Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
-
Eat carbonara
Pasta with guanciale, egg yolk, pecorino and black pepper, and nothing else. No cream: the creaminess comes from yolk beaten with cheese and starchy water off the heat.
The classic shapes are rigatoni or spaghetti. If the yolk has set into grains the pan was too hot; that is a fault, not a rustic style.
-
Try cacio e pepe
Three components only: pecorino romano, black pepper and pasta water whipped into an emulsion. The simplest and hardest dish in the city, and the test of a cook.
The pepper is toasted dry in the pan first, and half the flavour depends on it. The classic shapes are tonnarelli or spaghetti.
-
Order amatriciana
Guanciale, tomato, pecorino and a pinch of chilli on bucatini, the thick hollow spaghetti. The only one of the four Roman pastas with tomato in it.
There is no onion and no garlic in it, and that is a matter of principle. Bucatini splash, so tucking the napkin into your collar is standard behaviour.
-
Try gricia
Amatriciana without the tomato, or carbonara without the egg: guanciale, pecorino and pepper. It is regarded as the ancestor of all four and appears on menus least often.
Its absence from a menu does not mark a tourist place; plenty of good kitchens simply do not run it. The usual shapes are rigatoni or mezze maniche.
-
Eat a supplì
A fried rice ball with meat ragù and a piece of mozzarella inside that pulls into a thread when you break it. The name comes from the French for surprise, mangled by Roman pronunciation.
You buy one standing in a pizza al taglio shop before your slice. The full name is supplì al telefono, after the telephone cord of cheese.
-
Buy pizza al taglio
Pizza baked in trays, cut with scissors and sold by weight rather than by the slice. Long-fermented dough, tall and crisp: a Roman genre of its own, not Neapolitan pizza.
Point to show how big a piece you want; the price comes after weighing. The most Roman version is pizza bianca, dressed only with oil and salt.
-
Try Roman-style pizza
A round pizza on thin, crisp and almost dry dough — the opposite of the soft Neapolitan style. Baked in a wood oven and eaten with a knife and fork.
Roman pizzerias traditionally open only in the evening: the dough is set in the morning and the oven heated for dinner. The classic starter beforehand is fried courgette flowers.
-
Try artichokes in season
Two ways: alla romana, braised whole with mint and garlic, and alla giudia, deep-fried whole until it opens like a crisp flower. The season runs December to April.
Alla giudia comes from the Roman ghetto, and the best versions are still in that quarter. Artichokes on an August menu mean frozen or jarred.
-
Order saltimbocca alla romana
A thin veal escalope with a slice of prosciutto and a sage leaf, pinned with a toothpick and fried in white wine and butter. The name means it jumps into your mouth; it cooks in five minutes.
The veal is neither pounded to rags nor breaded; it should stay a whole slice. The sauce is made in the pan and spooned over.
-
Try trippa alla romana
Beef tripe braised in tomato with mint and covered in pecorino. A Testaccio classic from the quinto quarto, the offal that slaughterhouse workers were paid in.
The mint is essential and removes the offal edge. It is traditionally the Saturday dish and many trattorias still list it that way.
-
Eat a maritozzo Desserts and pastries
A soft sweet bun split and packed to bursting with whipped cream. The Roman weekend breakfast, eaten with a cappuccino and attacked from both ends at once.
The cream is whipped in the morning and barely sweetened, because the bun already is. Good ones sell out by lunchtime.
-
Get gelato artigianale Desserts and pastries
Ice cream made on the premises: pastel rather than neon colours, in covered tubs rather than piled into towers under the glass. A mountain of whipped gelato means stabilisers and an industrial base.
Pistachio should be a dull green rather than bright, and banana greyish. Look for a gelateria artigianale and check whether the flavours change with the season.
-
Try crostata di ricotta Desserts and pastries
A shortcrust tart filled with sheep's ricotta and sour cherry jam, a dessert from the Roman ghetto. Dense, not sweet by most standards, and built for coffee.
The ricotta is sheep's rather than cow's, which shows in a faintly salty note. Its neighbour in the same bakery is pizza ebraica, packed with dried fruit.
-
Have a caffè al banco Non-alcoholic drinks
An espresso drunk standing at the bar in under a minute, which is how Romans take it three times a day. At a table the same coffee costs two or three times more, and that is an official service tariff.
You pay at the till first and take the receipt to the barista. Romans do not drink cappuccino after eleven in the morning, but nobody will refuse to make you one.
-
Try grattachecca Non-alcoholic drinks
Hand-shaved ice with fruit syrup and pieces of fresh fruit, sold from kiosks along the Tiber from May to September. The Roman version of shaved ice, older than any gelato in the city.
The ice is shaved off a block rather than crushed, which is what makes the texture loose. The classic syrups are amarena cherry, lemon and coconut.
-
Drink wine from the Castelli Romani Local alcohol
White wine from the hills just south of Rome: light, cheap and made to be drunk young with local food. Osterias pour it by the carafe rather than the bottle.
Ask for vino della casa by the litre or half-litre; it is cheaper and it is what locals drink. With guanciale pastas a light red such as Cesanese works.
