Food Tour in Rome

My family and I are in Italy...land of the delicious food! With that in mind, we decided to take a food tour in Rome to find out more from a local.

We started out with our guide, Francesca, taking us to a grocery store. Not the normal supermarket kind, though. This was an old family owned grocery store. Inside was a big counter with various cheeses and meats. There were also some shelves of wine along with some normal grocery store products. Francesca first told us about buffalo mozzarella cheese. It is made of buffalo milk (surprise!) from domestic water buffaloes in Italy. It does not last for more than a week and cannot be stored at temperatures too warm or too cold. It is often referred to as "white gold" for a reason – when I bit into it, it was juicy, a little bit chewy, and absolutely bursting with flavor. I have never tasted buffalo mozzarella so good. We also found out that there are two other kinds of mozzarella: burrata (made from mozzarella and cream) and fior di latte (made from cow's milk). What is not true mozzarella cheese is the pre-grated stuff in a grocery store bag!

Next she gave us another type of Italian cheese: pecorino. Pecorino is a hard cheese made from sheep's milk, and it has a very salty flavor. Because of the saltiness, we ate a bite of salami afterwards. The flavors worked well together.

After the grocery store we went to an old bakery. The window was filled with sweet baked goods, which turns out is what Italians eat for breakfast. But we were here for dinner, so we ate the fast food of Rome: pizza! Roman pizza is thin and has no more than three toppings on any piece (cheese is considered an ingredient, not a topping). The pizza sits on the counter and when someone wants some, it is chopped up, weighed, and sold by the slice. Roman pizza is very thin crusted, and there are two kinds: pizza roja and pizza bianca. Pizza roja only has a thin layer of sauce on its thin base. Pizza bianca has no sauce, only cheese and other toppings. Because of the thinness and small amount of toppings, the pizza has much less calories than American pizza. Both were surprisingly delicious for the lack of toppings! I must say...I never was much of a fan of thin crust pizza before Italy.

We walked over to the Jewish Ghetto, which is now only a ghetto by name – in fact, to buy a house there, it would cost around 25,000 euros per square meter, effectively keeping the population mainly Jewish. Instead of buying property, the Jews that live there pass down their property through their family. We ate at a restaurant serving Jewish-Roman food. Jewish-Roman food is not necessarily Kosher, but does differ from Roman food. Many years ago when the Jewish Ghetto was still a ghetto, the Jews' main food was the scraps and leftovers from others. Because of this, they fried much of their food to make it safe to eat. Out of the leftovers, they created foods such as fried zucchini flowers stuffed with anchovies, and a fried ball of rice mixed with tomato sauce, with a pocket of mozzarella in the center (both of which we tried). This zucchini flower is called fiori di zucca fritti. The zucchini flower had a very light flavor, which is why it was stuffed with anchovies. For me, I did not like the anchovies part of that equation – too salty and fishy tasting! Not to mention I could see tiny bones. The rice mixture is called supplí. I liked the supplí...it tasted a little like pizza!

Next we went to a restaurant and learned about pasta. One of the traditional types in Rome is the bucatini all'amatriciana. The pasta, bucatini, is a bit thicker than spaghetti (which no Italian in Italy actually eats!) and has a tiny hole down the center. The pasta was perfectly al dente – if the noodles are not overcooked, it turns out that you get only a third of the calories as when they are overcooked! The sauce is called amatriciana. It is based on tomatoes, pecorino cheese, and guanciale. Guanciale is pig's cheek. To make the sauce more creamy but not change the flavor, some of the water that the pasta was cooked in is added to the sauce. We discovered that the Italians do not cut their pasta up when eating it as it defeats the point of long noodles. Might as well just make the noodles short in the first place if they're going to be cut up! Francesca also told us that Italians do not eat bread if they have pasta or potatoes. This solved a debate in our house about when to eat bread! Also, we learned about olive oil. Italians do not consider anything but extra virgin olive oil when buying theirs. When they buy olive oil, it is usually once a year from a farmer, when it is made. Italians buy enough for the whole year – about 50 liters at 8 euros a liter. That's a lot of olive oil! Of course, they taste it before buying such a large amount as the flavors may vary year to year.

Lastly we had gelato. We have gelato almost every night in Italy, but this particular night we learned the true meaning of real Italian gelato. 'Gelato' means frozen, and thus many gelaterias feel justified in selling frozen mixtures that they call 'gelato'. It may be ice cream, which isn't bad but it's not gelato, or it may be something truly gross which may have flour mixed in to make it creamy or start from a powdered mix that the gelateria makes 'gelato' from "fresh every morning". We discovered that it is difficult to tell what is real gelato and that there is a small amount of real gelaterias in Italy compared to fake gelaterias. One good sign of real gelato is if the top of the gelato is not piled up (even though it looks pretty); the top should be more or less flat because gelato has less air in it than ice cream so whipping it into piles just creates more unnecessary work. Another sign is trying it – after a few licks you should still be able to taste it...it shouldn't leave a nasty coating in your mouth. Also, you shouldn't feel like you need a drink afterwards; it should leave you feeling refreshed (well, you might need a drink if it is so rich and delicious!). Gelato is usually fruit, nut or chocolate flavored. If gelato is made from fruit, no sugar or cream is added. The gelateria we went to was so good they didn't even offer cones, everything came in a cup. No cardboard cone was going to distract from this gelato! First we tasted the flavors to find out our favorites. I tried many delicious flavors but ended up with almond and chocolate. The almond was so intense it tasted like almond paste (but better!) and the chocolate was insanely rich. They were a great pair and the best gelato I've ever had!