While La Carbonara is the grande dame of restaurants in Campo Dei Fiori, there's a new girl in town and she's right next door. At Ristorante Campo Dei Fiore, you can get a front row seat to the street theater playing itself out on the campo while you dine. As the hostess shoos away the panhandler from the front of the restaurant, the accordion player makes his way through the restaurant across the street. Then the guitar player accompanies himself with percussion on his amplified instrument, when his wife is not tapping her tambourine. The menu here lists much better food than one could find at a dinner theater in Florida.
It is delightful to report that there are more than two salads on the menu and that they are inventive. By well established Italian standards, that means they are composed of more than lettuce or chicory, or lettuce and shredded carrots.
Their version of Caesar salad, unlike those in many European countries does not include prosciutto, bacon or even ham, but does actually contain anchovies. I've been threatening to write a comparison study on the Caesar salads of Europe, as a joke, since no two are alike and all are Caesar in name only. This one contained a reasonable facsimile of a classic Caesar dressing, along with Romaine leaves, croutons and Parmigiano cheese. It ranks as the best we have tried in Europe.
Another successful combination of ingredients made up the Spagna salad, composed of arugula, raw mushrooms, walnuts and shaved Parmigiano. As is typical for most salads in Italy, the dressing was a do it yourself affair with the ingredients of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper already on the table. I used the balsamic that was provided, but believe red wine vinegar might have made it taste even better.
Since we were trying to avoid pasta during this meal, my partner in crime ordered meatballs, polpette. They arrived at the table looking more like falafel than meatballs, but once he got through the overly fried exterior, they were just what he had expected, succulent and flavorful.
Moscardini fritti were the most playful items on the table; I found myself enabling them to dance across the plate to the chagrin of my dining companion. The English translation on the menu described them as cuttlefish, however they were actually octopus, baby octopus; could they have meant "cuddle" fish? They were rather precious looking.
Once I finished playing with my food, I noticed that they tasted like calamari, with the same texture. Since I had been looking for fried calamari, this turned out to be a very good choice with an added bonus, their entertainment factor.
Halfway through the meal, we decided we needed some bread, so we ordered a piadina or flatbread, with rosemary and a splash of olive oil. It was extraordinary and we were really happy that we tried it. The bread was on par with the best pizza bianca we have eaten. It was chewy, moist inside with a crisp exterior. The piadina had a wonderful fragrance as well as taste. Because of the dough formulation, it was more dense than pizza bianca.
| Campo Dei Fiore at Via del Pellegrino |
| Rome, Lazio Italy |
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