pizza.

Pizza in Naples is like no other. For starters you can get a full pie for one person for 3 euro, convenient for broke college students. It just so happened that the hostel Gina and I were staying at was located on the same street as some of the most famous pizza joints in town. I think it goes without saying that for 3 euro a pie I ate more than my fill of pizza.

While the famous spots, like De Matteo, had delicious product I do not count them as the best Pizza places in Naples for the fact that their pizza wasn’t good enough to make up for the lack of customer service. Granted, Italy is not known for great customer service, but a simple smile and acknowledgement of a customer’s presence is not too much to ask for no matter the location.  Most of the famous pizzerias could not seem to manage even this. There is a place that has not only excellent pizza, but also the friendliest staff. It is the Trattoria and Pizzeria Dai Medici.   

Also located in Naples’ historic center, this family owned pizzeria is refreshingly low key with only a small sign outside and a simply decorated interior. As Gina and I walked inside, we were immediately greeted by an older Italian woman who spoke little English, but did not let that stop her from making us feel incredibly welcome. Before we even sat down, she asked us if we were staying at Robby’s House B&B. Since we were, we were brought out a special treat (apparently Bobby sends Dai Medici a lot of business and this is their way of showing their appreciation). What we were brought was an appetizer of “algae del mar,” fried balls of dough with seaweed. These salty fried pillows were so simple and so delicious. They were also a uniquely Naples treat that we never saw them on another menu anywhere else in Italy.

Then it was time for the pizzas. Oh my. For starters, they were huge. They were easily the size of the Roman style pies served at Da Baffetto in Rome, only the crust of Dai Medici’s pizza was in the true Neapolitan style: thin in the center, yet thick and chewy around the edge.  

For toppings, I ordered the mixed vegetables while Gina got spicy sausage. Needless to say, we both thought our pizzas were scrumptious.   Hers came with red sauce while mine came with only cheese. The veggies on mine ended up being eggplant, artichokes, and chicory. While I was expecting they would be mixed together on the pizza, they were all separated. I liked it this way, probably because I have obsessive compulsive tendencies when it comes to arranging food on my plate and always give each food its own space, so this pizza was just my style.

While my pizza was excellent, I did wish a little that I had ordered a pizza with red sauce on it. After having already eaten red pizza for two nights before going to Dai Medici, I had wanted to switch things up a bit by ordering a white pizza, but after trying both I decided  that I like pizza better when there is red sauce. Despite this, the veggies on my pizza were so fresh and the portion was so big that I was definitely not unsatisfied when I was finished. Red sauce or no, the pizza at Trattoria and Pizzeria Dai Medici was the best I had in Naples.

Da Lucia- Rome, IT

I was lucky enough to get to share one of the best weekends ever with my incredible parents. They came to visit me in Rome and we got to spend 4 days together exploring the Coliseum, the Vatican City, the Pantheon, and the other iconic monuments throughout the city. Of course, I made sure they ate well. In addition to having gelato every day (don’t tell my dad’s doctor), we ate at several great restaurants, including the wonderful Nonna Betta in the Jewish Ghetto. My favorite spot of the weekend was a small trattoria called Da Lucia.

Da Lucia is a quaint, family owned, authentically Italian trattoria on a small side street in Trastevere. It may have taken one or two… or three tries to find it, but find it we did and just in time. We were lucky enough to snag the last open table in the tiny restaurant; all the other tables had been reserved by locals, a good sign to say the least.

My intention for the night was to give my parents a traditional Italian dining experience, antipasti through dessert, so when we were seated and given the menus we went all out. For our antipasti course we ordered anchovies and a mixed cheese plate (I realize that the cheese course would actually be served after the main course in Italy, so we were not perfectly traditional). The dishes arrived along with a basket of home baked Italian bread of the finest quality, hard and crusty on the outside while remaining soft and moist on the inside.

I cannot tell you what the different types of cheeses were, but I can tell you that we enjoyed them all. The anchovies were fresh and marinated in olive oil and lemon juice. The lemon was a good idea to balance out the saltiness of the fish, but both my dad and I agreed there was a bit too much lemon for our tastes.

