| Rome has been a melting
pot for foods from other places since the Roman Legions began
collecting recipes and provisions, and, in some cases, cooks,
from the far reaches of the empire.
La cucina romana provides some of the most flavorful
foods of Italy. Memorable meals in the region of Latium begin
with arrays of antipasti that alone would make feasts: platters
of frutti di mare, anchovies, sardines, tuna, fried shrimp, prosciutto,
salame, olives, mushrooms, pickles, sun-dried tomatoes, sweet-sour
onions, peas and beans with pork, pizze, focacce, canapés,
vegetable tarts, frittate with potatoes and onions, stuffed eggplants,
peppers and tomatoes, croquettes of rice, vegetables or meats,
breads grilled and flavored with garlic and oil as bruschetta
or sliced and topped with meat and vegetable pastes or cheeses
as crostini.
Gardeners raise the tastiest of peas, zucchini and fava beans,
specialize in artichokes tender enough to eat raw, or to fry in
the style of Rome's Jewish ghetto as carciofi alla giudia. The
region's own species of rucola (rocket) and the wild ruchetta
make splendid salads, as do puntarelle, spear-like endive dressed
with raw garlic and anchovies.
The hills of northern Latium are noted for extra virgin olive
oils, protected under the DOPs of Canino and Sabina.
Roman menus feature spaghetti alla carbonara and bucatini
all'amatriciana, as well as tubes of rigatoni and penne. Fresh
pasta may be flat as lasagne, rolled as cannelloni or cut in strips
as the celebrated fettuccine al burro, often identified
with a restaurant called Alfredo. Gnocchi from potatoes or durum
wheat semolino are also popular around the region, as are polenta
and rice.
Seafood plays a role in the daily diet, with mussels, clams,
shrimp, squid, cuttlefish and palombo shark fresh from the ports
of Fiumicino and Anzio, alongside the indispensable baccalà.
Also to be found are large prawns called mazzancolle and gamberi,
sea bass called spigola, as well as imported oysters and lobsters.
Romans adore abbacchio, milk-fed lamb roasted for Easter feasts
though delicious year-round. They also eat their share of beef
and veal, whose prime cuts were traditionally reserved for the
bourgeosie and whose other parts, tripe, brains, entrails, liver,
heart, even feet and tails, went into the zestful dishes of the
common people. Pork is prized as porchetta, roasted by
butchers in the Castelli Romani and sliced warm for sandwiches
at the city's street markets. Many recipes rely on guanciale,
salt pork from the jowl, though the traditional lard has been
steadily replaced as a cooking fat by olive oil from the Sabine
hills. The rustic country bread of Genzano in the Castelli Romani
rates an IGP.
Pecorino Romano DOP prevails among cheeses. Latium also
makes the fresh buffalo milk cheese that qualifies under the Mozzarella
di Bufala Campana DOP, centered in Campania, the similar provatura
and tasty young marzolino from the milk of sheep or goats. Ricotta
may be eaten fresh or salted and dried for grating.
Rome is noted for gelato, lenten raisin buns called maritozzi,
cream-filled pastries called bignè, rum-soaked fruit and
nut cake called pan giallo and a custard cake drenched with syrupy
liqueurs known as zuppa inglese. The city's coffee bars
are famous for espresso from freshly roasted beans. Meals often
end with a glass of sweet sambuca liqueur, sipped with three coffee
beans to munch on.
White wines dominate Latium's production, whose 23 DOCs are led
by the versatile Frascati and Marino from the Castelli
Romani and the mythical Est! Est!! Est!!! from Montefiascone
to the north. Yet some of the finest wines are reds of Cerveteri,
Velletri, a trio from the Cesanese vine or unclassified bottles
based on Cabernet and Merlot.
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