Where to Eat in Rome, Some Suggestions

My post about a Japanese couple’s bad experience in a Rome restaurant sparked some discussion, and also led to Blog from Italy reader David suggesting a few places in Rome which serve good food at reasonable prices.

So, after writing about the bad, here is a little post based on David’s recommendations on some good places to try in Rome.  His advice is all the more valid in that it is also based on some insider knowledge, in that an Italian friend of his pointed him in the direction of some of the places to eat.

Please read on for David’s hot tips, and one from foodie Judith.

… Continue Reading

Setting Up a Restaurant in Italy

With Italy’s complex employment laws and fiddly bureaucracy setting up a restaurant and making it successful appears to be no easy task.

My other half was involved in the closure of a mixed bar stroke restaurant here in Milan and the business just was not making any real money.  Why? … Continue Reading

Have You Discovered Italian Cuisine?

Italian food is supposedly well known the world over, but the world’s knowledge of Italian cuisine is somewhat limited.  There so much wonderful cooking just waiting to be discovered in Italy, but sadly, not many people discover it.

Many people appear to be missing out on the gastronomic delights and variety Italian cuisine offers.  This is a great shame indeed.  Visitors to Italy are losing out.  Big time!  Fooducate yourself!

Whilst speaking to the restaurant owner Franco Manzi, of the Quadrifoglio Trattoria, after having taken a few photos of the interior of his charming restaurant, he recounted a little tale about two Americans who came in to eat one evening. … Continue Reading

Eat like a God in the Aligia Restaurant, Vrasi

According to my Italy expert, Gaetano Salvo, ‘si mangia da Deo’ – ‘you eat like a God’ (rough translation from Italian), or rather ‘the food is wonderful’ in the Aligia Restaurant (map link), down in Vrasi. Vrasi, by the way, is about half way between Salerno and Catanzaro in south Italy, and a little inland from a place called Diamante, as you will see if you click on the link above.

When someone like Gaetano, who has excellent taste in food and wine I might add, praises a restaurant, then it’s worth checking out.

If you find yourself in that neck of the woods, try it, and do let me know how well you ate – especially if you come out feeling all powerful.

I’ve asked Gaetano for some more information on Aligia Restaurant’s menu, and when he sends it to me, I’ll post it here.

Pizzeria Photo Gallery

It was pizza night tonight, although it was not the standard Italian type pizza, but the ‘pizza al trancio’, which is the ‘deep pan’ version of the traditionally thin pizza. There are two pizzerias near us that do this type of pizza. One is Da Giuliano which is located at the Corso Sempione end of Via Paolo Sarpi in Milan, and which has been there long enough to have become something of an institution in these parts.

Oddly enough, I’m not a great fan of the Da Giuliano deep pan pizzas. I find that they are just too heavy and I don’t like the texture of the pizza base. Luckily, there is another of these places, Da Mimmo, which is at 2 Via Alfredo Albertini. This street is a small side road that connects Paolo Sarpi with Via Canonica. Anyway, I prefer the deep pan pizza that is place does, even if, I have to say, I don’t really like the Italian deep pan pizza that much.

My other half does though, so we often find ourselves either eating there or bringing some of this substantial pizza home, as we did this evening.

The Da Mimmo pizzeria is a strange place. The thing that strikes you is that everything is very Spartan and functional. It is also a little dated and looks as though the place was last done up back in the sixties or seventies. As you walk in you see about three or four rows of long brown melamine tables, which are set up banquet style, and if you eat there, you may well find yourself sitting next to people you don’t know.

Actually, in general Italian restaurants are not intimate, and the tables are often set very close to one another. And if you are the only people in the restaurant and another group comes in, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will sit themselves down at a neighbouring table. OK, enough of the set up of Italian eateries.

What is interesting about the Da Mimmo pizzeria, and makes it worth a visit, if only for some pizza to take away, is the selection of stunning photos of desert landscapes, African people, and four by fours ascending and descending dunes which adorn the walls. This evening, as often happens, my curiosity got the better of me I asked about all the images.

It turns out that the owner of the pizzeria loves going on tours to Africa, and has been doing so for many years, hence all the photos. At the moment this gentleman is somewhere in the midst of Lybia on a ten day tour of the country apparently. The he take photos are not digital, but of the traditional film variety.

This pizzeria cum photo gallery, which is closed Sundays, is actually quite a fascinating place, and it is cheap, and popular with the locals. If you do try it out, do not forget to spend a few minutes looking at all the images.  They really are very good.

Rummo Pasta

I have discovered Rummo pasta and I like it. Why is it a cut above your run-of-the-mill Italian pasta? Well, for two reasons.

Firstly, because Rummo use good quality (Australian!) wheat, Rummo pasta has a higher than normal protein level, and secondly, because Rummo’s special slow manufacturing process creates a higher quality pasta.

Rummo's Lovely Pasta

Indeed, I have found that the pasta dishes using Rummo pasta are richer and have more body than other more everyday pastas – but, be warned, if you overcook this pasta, you will ruin it.  A boiling time is given on all packets, but you should keep testing the cooking pasta regularly, every few minutes or so, until you think it is cooked in the way you want it to be.

In practice, how long you need to keep that pasta boiling depends on the type of pasta (fusilli, farfalle, spaghetti, etc.) the quantity of water, and whether the water is boiling vigorously or not – and, of course, how you like your pasta.  From experience I’ve found that the time given on pasta packets is something of a minimum, but I’m no expert pasta preparer.  I tend to like my pasta tender, but not floppy, however I’m not too keen on pasta cooked ‘al dente’.  ‘Al dente’ means that pasta is only just cooked and still a little hard.  Many Italians prefer their pasta this way.

Note that cooking pasta ‘al dente’ is something to be done with dried, but not fresh, pasta.

Rummo Pasta is in America

Rummo’s special ‘Lenta Lavorazione’ pasta, as it is known, is available in the States, and a little bird has told me that it will soon be available in the UK too, if it is not already. Apparently Rummo pasta is distributed to Italian restaurants in the US, so if Italian-American restaurateurs give it the thumbs up, it must be OK.

If you would like to know more about the subject of ‘lenta lavorazione’, there is an article about it here.  Many thanks to Phil of moveablefeast for this link.

Try Rummo pasta! You may well like it.  As well as being great every day you feel like a pasta dish, Rummo pasta would be good for those special occasions when pasta which is a cut above the rest is called for.

Update: 7 March 2009

Where to Get Rummo Pasta in the USA

For those who live in in the USA, Blog from Italy has been contacted by one Nicholas Daragona of Doro Foods ltd, a company based in New York which sells Rummo products on-line.  Store owners in the US might also be interested to hear that Doro Foods also sell wholesale quantities of Rummo pasta too. Great news for Rummo pasta fans!  With a little luck, Rummo pasta should be coming to a store near you soon!

Visit Doro Foods ltd!

Please mention Blog from Italy if you do happen to contact Doro Foods.

Thanks! – Alex Roe – Blog from Italy’s publisher. And no, cash has not changed hands with regard to this update.