Our trips to Italy together have been a storybook of memorable pasta dishes.
In Rome Audrey Hepburn casts a long elegantly-gloved shadow, as Sabrina’s long distance love affair with this city began as a little girl watching Hepburn and Gregory Peck’s romance unfold in William Wyler’s ‘Roman Holiday’. When I finally took her there for the first time she was almost disappointed not to experience it in black and white (or at the very least on the back of a Vespa) and she was dismayed at how small and hemmed in the Fontana de Trevi was (Wyler’s camera angle expertly lied).
On this visit with our daughter we are staying on beautiful Campo de Fiori in a gorgeous 15th century building. Our cell-like hotel room (age before beauty certainly applies with our price budget) at least has had the effect of keeping us out and about from breakfast until way past our daughter’s bedtime every day. The city is alive with people enjoying the late spring sunshine and yesterday we wandered far and wide, starting in the Piazza Farnese with its stunning pair of ‘bathtub’ fountains where we had a wonderfully comforting meal of Bruschetta, Antipasti, Ossobuco and Tiramisu (we are still a little sleep deprived from our flight from LA). We continued on through the elliptically-shaped Piazza Navona (once upon a time a chariot race track), to the Pantheon and Raphael’s tomb. Sabrina says Rome’s ruins always make her feel melancholy, but few memento mori are more powerful and I love how blurred the physical boundaries are between ancient and modern here.
Today we have concluded beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are few cities in the world better at rewarding curious wandering without a map or guidebook. Every corner you round seems to yield a fresh surprise. Today we shopped in the Campo Fiori triangle, had the simplest and best meal of the trip across the Tiber in Trastevere- mussels, clams, lobster and pizza base with oil and garlic and soaked up more culture on the Capitoline Hill in the Palazzi Nuovo and dei Conservatori with their beautiful sculptures and the basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli with its glorious frescoes and gilded ceiling. We walked almost all day and just kept stumbling upon one beautiful surprise after another. Even the Spanish Steps, now cleverly crowded with plants to keep the crowds away, were a delight. Tomorrow we will leave with a renewed admiration for this city and a real joy that we decided to spend a few days here, instead of using it as a transit lounge for Naples and the Amalfi coast.
In springtime, Roman cuisine is mainly about the simple, elegant preparation of seasonal ingredients such as artichokes, bitter greens (puntarelle) and radicchio, but whatever time of year you go you can experience this quintessentially Roman pasta dish, Cacio e Pepe, which for us will forever conjure up happy memories of this city.
Cacio e Pepe: Serves Three
Sometimes this is served with a theatrical flourish in a ‘basket’ made of Parmesan cheese with Pecorino shavings on the linguini- and that’s how I likes to prepare it with some chopped asparagus thrown in for a little colour, contrast and crunch. Parmesan and Pecorino in one dish- what could possibly be better?
4 oz freshly grated Parmesan
12 oz dried linguini
2-3 oz grated Pecorino cheese
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
To make the Parmesan cheese baskets, heat a nonstick fry pan, then spread 3-4 tablespoons of Parmesan in the fry pan, (about 4-5″ wide). When the cheese melts and starts to brown, turn the heat off. Gently remove with a spatula and lay over an upturned bowl, until it hardens. Continue until all of the cheese is finished.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil; add a large pinch of salt and the asparagus. Cook until just done, using a strainer. Drain into a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process. In the same water return it to the boil; add the pasta, cook until al dente, then drain saving a few tablespoons of the boiling liquid. Put the hot pasta, asparagus, pepper and pecorino in a large bowl, salt to taste, then add some of the hot pasta water and toss to combine. Top the parmesan baskets with the hot pasta and asparagus. Finish with shaved parmesan cheese.
lived in Rome 1984-85 ( i was a butler for a reclusive Duke ) ... then went home to Sydney to meet a Roman to whom i have been with ever since. and of course visited there many many times ... thanks as always for the little memory
"there are few cities in the world better at rewarding curious wandering without a map or guidebook" This reminded me of the time we were wandering around Rome with our 3 young kids. We came across a small church with a large queue, which my kids happily joined. Inside, the church had not one, but 3 large Caravaggio paintings inside...a wonderful surprise!