For our pasta course, my parents took my suggestion and ordered dishes that are quintessentially Roman. My dad went with the pasta all’amatriciana (pasta with guanciale, tomato, and cheese) and my mom got the penne arrabiata. I went with what has become a favorite of mine, the simple spaghetti cacio e pepe (cheese and black pepper). There is not much more to say about these dishes other than they were excellently made and very satisfying. My only criticism would be that I would have liked for the cacio e pepe to have had a bit more liquid to it so the cheese would have melted more. However, I still enjoyed it a great deal.

To both our pleasure and our dismay, we moved on to the next course. I say dismay only because we were already quite full and wondering how we were going to eat any more. We managed. It helped that none of us ordered dishes that were particularly heavy. My dad got a dish of squid with peas, my mom opted for a light side of mixed vegetables, and I went with the cheese omelet, something that I have not seen offered on many Italian menus.

I was thrilled with how much my dad seemed to like his squid dish. His biggest concern was that the peas were not going to be fresh, and though it was hard to say whether they were or not, they paired with the squid perfectly. My mom’s side ended up being a mix of pickled veggies and ones marinated in olive oil. There was green cauliflower, red peppers, grilled eggplant, and olives. It was perfect for her since she felt the fullest out of us all. My omelet was pretty standard, but it almost felt foreign eating eggs. I hadn’t had any in a while. Unlike how it would have been in America, there was not an outrageous amount of cheese weighing down the dish. There was just enough so that a hint of cheese flavor came through.

Honestly, after eating 3 courses we were all so full that we should have passed on dessert. But the desserts were all on display in a case as you entered the restaurant and we saw that they had panna cotta, a dessert that none of us had yet tried. Our curiosity got the best of us and we got one order to share. I am so incredibly glad we did. Panna cotta is awesome.

It is basically a cold cream pudding served with different toppings. Ours came with a fresh mixed berry syrup. It was light and creamy with a yogurt-like texture but a flavor more similar to vanilla ice cream. Like most Italian desserts I have had in Rome, it was not too sweet, even with the added sweetness of the berries.

All in all, my parents and I had a lovely time at Da Lucia. It provided my parents with the traditional Italian meal that I was looking for them to experience. Between the warm and friendly staff, the delicious food, and the homey atmosphere, it was everything that I was hoping it would be. We left with happy hearts and the fullest of bellies… with just enough room left to get gelato on the way home.

Il Latini - Florence, IT

Since the private club that we were newly members of was all full for the rest of the weekend, my travel buddies and I went for plan B. It was a place that two of my friend’s Italian teachers had suggested to her: Il Latini.

Good sign number one was that this tiny restaurant is tucked away on an obscure back street of Florence that was not even on my trusty map. It looked classically Italian and quite adorable from the outside. When we walked in we were greeted by good sign number two: chaos, or what appeared to be chaos, anyway. As you may recall from reading about Da Baffetto, often the best Italian restaurants are filled with nonstop movement. Il Latini was filling up quickly and we were hastily shuffled into one of the small side rooms with cured meat hanging from the ceiling and were seated at the only remaining free table. The homemade crusty bread was sitting out for us, and the two liter bottle of house red wine was immediately opened.

Our waiter came over soon after and, without giving us menus, asked if we wanted antipasti. We barely got a “sure” out when he shook his head to stop us and simply said “I’ll take care of it.” Knowing that most of the antipasti we would receive would probably contain meat of some kind, we managed to wave him down again and let him know I was a vegetarian. Despite the face he made (a mix between confusion and utter disbelief), he had no problem setting me up with my very own cheese plate (I was beyond happy), and insuring that the rest of the meal featured plenty of meatless options for me as well.

We were quickly brought several antipasti. First, we got a plate of sundried tomatoes stuffed with some sort of ground meat pâtè. Next was crostini topped with a meat spread and soon after came the cured Italian sausages. Finally, we were brought the classic smoked ham plate.

When we were ready for our primi piatti (first course), our waiter made a few verbal suggestions of what to get, but we figured this was more courtesy on his part than anything else. We were going to get what he gave us, and truthfully, we were fine with that. We ended up getting 3 pasta dishes and one soup dish. Two of the pastas contained meat. The first was rotini pasta with a ragu sauce while the second was thick noodles with a red sauce and wild boar.

