When Mario Batali tells you he likes your food blog and asks if you can meet for breakfast, your answer is obviously yes. So began Batali’s friendship with food journalist Katie Parla (he even wrote the forward to her new cookbook, Tasting Rome, out this month). We asked them both for their expert opinion on the Eternal City’s culinary pleasures.
Are there certain dishes that just taste better in Rome?
MB: Everything tastes better in Rome. A bowl of cacio e pepe at Roscioli is a thing of beauty—it can’t be replicated.
What’s the one under-the-radar Roman pasta everyone should try?
KP: Rigatoni con la pajata—intestines of suckling veal cooked in tomato sauce and tossed with pasta. It’s profoundly Roman but restaurants rarely include it on their English menu—always check the Italian menu at any restaurant.
When you want to splurge in Rome, where do you go?
MB: No restaurant does old-school luxury as well as La Pergola. I am generally averse to Michelin three-star dining experiences. There’s a stuffiness I’ve actively resisted for years. But La Pergola is different. The wood-paneled dining room, literally at the highest point in the Italian capital, harmonizes with the remarkable plates imagined by chef Heinz Beck. I dream of chef Beck’s fagotelli carbonara.
KP: I’ll go with Il Sanlorenzo. They use the freshest local seafood; their spaghetti alle vongole is unforgettable; and there’s no carbonara on the menu (which is refreshing).
What do you do when you need a break from carbonara?
KP: After 13 years in Rome, my craving for spiced and spicy food is often all-consuming. The prospects for excellent international cuisine are pretty grim, but perhaps my favorite place in town for non-Roman cuisine is Mesob in Pigneto. The injera is some of the best I have ever had and owner Kuki Tadese excels at intensely flavored wots that, unlike those at many other Ethiopian restaurants in town, aren’t watered down to please the unadventurous local palate.
Any regional dishes you wish would take off in the States?
KP: It’s hard to break into the holy pasta trinity of cacio e pepe, carbonara, and amatriciana, but I think gricia—guanciale (cured pork jowl), pecorino, and black pepper—is going to do it.
MB: More offal! We’ve embraced it, but not to the degree Romans appreciate the “fifth quarter.” There’s a lot more than just tripe and tongue—I’d love to offer heart and pancreas. Yum!
Sometimes you can't make it to Rome, and when in New York City, Katie Parla knows where to go for the next best thing. Her first stop is Marta in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood where chef Joe Tarasco bakes the signature thin crusted personal pizzas of the Italian capital garnished with Rome-inspired toppings:
And for her second stop, Parla heads to Sullivan Street Bakery in Hell's Kitchen, for a taste of some classic Roman street food—the iconic pizza rossa.
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