We’ve already gone on about artichokes, but we realize we’ve actually devoted quite a lot of our attention, and calories, to other seasonal delicacies here in the Eternal City. So here are some other spring foods of Rome!
Zucchini (aka Courgettes)
As with artichokes, we would never have put this at the top of our to-go veggie list. And yet. Springtime in Rome brings fried zucchini flowers, fabulous beyond belief. Their season is limited and, like many such things, that makes them all the more delicious. We are told that zucchini in Latium have larger flowers than elsewhere, so they are better in Rome. But we are told that by Romans, so there are just possibly other opinions about this.
Emboldened by our experience of the fried version, we’ve also had pasta with a zucchini sauce – heavenly! And Laurel recently ordered a pizza with zucchini, provolone, and anchovies. She’s not sure what came over her – she tends to like ’em fairly plain – but it was maybe the best pizza of her life. It came from Peppo al Cosimato, a pizzeria in Trastevere recommended by a Roman whom, thanks to this, we would now trust with our very lives.
Puntarelle
These are a species of chicory. They’re bitter but not too much so, and they’re also not around for long. We found them in a restaurant, and we also found them in our market (the King of Artichokes had some). So we snatched them up and hit up a friend for a recipe. Sooo simple: wash them and soak for a while; then dress with olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic and anchovy, both chopped into tiny bits. Amazing.
There are so many other lovely vegetables too, spring as well as late winter: we broke down last week and bought them all, then cooked this delicious pasta with lacinato kale and broccoli and brussels sprouts and radicchio and mushrooms and zucchini.
Among the other spring foods of Rome are fava beans but there’s been no sighting of them yet – stay tuned!