The vegetarian dishes were traditional homemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach and a vegetable-grain stew. The stew was the all around winner across the board (even over the meat dishes). We all liked how thick it was, and the flavors were concentrated and hearty. It was a rainy night, so the soup was a perfect comfort.

Despite the fabulous looking meat dishes and tempting vegetable plates we had seen being eaten at other tables (not to mention the reputation Florentine steak has), both our stomachs and our wallets could not handle us getting another main course. However, we did manage to force down some dessert. It was a challenge, but it simply needed to be done.

We were brought a plate with small servings of 4 different desserts. There was a traditional chocolate cake, a panna cotta, an ice cream cake (although it was more just a cake with a chilled cream filling as opposed to what we think of in the United States), and a vanilla cake mound filled with cream and chocolate. While they were all delicious, my favorite was the cream filled mound. Truthfully, the part of dessert I liked best of all was the small glass of moscato wine we were given. It was bubbly and sweet.

When we were ready to pay, the owner came over to write out our check. He was a small, old, happy Italian man will white hair and a smile that lit up the room. The waiter told him which dishes we received and he did a quick tally in his head and wrote down 100 Euro on the slip of paper. We had been hoping we would get to pay less than 30 Euro each and were happy it came to an even 25. When we left, we took a look at the menu outside and tallied up our total ourselves. The owner ended up giving us a small discount which we greatly appreciated.

Even though we did not get a special performance after our dinner like we had the previous night, our experience at Il Latini was just that: and experience. It was high energy, fast paced, and purely Italian.

Il Latini

via dei Palchetti 6/r

50123 – Firenze

http://www.illatini.com/

Chocolate, Cheese, and Buffets as You Please- Florence, IT

I have recently come to a conclusion: I love Florence. It is an absolutely beautiful city. I love that it is small enough to be easily maneuvered on foot and is filled with art, history, culture and, of course, food. In three days, I managed to have three entirely different, yet equally delicious, food experiences leaving me with a full stomach and satisfied soul as I traveled back to Rome. The first of these experiences was an artisan chocolate festival.

Let me repeat that: artisan chocolate festival. And it was exactly 1 block from my hostel. Win. La Piazza Repubblica was filled with around 20 tents of different chocolate companies offering samples of their products, showing off how each was unique in their own way, and selling chocolaty snacks to excited consumers, such as myself. I sampled some of the truffles, gourmet chocolate spreads of several varieties and flavor infused chocolate bars. The chocolate covered banana rolled in chopped peanuts was my favorite snack, although the cup of strawberries dowsed in chocolate was a close second. And, of course, the hot chocolate was fantastic. The dark chocolate kind was as thick as pudding. Needless to say, several of my meals while in Florence were topped off with a chocolate treat.

My next meal ended up being my absolutely favorite dining and overall experience in Florence. Better than chocolate!? It seems impossible, I know, but it is true. Chocolate could not quite stand up to my evening at a private (members only) club featuring a two hour, buffet style gourmet Italian meal cooked by a famous Italian chef in a restaurant/performance venue featuring a post-dinner entertainment act... all for 30 Euro.

We read about this place in my friend’s travel book and made it a must on our list of places to go. We lucked out because most nights require reservations for the dinner service, but it was not necessary the night we went. We paid the 5 Euro membership fee (which is good for a year) and the 30 Euro for the meal and performance and were told to pace ourselves (on both the food and the unlimited house wine) – yeah right.

We walked into the dining room (giddy as ever, I might add) to see an almost medieval looking room with stone pillars reaching from the wooden floors to arched ceiling under which several wooden tables were situated, surrounded by red velvet armchairs accompanied by candle light. We seated ourselves at a table on the far right side of the room close to the stage with a view of the kitchen through large glass windows. The entire dinner service we could see the food being made and we watched it get passed from the kitchen to the buffet table as the chef yelled in Italian what the dishes were. Never did we understand him, but we loved the energy created by the echoing voice of a passionate chef who clearly loved what he did.

