Pasta Mia!!!

For the final entry into the culinary travels of our time in Italy I will be focusing on pasta.

Bourgo Nuovo

Spaghetti Carbonara

In addition to the pizza that Melanie had at Bourgo Nuovo I ordered a spaghetti carbonara. It was a fairly straight forward carbonara. I have to admit though it was not spectacular. Fairly straight forward with parmesan and egg. The pancetta was a little lacking. I was waiting for that bit of something extra... some smokiness from the pancetta, saltiness from the cheese. But there was none. Just a one note carbonara. I was pretty disappointed. The pasta was cooked ok, a little past al dente, but far from the overcooked noodle you generally get here. Overall a 2.5 out of 5.

Antica Osteria Da Giovanni

Fettucini pomodoro

This place was out of the way, between the Vatican and Tresevere. A little hole in the wall with paper table coverings.We ate there for lunch after visiting the Vatican while we south along the river toward the Tiber Island. We both ordered a simple plate of fettucini with a tomato sauce. Let's start with the sauce. It tasted like a fresh tomato sauce that had been cooked for a few hours. It had the usual suspects of onion, garlic, basil, and I believe thyme and oregano. Salt, pepper, and maybe a little bit of some pepperoncini. It was topped with peccorino romano.It was very simple and very, very good. The past was a good dried pasta, not fresh. That didn't really matter though. The pasta was perfectly done, with a nice seasoning from the water. It was also inexpensive, around 5-6 Euro for a plate. We also had the house wine which was very good. Overall I give it a 4 out of 5

Spaghetti  vongola

Rigatoni carbonara

Osteria Dell'Anima is located right behind Piazza Navona. It is another hidden place. We sat and ate dinner after visiting the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. I had the spaghetti vongola. That's spaghetti with clams. And that was about all that was in it. Nicely cooked spaghetti and tender clams, topped with parsley. The sauce tasted like clam liquor (the water from inside the clam) or possibly bottled clam juice, and pasta water. Over all the dish was very intense. The sauce tasted of clam amplified by 10. It was almost overwhelming. And it made the actual clams taste a little boring. If they could have married the taste of the clam with the sauce it would have been excellent. The pasta was a dried pasta and was cooked nicely and had a good flavor to it. Overall it was a pretty good dish. The rigatoni carbonara was pretty good. It was nice to see the carbonara on something other than spaghetti. The carbonara was nice and creamy and flavorful. The pancetta added a nice smokiness to the dish while the parmesan added a nice salty note to the dish. The rigatoni had a nice firm texture to it. A very good meal. 3.5 out of 5

L'Archetto

Bruschetta with artichokes

Lobster Spaghetti

Spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce

Once again another restaurant a little bit off the beaten path. This one specialized in spaghetti with over 100 different spaghetti dishes. We started off with a bruschetta with artichokes on top. It was very good. It had a topping of cooked down artichokes that was somewhat creamy that sat on top of mozzarella and toast. It had a very good artichoke taste and the cheese and bread were also good quality. I had the lobster spaghetti. The pasta was a really good dried pasta that was cooked perfectly. It was in a lobster cream sauce. The lobster was very delicate and very sweet. It was good lobster. There was also some parmesan in the sauce. It was a very good pasta dish. Melanie had a spaghetti with a spicy tomato sauce. The sauce consisted of fresh tomato, very good pancetta, parmesan, onion, garlic, basil crushed red pepper. Everything worked well together but the pancetta was the star. It had a nice heat to it, and a freshness from the fresh tomato and basil. Overall it was very, very good. 4 out of 5

Trattoria Abruzzese

Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Spaghetti Carbonara

Veal Ravioli in meat sauce

Osso Buco con fungi

Chicken with sage

Tiramisu

Trattoria Abruzzese is a little restaurant off the beaten path that specializes in local Roman and Abruzzese dishes, as well as some other regional Italian dishes. We had to stop and try this restaurant as Melanie's grandfather came to the USA from Abruzzo, the region directly east of Lazio, where Rome is located. We ate here on our last day in Rome. To start Melanie ordered the spaghetti carbonara. Let's start with the pasta. Once again a high quality dried pasta. It was cooked perfectly al dente and seasoned well. The sauce was a classic carbonara of egg, milk/cream, pancetta and parmesan. The pancetta was the standout of the carbonara. It was thick, salty, had a nice fattiness to it, and just delicious. The sauce was well seasoned with black pepper. Everything was in balance. By far this was the best carbonara we had in Rome. I started with the classic Abruzzese dish of bucatini all'Amatriciana. The bucatini was outstanding and perfectly al dente. The sauce seemed to be a fresh, homemade long cooked tomato based sauce with onion, garlic, crushed red pepper, guanciale (a delicious cured pig jowl), and pecorino romano cheese. It was absolutely delicious. All the ingredients worked well together, the red pepper adding spice, the guanciale adding smoke and salt, and the onion and garlic adding a sweetness. There was only one problem... I found a bug in my dish. I was so disappointed as it was so good up to that point. To his credit, the waiter looked very disappointed and took my plate back and started yelling at the chef. He came back out and offered another dish on the house and I agreed. He suggested the ravioli filled with veal and in a meat sauce. It was very good. The filling was very mild being veal but it was also very flavorful. The meat sauce was "like mom makes" as Melanie put it. It was a very good substitute for the original. The second dish for Melanie was a simple chicken with sage. The chicken breast was pounded thin and sautéed in a sage infused oil with some fresh sage. It was also seasoned with salt and finished with a little butter. It was very good for being so simple. The chicken was cooked beautifully so it was moist and not dry at all. The sage flavor was prominent but didn't overpower any of the other flavors in the dish. I had osso bucco con funghi. It is a veal shank with the bone in so that the marrow roasts while the meat cooks. The meat was so tasty. It also had a nice consistency. The problem with veal is that sometimes it is almost too tender. It was smothered in a sauce of tomato and mushroom. I was a little disappointed in the sauce as the mushrooms were either canned or jarred, not fresh. The sauce base was like the same for the bucatini. The marrow was very good too. We finished with tiramisu and it was a fantastic rendition of the classic dessert. Overall pretty good. The obvious downside to the meal was the finding the bug. While that cannot be overlooked (and I do have to dock a little bit from the rating) the response to it was great and the food was very good, classic Italian fare. Perhaps the best food outside of La Pergola. 4 out of 5