As the capital of Italy, Rome attracts people from all over the country. Many of those people are hungry for familiar food from home, so small restaurants pop up all over the city, offering food from the different regions of Italy. This place is one such restaurant, specializing in Calabrian classic recipes that usually rank high on anyone's spiciness scale. They are also reviewed favorably for their pizza, but we didn't order any. After seeing so many pass by, I would have to classify Acchiappafantasmi (Ghostbusters) a pizzeria as well as an osteria.
One tipoff to Calabrian food is the use of hot, red peppers; another is 'Nduja, a soft spreadable sausage with a distinctive red chili pepper taste and the heat that goes along with it. The bruschetta pictured above is simply toasted rustic bread with 'Nduja. This sausage is rarely seen in the U.S. So it has become a habit to order it when we are able.
Although caponata is not a Calabrian recipe, it was well executed and the addition of potatoes and fresh basil gave it a unique spin. Serving it hot was also something new to me, but perfectly acceptable. Since it is porcini season, the menu included an appetizer made of porcini and black truffle with more of that buttery tasting olive oil. It was served over a crust of some sort. It was unidentifiable, but necessary to hold the dish together. It was so good we went back the next evening for more along with another 'Nduja Bruschetta.
On our first visit, the house presented us with fried anchovy fillets. We tried ordering more on our second visit, but it was on a Sunday and they had none. That lead me to believe that they only serve it fresh on days when the fish markets are open. On the second visit, our waitress presented us with polpette, oddly unfamiliar, because they were unlike any meatballs we have ever tried before. They were flattened and made with breadcrumbs and perhaps a small amount of 'Nduya, They were little tasty morsels, no matter what ingredients they used; especially while drinking the red beer on tap.
While I failed to write down the name of the pasta, it can easily be described. The menu called it "dark" pasta, but that seems much more ambiguous than whole wheat. It was dressed simply with olive oil, garlic, and very fine breadcrumbs that had been toasted. The olive oil had a very buttery flavor which is not unusual in Southern Italian produced olive oils. Good on its own merit, this dish greatly improved with the grated cheese that was brought to the table. It was not the usual pecorino used throughout Rome, nor was it a Parmigiano as it lacked the nutty flavor. It is also unlikely that it would be Asiago, which is a Northern Italian cheese. The mouth feel was creamier than most hard cheese used for grating over pasta.
For someone who likes 'Nduja, it was easy to order the special that consisted of Strozzapreti dressed in a tomato sauce flavored with this distinctive tasting sausage. It met our expectations and was a good choice.
Rarely does one see a large selection of desserts, or at least atypical desserts, on an Italian menu. It took quite awhile to decide, so it seemed a good idea to try the Misti Mega, a tasting of five of their desserts. The first was a bread pudding bathed in an orange flavored fruit sauce, then came a strudel. Next up was a tiramisu with chocolate dominating the coffee flavor; it may be the best I've tried. A scoop of vanilla gelato sat front and center on the plate, but paled in comparison to my favorite of the five items which was the amaretti mousse. Another simple execution, the mousse seemed to be made entirely of crushed amaretti cookies and whipped cream, however I suspect that it was more complicated than that.
| Via dei Cappellari, 66 |
| Rome, Italy 00186 |
| +39 06 687 3462 |
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