As far as the food was concerned, it was wonderful. The first items that came out were all vegetable dishes of some kind. There was a broccoli puree, spiced carrots (served cold), roasted potatoes, an eggplant puree, and a beet and radish salad. In addition, there was a cauliflower gratin and a dish which was referred to as gnocchi, but was cut in a block instead of formed into puffs of dough. Regardless, it was fantastic.

The next dish was a “special salad” of warm chickpeas, mussels, faro and an assortment of other veggies. Then there was a whole roasted fish, which looked and tasted like a large sardine, a veggie stew with Moroccan couscous followed by mussels and broth. In addition, there were homemade rolls available with every course, and let us not forget about the wonderful house wine.

Finally came dessert: a thin rolled cookie shell with freshly whipped cream, a moist chocolate brownie, and café. Not too sweet, super rich, and unbelievably satisfying.

After the dining portion was over, the furniture was quickly moved around to have the chairs positioned in front of the stage for the performance that was to come. The acts change regularly and feature musicians, actors, poets, or any other type of entertainment you can think of. We were going to get to listen to the chef of the restaurant himself speak about food. It would have been absolutely perfect had it not all been in Italian. I could catch the general idea of what he was saying, but it took a lot of concentration to keep up with him and focusing that intensely for 90 minutes straight was difficult to do after consuming so much food. Nonetheless, I enjoyed hearing how he talked about food. The passion came through yet again and I felt happy to be a part of his club.

We ended up returning the next morning for the 7 Euro breakfast buffet. It was not quite as much food as the evening before (which was probably a good thing), but the fresh fruit, warm toast, and plethora of butter, cheese, and fruit spreads was simply perfect. I wished I could eat every meal here. We would have returned for dinner again, but they were already fully booked the rest of the nights we would be in Florence, so we were forced to eat elsewhere… To be continued.

Urbana 47- Rome, IT

The last thing I wanted to experience while abroad has, in fact, found its way to Rome: snow. That’s right, it’s been 23 years since this city has seen snow, and the year I show up looking forward to a milder and snowless winter the weather spirits drop [what Romans consider to be] snowpocolyptic amounts of the freezing precipitation 2 weekends in a row. Well, I was not going to let this stop me from enjoying an evening to myself at a restaurant from my list that I had wanted to try since I’d gotten here. So I bundled up, braced myself for the slush, and headed out to Urbana 47.

Urbana 47, named for its location on via Urbana, 47, right by the Cavour metro B stop, is by no means your traditional Italian trattoria or pizzeria. It is much more similar to the kinds of restaurants that populate Philadelphia. It was relatively small, very modern and super sleek. Although the look and feel of the restaurant was more what I was used to, the thing that got it on my list (as is always the case) was the food. Urbana 47 prides itself on “healthy cuisine,” but most importantly, the restaurant has a “zero food miles” philosophy. This means that all their ingredients come from nearby, small producers which allows them to leave a small environmental footprint and insure they are using only regional, fresh, and quality ingredients.

In addition to the a la carte option, Urbana 47 also offers 3 tasting menus for you to choose from “to make you appreciate the quality of “km 0″ local products,” as they put it. I opted for the first tasting menu: 2 savory courses and a dessert for 35 Euro.

It was after I placed my order and got fully settled in my seat that I realized how much I liked the atmosphere in the restaurant. I was seated right next to the window looking into the open kitchen (could they have sat me in a more perfect spot?) and felt cozy in the dim lighting with the mellow music playing around me. The other diners were all diverse in their ages, ethnicities, and group sizes, and I felt comfortable simply reading my book and people watching a bit.

While waiting for my appetizer, I was pleasantly surprised when the server brought over a small treat from the kitchen for me to enjoy. It was a pumpkin puree with toasted croutons of bread, super simple but incredibly satisfying.

Since Urbana’s menu was more modern and a bit more refined than the trattorias I had become familiar with, I was less certain about the items that I had ordered. There was an English version of the menu online that I had looked over, but I did not remember details from it. This made it all the more exciting to guess which dish was mine as I watched the kitchen prepare the plates. When I saw them plate this particular dish, I desperately hoped it was meant for me and was happy to find out that it was.

