Campo Dei Fiore is surrounded by a plethora of restaurants of various quality and price, not only in the campo itself, but on the surrounding streets. Fortunato has found a great way to distinguish itself from it's many competitors. They have their pasta maker (wearing the white scarf on her head) sitting front and center, so that she can be seen plying her trade by anyone passing by. For that reason it is difficult to continue onward past their osteria located on the small street heading south toward the northwest corner of the campo. Pasta must be ordered here, however, antipasti and secondi are also offered. Besides making fresh pasta, another thing that distinguishes Fortunato from its competitors is the fact that you as the customer make your own selection from a variety of sauces.
What was a quick photo op turned into an early lunch. As we were being seated, the pasta maker walked by with a large tray of gnocchi. No second guessing, with gnocchi that fresh it had to be tried, so a menu selection was quickly made. Coda Alla Vaccinara is a Roman classic. This tomato-based sauce is made with ox tail and celery to name but a few ingredients. I had noticed that the ox tail was also available as a secondi. Perhaps that explains why there was no meat which I had fully expected to find in this sauce. This proved to be a minor disappointment, as the sauce still had the bold flavor that I had also expected.
Caccio e Pepe is another classic Roman recipe. This time it was paired with tagliatelle that had been made with a very egg yolk, rich, pasta dough. The deep, yellow color of the dough made me think that perhaps they were experimenting with saffron flavoring, but it was actually their basic dough. The recipe is very close to that of Carbonara, with the exception of the Guanciale, a salt cured, pig jowl. The recipe is composed of pecorino cheese, eggs and pepper. It is simple and simply delicious and there's no better place to try it than Rome.
| Via Dei Pellegrini |
| Rome, Lazio Italy |
No comments:
Post a Comment