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The Eats of Rome - Traditional Italian Food in Rome
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Mar 24, 2025
Heading to Rome, Italy and not sure what to eat? Well you can eat very well in Rome and here we give you some of the traditional favorite foods of Rome and the Romans. Filmed in Rome, Italy Copyright Mark Wolters 2023 #rome #eatsofrome #italianfood Learn how to plan your travels like we do with our Travel Planning 101 Course: https://www.brighttrip.com/woltersworld Visit Our Amazon Store for Drinkware, cookingware, travel gear, and other necessities of life. http://www.amazon.com/shop/woltersworld Follow Jocelyn on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jocelynwoltersworld Follow Simply Jocelyn on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Simply-Jocelyn-A-Globally-Inspired-Life-100312851709273/ Follow Our Shorts Channel for quick travel tips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmSIWRrLCcqamLlTEEBLFLA
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hey, I'm Jocelyn and these are the eats of Rome because I'm in Rome and you know what
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I'm freaking hungry. I'm eating anything but gelato all day. And so yeah, I should probably put gelato at the top of the list
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And I do want to say when you're getting gelato, it's not just a Roman thing. Obviously, it's all over Italy, but find yourself a really good gelateria
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not just like one of those little kiosks or something. There's no reason to spend two euros on something that you could get in the grocery store
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when you can get like really great handmade from the house kind of gelato
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Get that. Don't get the other stuff that's like pre-made in a factory somewhere
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So one of my favorite things in Rome, well, it's really two things
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Carciofi, it's artichokes. There are two different kinds of artichokes that are like really indicative of Roman food culture
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One of those carciofi that I really love is carciofi romana. And it's just slow-cooked artichokes
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until they're really, really just buttery and tender and, oh my gosh, really good stuff
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You're going to find that more like spring, early summertime when artichokes are like blooming a little bit more
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You can probably get it other times of the year. I mean, artichokes are out and about all over the place
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But the one thing that I think you need to get when you're here also is carciofi giuliana
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And it's the Jewish artichoke. Jewish food cultures have really left their mark on Roman food
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And one that to me is just the best is the Jewish artichoke
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And it's basically just a fried artichoke. But that sounds so plain
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And it's so much more than that. It's just light and crispy and just delectable with so much flavor
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So get yourself one of those. Also, pizza. I mean, we're in Italy, so pizza everywhere, right
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but Roman pizza is really thin and crispy and it tastes really great and the reason it tastes so
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great is because of the water here. The other thing is flour. Flour is really important all
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over the place and flours are very regional across the world but here like the big thing
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is the water in that pizza dough and it just it brings out so much. So another one is cacio e pepe
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Cacio e pepe is basically like thin spaghetti noodles not quite as big as you used to but not angel hair And it just a really simple spaghetti dish served with black pepper and cheese The cheese although you going to think it Parmesan it not
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Parmesan. It's Pecorino Romano. And we can talk about that later, but that's the cheese you're
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going to get here. Don't be asking from Parmesan, y'all. Another great pasta dish that is just
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totally indicative of Roman food is carbonara. It's going to come, you know, it's like eggs and
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cheese again you're gonna get that pecorino romano and guanciale you're not gonna get like
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all these different kinds of meats and bacons and whatever you're getting guanciale which is
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one of my favorite porcs of it's just so good um you're gonna love it i promise but anyway expect
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that don't expect like bacon bacon don't expect the pancetta or anything like that you're gonna
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to get it with guanciale and you'll be very happy. To go along with that is a matriciana
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and it's a lot like carbonara, but it's not like carbonara. It's kind of like carbonara with some
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tomatoes in there. It's definitely got the guanciale and the pecorino, but you might find it on
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different pastas. You're not always going to have it in like a spaghetti kind of pasta. You might
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get it on a different kind of noodle, but it's a really great thing and just adds a little more
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vibrancy to that, you know, because carbonara can be very rich and very, very filling. So when you
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get it with a little bit of tomato, that acid sort of bites some of that richness and makes it a
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little more approachable. So one of my favorite foods when I come to Rome, if I'm really just
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needing a meat day and I need a meat dish, is saltambuca. Saltambuca actually like literally
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translates to jump in mouth and absolutely it can jump in my mouth any day because it's that good
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it's veal medallions and they have been rolled with sage and prosciutto and that sage just
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the two really go well together but the prosciutto adds like a little bit of fat and a little bit of
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salt and seriously jump in my mouth just just do it another one is bruschetta please don't say
