**Arrosticini? Speducci?
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Never waste olive oil in pasta cooking water, plenty of water and salt is all you need + lots of stirring.
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Blasphemer !!! 
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Thanks, love your travelling and writing style(s). Just a question, you said carbonara twice but I’m seeing pictures of a tomato based sauce which I’m guessing is amatriciana?
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Good question. At Hosteria Grappolo D’Oro I ordered Carbonara and got it. It was rich and the bottom of the dish was rich with egg sauce. I liked that one the best.
At la Piccola Cuccagna I ordered Tonnarello Cacio e Pepe but they said did not have it (it is on the menu) so I ordered Carbonara and that tomato based dish is what I got. I did not even think about it but you are right, it does not look at all like Carbonara. I am used to ordering Puttanesca so pomodoro based spaghettis are normal for me in other parts of Italy. Thinking back on it, it definitely was not Puttanesca, so it may have been Amatraciana. I was more mildly irritated by the over al dente nature of the pasta than thinking about the tomato sauce.
I usually look for Cacio e Pepe or Puttanesca or all’Assassina for the pasta. I have been told they are out of cacio e pepe several times even though it was on the menu, which I took to mean that they either did not want to make it or the chef that does it best was not there at that time. I am a single diner that despises committing to a reservation, so I tend to arrive shortly after the place opens, and not every chef will be in the kitchen, or so I assume…
I just have not seen Puttanesca and all’Assassina on most of the menus this trip. Maybe I am not paying attention. Or maybe they are more southern Italy dishes? I do not know enough about Italy to know. I just had a Puttanesca pasta dish again at Trattoria Cecio and again it was pretty good. Not a “great” restaurant, but it is one that I have been going to for several years and i always enjoy my meals and the service there. I had a beef tagliata gorgonzola with fennel special dish there two years ago that I really liked. I have never seen it there again, though.
I have been trying to get a cacio e pepe dish here in Italy but I cannot remember actually getting one.
on edit: I just realized that I said I ordered Carbonara at Caciara e Spaccio Agricolo but I did not download the picture. That pomodoro dish is the Trippa alla Romana. This is the Carbonara dish I ordered at Caciara, I think he called it “shirt sleeve” pasta? I think they look like robust ditalini. I cheated and looked it up, maybe it is rigatoni?
Thank you for reading my notes and wondering what the heck I was talking about!!! It took 3 tries to download this photo, not sure what is different about it, but HO did not like the looks of it. I edited it to make the file smaller and it took, so it might just have been the fact that it was a GIF photo that did not fit the download parameters on this site.
This was actually a rather nice Carbonara dish, the pancetta/cured bacon was delicious.
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That looks like a nice carbonara indeed!
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Super! What a great time of year to be in Rome!
The best carbonara I’ve ever had was at AL MORO, near the Trevi fountain.
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Lucky you. That shape looks like mezze maniche, which is one of my very favorites. Half sleeve would be the literal translation.
On one trip, I happened to stay down the street from the Torre Argentina ruins where the cat sanctuary is today. Memorable spot, and I think very Roman in its way—so many layers of history around every corner.
Thanks for sharing your adventure!
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Erica, it really is a great time to be in Rome! The crowds are small and the Roman people are not sick of tourists right now. June? I am not sure I would be getting the friendly interaction quite as often. I come to the Mediterranean area in February and March a lot due to the timing of my annual travels. I have to admit that one thing I miss is the green of growing plants. I may come back in April and tour Greece, Italy and Spain when all the deciduous trees and shrubs are leafed out. That is a small downside to traveling at this time of year, but it is one I want to work around at least once.
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Half Sleeve makes more sense than Shirt Sleeve! It was rather good, loved the pancetta! And it was a perfect al dente this time! Yeah!
The waiter at Caciara did something that waiters do sometimes that I really like. He was in a debate about etiquette with a table of 4 next to me and he looked over and asked me what I thought. I travel alone and I am comfortable with it, but having a local just casually toss me into the middle of a talk is a nice feeling.
Torre Argentina is a nice area with a decent mix of locals and tourists, it has a lot of us tourists but the locals do predominate. Away from the cat sanctuary at least. It is also a short walk 3 minute walk to Scholars Lounge, my favorite Irish Pub in Rome. After a couple hours of walking the cobblestone paths and roads of Rome, a cool Guinness and a quiet tv set to a football match between two teams I have never heard of is a nice way to relax.
