Rome, Italy - Day 1 Visited 3/13/2013

Gusto - Piazza Augusto Imperatore, 9  00186 Rome, Italy - 4 Forks

Ahhhhhh, Italy.  It is quite possibly one of the most amazing countries in the world from a food standpoint.  There are so many amazing options that even the "worst" meal is still 100% better than most meals anywhere else.  The freshness and quality of the ingredients are mind blowing and any visit to Italy is truly a culinary treat.   Of course the 3 must eats of any trip to Italy are pasta, pizza and gelato.  I started my trip with a trip to Gusto for a light snack.  We actually ended up at Gusto primarily because it was the only thing open near our hotel that was serving hot food.  Many restaurants in Rome shut down after 3pm and don't open up again until dinner time.  When we walked into Gusto they told us that the only thing they had available was pizza, which was totally fine because none of us were really looking for a heavy pasta meal and because we knew we were going to eat a bigger dinner later.  I opted for the prosciutto and mushroom pizza and the girls split a white pizza and a sausage/mushroom pizza.  This might go without saying but in a sit down restaurant like this, even though it's casual, you can't order pizza by the slice.  It's all personal sized pizzas.  The pizzas came out in about 5 minutes and you'd think that might indicate that it wouldn't be that good.  But it was actually delicious.  The crust was thin but not too thin that it couldn't firmly hold on to all the sauce and ingredients.  The mushroom was fresh and not of the canned variety that you often see in NYC pizzas and the 2 thinly shaved slices of prosciutto was a nice light touch to the pizza.  Even though I wasn't super hungry, I found myself eating almost the entire thing because it was that good.  I tried the white pizza and found it to be light and delicious despite not having any sauce.  While I still think that a place like Roberta's in Brooklyn still offers a better pizza, the pizza here is a solid choice and was just what we needed right off the plane.  It's definitely not fancy nor is the kind of place that would have a cult following like a Grimaldi in NYC but it's a nice introduction to pizza in Italy.  Total bill:  roughly 10 euros per person.

Photo Credit:  tamarindandthyme.wordpress.com

Enoteca Ferrara  Piazza Trilussa 41, 00153 Roma - 5 Forks

Entoeca Ferrara is located in the Trastevere neighborhood of Italy which is across the river and is a more local, less touristy part of Rome.  It was by far my favorite neighborhood and it was so quaint and lovely.  It's what you imagine when you think of classical beautiful Rome neighborhood.  It is surrounded by old cobble stone streets and old fresco type buildings.  You could spend hours just walking around and not get tired of it.  We came to Enoteca Ferrara based on a recommendation from one of our friends.  The outside of the restaurant looks old and dumpy but when you walk inside it's this enormous space that goes on forever.  We were seated in the back and the waitress could not have been sweeter or nicer.  She spoke perfect English and walked us through the menu in meticulous detail.  There were so many options that we all kind of decided to just order for ourselves.  

We started off the meal with an amuse bouche of fresh bread and fresh fish which I thought was clean and a great way to start off the meal.  

For an appetizer, I got an amazing dish of fried artichoke, cod in tempura and fried anchovy.  Although everything was "fried", it didn't taste oily or unhealthy.  The crispiness of the batter just gave the food texture while I could still taste the freshness of the actual ingredients of the dish.  I usually don't love artichokes because I find them hard to eat but the artichoke here were amazing and I ate the entire 'choke, steams and leaf.  The cod was light and not too fishy and strangely enough the anchovy was also fairly mild as far as anchovies go. 

For my main entree, I got the squid ink risotto with fresh crab meat.  I am a huge sucker for any pasta dish with squid ink even though it totally stains your mouth and teeth.  I absolutely do not recommend a squid ink dish for anyone on a date.  Luckily I was among friends here.  But I also was drawn to this dish because the waitress told us it was their special for the night and there was only 1 left!  Nothing like the threat of low supply to get me going.  Despite being a completely black looking dish, the taste was amazingly clean and the lumps of crab (it actually looked like lobster meat) made the dish super luxurious.   Although the actual risotto was a bit thin on its own, the combination with the squid ink and crab made it a very filling dish.  I had a hard time actually finishing the entire dish but I was determined to not leave a bite behind.  I should note that by this time, it was close to 11pm, so many of us were hitting our wall but that didn't stop us from ordering 3 different desserts.  We ordered a lemon tart, tiramisu, and the chocolate tasting plate.  In true Italian fashion, they were all decadent and amazing.  They all tasted exactly as they should:  the lemon tart was sour and super tart, the tiramisu was chocolately and creamy and well, I didn't try the chocolate plate because I just didn't have any room of it.  The restaurant also had a fantastic wine list that literally was like a 100 page book and we just had the waitress pick a lovely sparkling wine to start and a great medium bodied red for the dinner.  This was the fancy meal in an adorable Italian local joint that you dream of.  I don't think I saw a single tourist while I was there which is also a big plus in my book.  The meal was definitely more on the expensive side for Italy (roughly 60 euros a person or almost $80 USD) and considered a fancy place despite the mom and pop exterior.  But if there's any neighborhood to check out while you're in Rome, it's definitely the Trastvere area and you'll find any number of wonderful neighborhood gems even if you somehow don't manage to make it here.