ROME CULTURAL GUIDE: EVERY DAY LIFE...

Regional Food and Traditional Dishes

As in other regions of Italy, produce and food are directly linked to the commercial activities of the country. At the beginning the typical produce were limited to legumes, vegetables, cereals, cheese and fruit. But when the commercial activities expanded to the Eastern world, new and exotic elements added to the original Roman cuisine: new types of bread due to new grains, lentils, beans, broad beans, cauliflower, cabbage, leek, fig, apples, pears and others such..

During Apicio times, being Apicio a great chef of ancient Roman times, exotic dishes were introduced in the kitchen of the rich: fresh fish, fish sauces, pigeons, duck, other birds’ eggs were cooked in different tasty ways…parrots, peacocks, honey.. which actually was the sugar of those times, because sugar wasn’t known yet…

Sauces were varied and certainly olive oil was one of the most used ingredients.

The meats included lamb and pork, beef wasn’t used much; they preferred wild boars and deer…

And today… Rome has a large variety of cheese, being the “caciotta romana” and the “pecorino romano” the most known ones. Other cheeses are goat cheese, smoked pecorino, pecorino from Amatrice, the same town from which the famous “amatriciana” sauce originated. And then there is the ricotta romana, the goat ricotta…

And as the pork has always been used in all its parts, Roman charcuterie is very good as well: like “mortadella affumicata” (smoked bologna) and sausages, prosciutto from different regions, wild boar prosciutto, the pork cheek is exquisite, for example… The pork is great as “porchetta” too.

As far as vegetables are concerned, everybody knows and appreciate: artichokes as “carciofi alla romana” or “alla giudia” (lit. “the Jewish way”); and then there are chestnuts and roasted chestnuts; lentils, hazelnuts; tasty truffles and chicory.

And fruit: strawberries!

The wines… of Montefiascone, of the Colli Etruschi, the Colli Albani, the Frascati and Velletri…

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