Roma/Rome, the Eternal City beckons.
When planning our 3rd trip to Europe, I busily made loads of notes about sites to see, restaurants to try and so on. In most cases I omitted looking up the addresses for restaurants thinking they would be easy to find!
One day we wanted to go to Trattoria da Cavalier Da Gino. It was a restaurant recommended in an article I had read. The location was given as “near the Spanish Steps”. So, never having been there before, thought no problem! Well, we found the Spanish Steps all right and searched around for Da Gino to no avail. Oh, we were there without a GPS, no address of any kind and never even thought of Googling it. Boy….talk about naive!
We really wanted to go to Da Gino and order try their “rabbit in white wine.”
Before this trip I had attempted to make Cacio e Pepe. Not wonderful. In Roma it’s almost the national dish next to Carbonara. We had lunch at Maccheroni, a place that was recommended in a book I read, and it was on their menu. Wow….we ordered a first course, or primi, to share. What can I say? Absolutely it was fabulously cheesy and creamy with pecorino and cacio (a local cheese) and generously seasoned with coarsely ground black pepper. They use a long pasta that is very common in Rome called Tonnarelli, a thick square spaghetti. We should have ordered a plate each and forgotten about the secondo! Oh well next time!
My Husband threw down the gauntlet when we came home and asked that I come up with something similar. Not an easy task as I think Maccheroni’s method is unlike anything I have tried or seen. The closest I have come so far is a recipe that uses a combination of Pecorino and Grana Padano, some butter and lots of pepper, probably more than one would think would be good. But…the good news is that it is!
Helpful links to my version of Braised Rabbit With Rosemary And Cacio e Pepe.
I loved the rabbit
Me too!