Roman Holiday III

When we visit Paris we always stay in a hotel on rue Didot in the 14eme arrondisement.  On our street there is a Lebanese restaurant, two Sushi restaurants, an Indian restaurant, a Dominos pizza, an Italian takeaway, and four French restaurants of various types and price ranges.  Here in Rome, there are dozens of restaurants, all Italian, all with similar menus, and all within a fairly narrow price range.  In fact, it wasn’t until yesterday near a Fendi store close to the Spanish Steps that I saw my first non-Italian restaurant – a super high end Sushi bar.

There is also a similarity to the menus that is probably born out of the classic structure of an Italian dinner. Start with antipasti (appetizer), follow with the primi course (pasta), then secondi (main), and then a dessert.  Also, don’t forget the basket of bread (at 1-2 € per person) and wine.  Every single menu is set up this way except for those who are set up this way and add pizza.  The appetizers invariably include bruschetta, some variation of buffalo mozzarella and tomato, and what Americans would call an antipasto.  The prime courses always have spaghetti carbonara, spaghetti amatriciana (same thing with tomato added), caci e pepe (pecorino cheese and black pepper), and lasagne.  Same thing with the secondi.  In other words, it’s not about creativity, it’s about how good your ingredients are and how well the chef puts them together.

 first evening here we stumbled on a gem.  Il Farchetto is right around the corner from the hotel and couldn’t be more delightful. White jacketed waiters are attentive without being intrusive (and twice recommended wines that were cheaper than my first choice and perfect for the meal).  The menu is pretty much the same as everywhere else but this is where the attention to detail comes in.

The picture at the top is a fennel and pink grapefruit salad with olives.  Nothing is cooked, but the shaved raw fennel was delicious, better than any fennel I’ve had in the states. I never would have thought about pairing grapefruit with anything but I’ll be using grapefruit and fennel when I get back home.  The olives added a bit of saltiness and a drizzle of olive oil tied it all together.

Another no-cook dish you see a lot is ham and melon.  This could easily be forgettable but if the melon is fresh and perfectly ripe and the ham is salty and the arugula (rocket) provides some texture and bitterness, it can be delicious.

Then you have something as “simple” as a Roman artichoke.  You can’t get raw artichokes cut like this in the states which creates an immediate disadvantage. The technique would be to braise an artichoke for a long time (at least 30 mins) in water, white wine, and a lot of garlic.  Remove the tough outer leaves, drizzle with olive oil and chopped parsley and serve.  It’s hard to believe that something so simple can be so good, but it is.  Great ingredients, perfectly executed.

We’ve had more elaborate meals, but it’s important to stop and notice how good simplicity can be.