Food Destinations: When in Rome...You should eat here.

As many of you know, I spent a good portion of the summer away from my beloved red rocks and mountains of Utah.  I was fortunate enough to spend five days in and around one of the world's great cities: ROME!!!

Rome really is an astounding city that everyone should visit at least once.  Alongside these famous sites,

there is one of the largest aglomerations of great food within one city that I have ever seen!  New York is the only other city I've been to that has so much great food within such a small geographic area.

This created a bit of a problem for me...how do you pick where to eat?  Luckily, I had the good fortune of being hosted by a local, and only had to put up with one crappy meal when in Rome.  Here are my three favorite places that I ate at in Rome.

#3- Pizza Ciro
Ciro's is awesome for multiple reasons.  It is within a 5 minute walk of Fontana di Trevi, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and a smattering of other significant sites.  The pizza is awesome. It's cheap.  And my host Fausto let me in on the secret that Ciro is a men's name that you will only hear in Naples (Fausto's hometown and the birthplace of pizza), and that Ciro himself, at something like 85 years old, still makes the pizzas.

Sure enough, after letting the maitre'd know that we want our pizza to go, we walk back to a huge woodfire oven to find a tiny little old man stretching dough, and topping with sauce, cheese, and everything else, at the rate of about 1 pizza per 30 seconds.  It made the meal that much better to know that such an awesome old man was making my pizza.  I had the pizza diavolo (spicy sausage), and Fausto had one with roasted vegetables.  Both were awesome, and the grand total was about 15 Euros for both of us, a dirt cheap meal by Roman standards.  The secret was that the pizza there is cheaper if you get it to go.  It's way cooler to walk around Rome with good pizza than sitting in a restaurant anyways.

Try Pizza Ciro, you'll like it.

Next up:

#2 Palazzo del Freddo Giovanni Fassi

There are two things you need to know about this place: 1. The best gelato I've ever had, at a price that's significantly lower than all of the tourist gelaterias.  2.  It's a 3 minute walk from the #1 restaurant below!

Their claim to fame is that it's the oldest gelateria in the world.  For 2 Euros (the cost of a small), you get to pick three flavors piled side by side onto a cone.  I had Coconut, Pineapple, and Blood Orange.  All three were awesome!  I wasn't as big of a fan of the chocolatey more dairy based gelato's, but i can honestly say that the coconut gelato at this place is the best frozen treat that I've ever had.  Period. 

Here's the review from Tripadvisor

This is a picture of maybe 1/4 of their gelato selection.  It makes Baskin Robbins selection seem apathetic.

Here it is...the best place that I ate in Rome.

# 1 Trattoria Vecchia Roma

Vecchia Roma is a traditional Trattoria, and it had the feeling of a locals spot.  It's down in the foundations of an old building near Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele.  You go down a steep set of stairs into a cellar style restaurant, loud, hot, and lively.

We started off with the mixed fried vegetables, which came with zucchini, cauliflower, eggplant, and artichoke hearts.  I wish my mom had made me eat more vegetables like those as a kid!

The remainder of the meal is a fog to me...because I had the best pasta of my life!  I had the house special.  The Buccatini L'Amatriciana Flambe.  Flambe is French though right?  Well get this, they take bucatini noodles and saute them with pancetta and a creamy tomato sauce, and then it gets crazy. 

They have a giant wheel of pecorino romano cheese that is hollowed out to look like a large basin.  They take the scalding hot pasta, put it in the cheese basin, and LIGHT IT ON FIRE while stirring as fast as possible, coating every strand of pasta and every piece of pancetta with cheesy goodness.  Aside from being incredible food, it was unreal to see your pasta on fire inside of a huge cheese wheel.

I didn't get a picture of it, but here's a random one I found online.

I really hope that you all get to go to Rome.  When you do let me know and I'll give you more info on all of these places, along with some contacts for people that can show you the city!

Ciao!

TRIFLE WITH THE BRITS? You must be crazy.

While I was in England earlier this summer, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the majority of the meals that I had, aside from the dinner I ate here, at Merton College's dining hall:

For some reason, the Brits just don't believe in salt or seasonings too much.  If they only knew how good Bangers and Mash could be...

They do get one thing right though nearly 100% of the time.  ANY DESSERT THAT HAS WHIPPED CREAM IN IT!  Their whipped cream rocks.  So in tribute to my British friends, behold my Trifle recipe.

Trifle is easy, three components: 1. Pound Cake, 2. Whipping Cream or Custard, and 3. Fruit.  I've listed them separately in the recipe.  Once you've prepared all three elements, start with a layer of pound cake, and then layer fruit, followed by cream, until you reach the top.

Pound Cake:
Buying is easiest, and possibly cheapest, or you can make it from scratch.  I go Sandra Lee style, semi-homemade.  Here's the recipe I use.

1 Yellow Cake Mix
3/4 c. Vegetable oil
1/2 c. sugar
4 large eggs, well beaten
1 c. Sour Cream (you can use fat free if you insist)
1 tsp. Almond Extract
1 tsp. Lemon Zest

Preheat oven to 350, Mix all ingredients and then pour into a 12 cup bundt or tube pan.  Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes before taking cake out of pan, and cool completely.

*The reason you use a bundt pan is because it allows you to cut thin slices of pound cake that you'll use to layer the trifle.  You could use cake chunks or whatever, but I like the layers to be even.

Fruit
You can really use any fruit you like in your trifle, I just like to use something that will give off a little bit of juice.  The recipe above is Blackberries, Strawberries and Peaches.  This is your opportunity to color theme your dessert for 4th of July, Valentines day, etc.

4 medium peaches, sliced and peeled
6 oz. clamshell of blackberries
1/2 lb. strawberries, quartered

Place cut fruit in a bowl and cover with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar/artificial sweetener, stir.  This helps to draw the juice out of the fruit.

Whipped Cream:  I'm gonna let you in on a secret...Lemon Curd (you can find it in the jam or baking goods section)

Whip 2 cups of heavy whipping to a stiff peak, add 2 T sugar, and fold in 1/4 c. of lemon curd.

Got it all done?  Start layering.  This really is a recipe that you can tailor to your crowd.  I had a pumpkin trifle last fall that was to die for, and I've seen richer trifles made with chocolate cake.   Make it your own and let me know how it goes.

Total Cost: $12-15.  I know that's a bit on the spendy side, but it serves about 10-12, and it's more of a "special occasion dessert" due to the work that goes into it.

What's for dessert?

Ok peasants!  For our first dessert, I'm going to let you decide what we're having.  Leave a comment letting me know which of the following you'd like to try.

1.  Homemade Ice Cream Sundaes in Crepe Cones

or...

2.  Cool Raspberry Sour Cream Pie

The choice is yours.  Don't blow it.