During a recent trip to Rome I had dinner at L’Arcangelo, a classic Roman trattoria in the Prati neighborhood. L’Arcangelo is the eponymous restaurant from chef Arcangelo Dandini, who also is behind the suppli restaurant Supplizio.
In addition to the a la carte menu, L’Arcangelo has a tasting menu of typical Roman dishes (€60), and this is what I had.
Started with a little cauliflower soup drizzled with olive oil and a dusting of coffee which was an interesting garnish. A nice creamy soup.
Next was a martini glass containing a suppli and a potato croquette. Chef Arcangelo also has an entire restaurant devoted to suppli, the classic Roman street food of fried tomato sauce risotto balls stuffed with cheese, and this one was very good. I think it had some chopped up chicken giblets in it. The croquette was also nice.
And then some pasta. A gnocchi in an Amatriciana sauce. This was the highlight of the meal for me. Very light and pillowy gnocchi in a nice light tomato sauce that was not very acidic, with crispy guanciale (cured pork cheek).
Next, even more pasta. A very good rigatoni carbonara. Very al dente rigatoni. A bit light on the pepper but they provide a pepper grinder that I used to pepper it up.
Some sweetbreads. This was only ok and the only miss of the meal. The sweetbreads were crispy but a little dry. They could have been more tender and may have been overcooked a bit. On top of some sautéed lettuce and sauced with a sweet raspberry sauce that seemed a bit out of place.
Next, a couple cream puffs for dessert. This was delicious. Light pastry shell with a nice cream filling, dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with a slightly tart sauce.
An enjoyable meal. Delicious pasta (with wow level gnocchi alla amatriciana), delicious suppli, ok sweetbreads, and a very nice dessert.
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