Two generous slices of mozzarella di bufala grilled and placed atop two piles of crispy chicory with a sweet and spicy tomato jam on the side. Oh my goooosssh. This was incredible. It was rich from the cheese which had traces of smokiness from the grill and was countered by the bitter-sharp taste of the chicory, and then it was all brought together with the sweetness of the jam which lightened the whole thing up. Perfection.

My second dish was more of a mystery to me. All I knew was that it was something with cod. I imagined it would be a filet, so you can imagine my surprise when I was brought this:

It was a cod and potato tort topped with a creamy parmesan cheese sauce. Even as I ate this I couldn’t find where the super fresh taste of cod was coming from. I didn’t care. The dish reminded me of scalloped potatoes, a favorite of mine growing up. Despite how much effort clearly went into the making of the dish, it didn’t taste overly complicated. There was a good balance between the cod, potato and cheese, and it was just enough food to satisfy my hunger.

What my dessert would be was, as well, was a mystery to me. What I was brought was quaint, simple, and chocolate. It looked promising.

I was pleased to discover that the dessert was a take on tiramisu. There was a light chocolate-coffee mousse layer on the bottom topped with a light sponge cake layer, topped with a chocolate pudding layer finished off with a bit of whipped cream and espresso beans. It was not too sweet and had more mousse than cake to it, which I liked.

Urbana 47 ended up being exactly what I needed. I was ready for a break from heaping piles of pasta (delicious as they may be) and was missing the restaurants I had grown to know so well in Philly. At Urbana 47 I was able to reconnect with a more familiar style of dining while still experiencing the classic flavors of Rome’s chicory, cod, and cheese. It was an indulgence I was glad I gave myself and a restaurant well worth facing the slush to experience.

Urbana 47

Via Urbana, 47

00184, Rome

http://www.urbana47.it/

La Pizzeria Da Baffetto- Rome, IT

When in Rome, do as the Romans do… this means eat pizza. I’m not talking about the stuff one gets at Pizza Hut or Dominos. I’m talking thin crust, wood-oven baked, oozing with the freshest mozzarella pizza. I’d even venture to say that making pizza in Italy is practically an art form and, in Rome, the Michelangelo of pizzerias is most certainly La Pizzeria Da Baffetto.

Baffetto has the reputation of serving the best Roman style pizza in the city, and it certainly lives up to the hype. Located just off of Piazza Navona, the small pizzeria always has a line of tourists and locals alike waiting to be called inside. Gina, Andrea, our Roman Friend, and I saw this to be true, despite the fact that we arrived when it was still early for dinner (only about 7:00 pm). We were able to shove our way to the front of the line (or hoard of people, to be more accurate) and get seated after only waiting a few minutes.

The restaurant looks deceivingly small from the outside with only one tiny room visible from the street. There is, however, a small dining room upstairs as well which is where we were seated. The energy in the room was high as excited patrons were herded to their seats by the practiced wait staff that quickly threw paper tablecloths down on the tables and dispersed menus throughout the room, making it clear they had done this many times before.

While the waiters were experts at getting their customers in, fed, and out, the service itself was not stellar (another reputation the pizzeria has).When we finally decided what to get, we waived down our server, who was in constant motion the entire evening, and gave him our order. We hoped that he got everything down that we wanted, for his attention seemed to be focused elsewhere while he was at our table. Oddly enough, this lack of customer service made me enjoy the dinner even more. Instead of being frustrating, I found it to be entertaining. It suited the environment we were in.

First up, as per usual, the antipasti. Andrea and Gina each got bruschetta, and I got crostini. Andrea informed us that in a place like Baffetto, fried foods, like the ones I got in the Jewish Ghetto, are actually the norm, but the toasted bread starters looked too good to pass up. And good they were. Andrea got the bruschetta mista and Gina got the prosciutto mista. They both had toasted bread with tomatoes, cannellini beans, marinated mushrooms, and olives, but Gina’s also had slices of smoked ham.

My crostini was toasted bread topped with melted mozzarella cheese and anchovies, a newfound love of mine (shocking as that may be for my parents). I loved how the saltiness of the anchovies cut through the creaminess of the cheese. It was simple and delicious.

