On the recommendation of a local, we made our way to a fish restaurant, a simple neighborhood trattoria just outside Rome’s bustling historical center and near the imposing stone walls of the Vatican. Underneath the hand-painted mural of a mermaid, we ate rigatoni smothered in garlicky chopped squid and heaped with snowy mountains of pecorino, and plates of bitter chicories wilted in fried garlic and dried peperoncino. Whole sea bream was roasted in the wood oven naked but for a branch of flowering thyme and plated with halved Amalfi lemons. The language in the air was decidedly the native tongue of this chaotic eternal city, the sign of a true gastronomic find; the fine bottle of Falanghina running dry long before our conversation.
#italy #rome #playingtourist #seafood (at Il Bar Sotto Il Mare 2)
Heritage Culinary Artifacts