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bruschetta it's bruschetta bruschetta is very simply an antipasto and it's just toasted bread
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that's been rubbed with garlic garlic bread doesn't actually exist in Italy
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like we think it does bruschetta is about as close as you get it just rubbed over the top and then drizzled with olive oil sometimes you find it with tomatoes so it say al pomodoro or something
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on that line you'll find other things too but very simply it's just toasted bread with a little bit
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of olive oil and a little bit of garlic rubbed on top so basically every town in italy i think has
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its own pasta and rome's is bucatini bucatini is a lot like a thicker spaghetti noodle but it's got
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this tiny little hole that goes all the way through it, which, by the way, if you're at home
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and you're making, you're boiling, it kind of is great because it helps boil a little bit faster
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in my opinion. It's also got a little bit more of like of a meaty texture because of that hole
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like when you bite through it. If it's al dente, it's got a little bit more mouthfeel, if you will
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One of the ways you'll find it often is a la gricia, and that's going to be with pecorino
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and black pepper and guanciale because everything's better with guanciale. Another great starter is suple. Suple is a lot like arancini that comes from Sicily, these fried balls of rice, yeah
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But this one, in my opinion, is better because there's tomato sauce and cheese because cheese, why not
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Anyway, these rice balls are really great. They're actually quite filling. So if you're around town and you just need like a little snack in the middle of the day
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It's a really great idea to just grab one of these rice balls and it fills you up for quite a while
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My kids really love them. They're like a great snack for children
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Okay, so it's in lots of things. We're going to talk about Pecorino Romano cheese
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It is the substitute for what we would think of as parmigiana
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It's kind of a dry, white cheese, crumbly, like little bits all over everything
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Kind of salty. Not as salty, in my opinion, as parmigiana usually
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But you're going to find it on everything, and it's the go-to for topping all pastas in Rome
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Okay, if you're here in the spring, what you have to get is fave a guanciale
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So it's broad beans, and that's what's dictating the spring part. You can only get these beans in the spring
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I mean, maybe you can get them other times, but you don't want to get them other times because they're peak performance at the springtime
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You want that. And they with guanciale and you know I just telling you Corn jelly is like my jam So anyway these broad beans are really great and I got another thing that is best in spring So Fiori de Zucca is kind of you can find more and fresher
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varieties, usually in the spring and early summer, but you can kind of get it most of the year. I
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mean, shoot, I've gotten it in November. I'm not going to say it was as good in November as it was
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in April, but I could get it. Anyway, it's zucchini flour that is stuffed with cheese and sometimes
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with sardines just depends on on where you're getting it um and who's making it and then it's
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lightly battered and fried I'm gonna say this I've had it in in like a tempura batter and that to me
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is the best sometimes they're like a little bit thicker breading and stuff and then other times
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there was once I got it I swear it was like almost like cornmeal and it just overtook you know it was
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just too overpowering for that delicate flower and this soft, light cheese inside
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So try to get that if you're here in the spring and early summer
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And actually, it's the end of June, and I got a couple of really good ones so far this trip
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So last but not least, but probably the most important in Rome is the water
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because that water has been running fresh and cold for centuries. Check that. Millennia. Really, truly
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when you're here and it's hot as Hades in the middle of summer and I promise you it will be
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take your bottle and instead of throwing away and you know getting rid of a bottle that's going into
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a landfill you get to reuse your bottles here because there's fresh clean cool water all over
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the city in these great water bubble fountains they're everywhere it's not necessarily you're
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not getting it from Trevi Fountain let's let's just make that clear but there are water fountains
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all over town. It's also great when it's really hot. I will walk up, just stick my hands under
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there and put water all over my chest and my neck and my arms just to cool myself down
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But that water is sweet and it is clean and you can absolutely and should absolutely drink the
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water here in Rome because you know what? The Caesars did, all the popes did, still are. Let's
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do it ourselves. Anyway, those are my eats of Rome. I know there's a lot more. It's probably
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like five or six off the top of my head I could name but this this video is gonna
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be stupid long so if you have favorites from Rome put those things down in the
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comments section below and let's share our knowledge see you later ciao
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