Simple and delicious seem to be the characteristics of all the food at Baffetto, for our pizzas certainly fit the description as well. Andrea’s pizza came with mushrooms and ham, Gina’s had arugula and smoked beef, and mine came with onions and mushrooms. The waiter brought them all over at once, even though they were a good 12 inches in diameter (3 proved to be nothing for him; we later saw him carry seven pizzas at once- that takes skill).

The pizzas all had a super thin, crispy, and slightly charred crust. The crust was so thin that the only way to eat a slice with your hands was to fold it in half or else the toppings would fall off.

We finished eating just as the first seating of diners was coming to an end. Most of the people who sat down the same time we did had left and new paper table cloths were being laid down. We figured we should probably leave before rush number two so that we were not in the way (and so we did not get knocked around in the chaos). As we walked out the door, we passed the every growing line of people eager to get called in to eat at La Pizzeria Da Baffetto, and I smiled knowing that their wait would be well worth it.

La Pizzeria Da Baffetto

Via del governo vecchio, 114

00186, Rome

Phone +39 06.6861617

http://www.pizzeriabaffetto.it/default.asp

Mesob- Rome, IT

I finally tried Ethiopian cuisine for the first time… in Rome. This may seem a bit odd- Ethiopian food in Italy? But after three straight weeks of nothing but pasta, bread, and pizza, I needed a change of pace. Making the trek to the outskirts of Rome to try the food at Mesob ended up being exactly what I needed.

Now, when I say it was a trek, I am really not exaggerating. It took my roommate and me three modes of transportation to get to the address I had found. After taking the metro, wasting some time looking for the tram stop, finally finding it, then taking the tram to what was an unknown part of the city to us, we still had to walk another ten minutes. Finally, we reached our destination. And what did we find? A parking lot entrance and a convenience store that had a sign saying they were closed until mid-February.

Initiate freak out.

After about five minutes of walking up and down the street convinced the restaurant was somewhere near that we has simply missed, we realized that that was exactly the case. For when we wandered further into the parking lot next to the convenience store, we found a quaint red-orange building tucked away with windows through which we saw whicker tables scattered throughout a dining room. We had found Mesob.

We got there pretty much the second the restaurant opened (turns out it was a good thing our commute took so long) so we had our pick of tables to sit at. I immediately fell in love with our surroundings. The room was small and cozy with off-white walls accented by warm reds and purples in the curtains and paintings that hung on the walls. Gina and I were hungry from our journey and decided to order an appetizer to share, followed by our main meals, a meat dish for her and a vegetarian one for me.

Now, here’s the thing, I am not going to be able to give you much detail about the dishes we ate because I do not actually know what they all were. Most of them were pureed concoctions whose ingredients were unidentifiable (and since the menus were in Italian, my grasp of what we were eating was limited). I can, however, tell you how they tasted. (*Spoiler alert* they were all good).

Our appetizer was a simple salad with falafel and a phyllo dough pouch filled with a yogurt-like sauce with pesto for dipping. The falafel was good, although, falafels are never a favorite dish of mine (I usually find them to be too dry for my liking). I preferred the yogurt filled dough. The pesto had a punch of chili spice to it which went perfectly with the cool yogurt sauce.

When the main dishes came out, I knew it was going to be a “shemomedjamo” type of meal. My plate had six different portions of food, two of which were complete mysteries to me. One was an orange puree of some kind with unexpected spiciness. The other was a yellow concoction that was not quite as pureed as the first and had my favorite flavor out of all six dishes. Of the other things on my plate, one had eggplant, another had mushrooms, the third was carrots and cabbage, and the last contained a leafy green similar to chicory or chard (sorry, but that's about all the detail I can give).

My favorite item was definitely the injera bread that all the mixtures were laid on top of and that we used to scoop up the food. It was spongy and delicious. And best of all, I got to eat with my hands! Somehow I think doing that makes the food taste better.

Once Gina and I had reached the point of not being able to fit a single morsel more of food into our stomachs, we embarked on our long and confusing journey home (it took a couple attempts to find the correct buses and then a bit of walking on unknown streets to get back, but we found our way eventually). I don't believe it is a trek I will be making again until after the weather warms up, but one I will, nonetheless, be making again. How can I not after becoming that full on good food for only 15 Euro?

