Quando a Roma

One weekend in Rome is not enough time to see and experience everything, but that didn't mean that we didn't try to fit in as much as possible. Between the Colosseum, Cinecittà, and Vatican City, we kept ourselves very busy and tried to fit in as many new things in one weekend as we could. For me, that also included eating as much Roman food as possible, starting with our first lunch in the city.

Wandering a short distance from our hotel, we found Trattoria Esperia and decided to give it a try since it didn't appear too pricey and it offered traditional Roman dishes. We opted to sit inside, savouring the air-conditioning on the hot summer day.

For lunch, I decided to take advantage of their special: a first dish plus a second dish for sixteen euro. For my "primi piatti" I chose rigatoni alla carbonara, which consists of rigatoni with eggs, cream, bacon and cheese.

I've had carbonara a few times, and have even tried making it once with my father, but I've never had carbonara like this. For starters, I've never had carbonara with rigatoni noodles. Usually when I order it in Toledo it is made with angel hair or spaghetti, so this was an interesting choice. I think that the rigatoni noodles worked a little better with this dish because it was easier to eat and they held onto the sauce a little better. I was a little bit shocked about the sauce. It wasn't as creamy as the carbonara's I've had before, and I couldn't taste any of the egg. This is very different from what I'm used to; in fact, one restaurant in Toledo prepares the carbonara next to the table and you get to see them adding the egg to the dish. If I hadn't read the ingredients and didn't know I was eating carbonara, I would never have known egg was supposed to be apart of the pasta.

I really like the grated cheese on top. I am a big lover of cheese and bacon, so this dish was a perfect combination of the two. The small pieces of bacon were thick and crispy, adding a nice texture to the pasta.

Interestingly, the pasta had a lot of pepper already sprinkled on top, giving the pasta a bit of an unexpected kick. While I would have preferred to add the pepper myself, I wasn't that upset over the addition.

For my "secondi piatti," I chose the Saltimbocca alla romana. This roman dish contains veal slices with ham and sage. I'm not much of a veal eater, but my father orders veal frequently when we go out to eat at Italian restaurants. I usually sneak a bite of his dish each time, expecting to like it more than I actually do. However, I really enjoyed this veal.

Saltimbocca comes from the words "saltare," meaning "to jump," and "bocca," meaning "mouth." This dish really does jump in one's mouth! The sauce on top of the veal and ham seemed to be some sort of wine reduction with sage. The sage and pepper within the reduction added to the jumping feeling in my mouth, and made the dish all that more delicious. The ham was crispy, almost like bacon, but still retained some of that fat and flavour that hams have over bacon. The veal itself was a little dry, but that was easily fixed by soaking it in the reduction.

The side of potatoes weren't all that special. I'm still not a huge fan of potatoes, and these reminded me of that. They didn't have much flavour, didn't seem cooked all the way, and were generally unpleasing. I picked at the potatoes, choosing to eat more of the veal instead to fill my stomach after finishing off the pasta.

These typical Roman dishes were delicious. While there are some things that I would have done differently, I am grateful I got to experience this Roman cuisine. I'll definitely have to find somewhere back home that serves Saltimbocca, and I'll have to remember to use rigatoni noodles next time I make carbonara!