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Food tours can be kind of hit or miss, but I took a Secret Food Tours Rome the other day, and it was a huge hit for me. We started at Piazza Navona which is in the center of many of my walks so that was a good start.
Just a beautiful place to walk.
And there were only 5 of us which is a better one. Large groups make it hard to have as much fun. We had a quick espresso at Domizziano (good) and then we walked over to Corner Pizza al Taglio where we had a quick suppli, a risotto rice and tomato stuffed croquette like device, really nice!
The pizza of various sorts were good, not great. Potato pizza should not be a thing.
Then we walked through the market to Viola Norcinera for Tenuta Torrececcona Rossa wine and a small charucterie board.
The owner actually greeted us and chatted with us when other customers were not asking for his time, which is not always the case with group tours. Rocio (Rosie) was a great host and seemed to be liked and respected by the business owners which is, again, not always the case with tour leaders.
Then we stopped by Dolci Nonna Vincenza for some birthday cake for one of our tour group, which was a very nice, light sort of cake that dessert eaters would probably recognize but I did not. Nice dessert shop if you like desserts!
And a cannoli!
Then I grabbed a sheep skewer (arrosticini) and it was ok. Not great. The fries were actually better than the sheep. Mutton is not my favorite, I wish it had been lamb.
Then we hit what was the high point of the tour for many of us, Trattoria der Pallaro. Slightly seedy place with a jury rigged cover over their terrace, where the owner greeted us warmly and started serviing up one dish after another with an unassuming but pleasant house white wine. We started with a misto plate of very tasty little things that looked like suppli but were not, a well prepared carciofi/Jewish Artichoke, a serving of a sliced vegetable Rosie picked up at the market and the owners cooks quickly prepared for us. It tasted of fresh crunchy greens, a bit of vinegar and a hint of fish sauce. Very nice! Then it was half sleeve pasta again, carbonara style, again very well done. I really needed to take written notes to remember the names of these dishes.
Trattoria der Pallaro was an outstanding choice. The fact that the owner took us to the stairs for his cellar and left us to explore made it even better. It is unfinished space parts of which date back to the time of Christ, a little over 2000 years old. The current building was built on top of it, keeping the original foundation and cellar as its base.
Finally we stopped by Gelateria la Romana, a place that is relatively new, opening just after WWII. It is located right next to the Cat Colony so we began and ended in places I was familiar with but only Arrostreet was a place I was familiar with. That is another good thing about food tours, most of the time they take you to places you would otherwise never have visited.
Great tour with Secret Foods and Rosie!
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Did it have the bit of mozzarella in the middle to make it suppli ‘al telefono’ (where the melted mozzarella stretches out in a big string like the cord of an old analog telephone)?
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Not these ones, unfortunately.
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I used to make arancini with sweet peas in the center and they were pretty good. Maybe better than the ones with the little chunks of prosciutto that I also made.
Suppli with a surprise bit of mozzarella would be a similar treat. I think I saw something similar to al telefono in a restaurant in Granada Spain but I did not order it. Now I wish I had done so.
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I enjoyed take-out suppli from the hot table at the Antico Forno Roscioli (bakery) in Rome during my visit, if you’re hankering for more before you leave 
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I am going to be in that area so I will give them a try if I can! Both of their sit down areas had a line down the street so they must be doing something right!!
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Via dei Chiavari, 34, 00186 Roma RM, Italy
Hope you like it if you visit.
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I am going back to Trattoria der Pallaro for lunch and Roscioli is right around the corner from there. I will get travel rations there since my NightJet train to Munich does not appear to have a great menu.
Thank you for the heads up!
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I think food tours are a great way to see a new city and discover places that you’d probably miss. I’ve been lucky that all the ones I’ve been on have been smaller groups with excellent hosts, with only 1 or 2 misses that I can think of, Malaga comes to mind, the last restaurant we visited was kinda meh compared to the others. Your tour looked like a fun way to spend the day!
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To bad about Malaga, that is a city I love!
I have done food tours in London, Rome, Athens, Philadelphia, Madrid, Bangkok… I am missing a couple but that is a short list and i really enjoyed the first 4 and saw a few things i liked with the last 2.
One of the things that really hit home for me was that when we left a bakery in Athens, our tour leader Anna gathered up all the untouched bread and pastries, put them in the bakeries to go bag and followed us out. She pointed us at a coffee shop and saud she would catch up there. Then she quietly gave the bread/pastries to a homeless woman and her child. She rejoined us without mentioning it and we moved on.
It still brings tears to my eyes.
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