Nonna Betta- Jewish Ghetto, Rome, IT

In my pre-departure to Rome food research, I kept reading about an area of the city known as the Jewish Ghetto. It is an area just across the Tiber River from Trastevere very near where the first ever fish market of Rome was (the ruins of the marketplace still remain). The streets of the ghetto are lined with restaurants, trattorias and bakeries offering authentic kosher Roman food. This food used to be limited to fried goods, most famously artichokes and cod. However, the area has grown and changed over the decades, and along with it, the food. Now the area has a reputation for culinary feats that go beyond its fried classics. At the restaurant, Nonna Betta, I tried a bit of it all.

My friend, Jordyn, and I were greeted outside the door of the restaurant by a sweet older Italian man who led us inside and has us seated immediately. We were brought to the back room of the long narrow restaurant and were seated at a small table from which we could peak into the kitchen. Immediately, we were brought menus along with a basket of what looked like wonderful bread (I cannot say for certain, though, since we managed to resist eating it to avoid the additional charge). I was a huge fan of this menu since it featured all kosher food and only offered fish and vegetable dishes- a pescitarian’s heaven! We ended up ordering a full meal: an antipasto plate, two first courses, and two second courses. We decided to share everything so we could taste as much as possible.

The antipasto dish we ordered provided a sample of all of the antipasti offered on the menu. These were the traditional fried dishes that the Jewish Ghetto is known for. On our plate were a fried cod filet, a fried zucchini blossom, a pumpkin arancine (fried rice ball), fried mozzarella, and most importantly a fried artichoke. It was all excellent. Even through the fried breading, I could still taste the freshness of the ingredients and the distinct flavors that they all had. My favorite was the fried artichoke, a first for me. The outer leaves were crispy and could almost have been made into artichoke chips. The heart was tender and rich, but not heavy as fried food often is.

The fried artichoke was not the last first Nonna Betta served me. For my first course, I ordered gnocchi, but not your typical potato based kind. Instead, they were made with semolina flour. When the dish was placed down in front of me, I was expecting to see small puff balls of starch but instead was presented with 3 large, flattened pillows sitting in a small Dutch oven with the parmesan and ricotta cheese sauce still bubbling around them. The texture was not as smooth as traditional gnocchi is. The semolina made these gnocchi much grainier, almost polenta like. The flavor was delicate. Despite being covered in cheese, the gnocchi were not overpowered by it.

Jordyn’s first course was a spaghetti dish with artichoke and salmon roe. The fish flavor came through surprisingly strong, but not in a bad way. We both enjoyed being able to taste the roe as opposed to it being overwhelmed by the pasta.

When the second course dishes arrived, they were both still bubbling furiously in the dishes they were cooked in. I ordered the zucchini dish, which was essentially a zucchini au gratin, while Jordyn got the cod alla Nonna Betta. We both agreed that the cod dish was our favorite of the two. While the zucchini was plenty cheesy and plenty good, the cod was cooked in a sauce that was uniquely wonderful in its flavor. Despite our best efforts, we could not figure out what was in it. There was a hint of nuttiness accompanied by a subtle sweetness that paired with the cod in the most pleasant way.

For dessert, we decided to put our bets on the waiter and order his recommendations. We got two slices of ricotta cheesecake: one with a blackberry compote topping and the second with a chocolate topping. Both were served warm. Now, I am a sucker for cheesecake. It is my biggest weakness when it comes to desserts. And ricotta cheesecake was, yet again, another first for me. I ended up enjoying them immensely, especially the chocolate one, although I’ve decided I prefer other kinds of cheesecakes over the ricotta variety (The Cheesecake Guy in upstate New York still makes my favorite).

At the end of the night, Jordyn and I walked home with full stomachs and a discount card to use the next time we eat a Nonna Betta. While the meal ended up being a bit of a splurge for me (just under 45 Euro for each of us), the wait staff and food both made the experience well worth it. I would like to return and explore more of the menu (especially since there are no dietary limits to what I can order); I will just have to resist ordering so much.

Nonna Betta

Via del Portico d’Ottavia, 16 – Roma

Tel. 06 68 80 62 63

http://www.nonnabetta.it/en