Eating in Umbria (Orvieto, Spoleto, Norcia)

Orvieto

My partner and I were totally taken by this small, relatively untouristy town and I discovered my most favorite cookie of all time at I Dolci di Moscatelli  (Corso Cavour, 11).  I love these delightful, bite-sized anise ciambellette cookies and at several points in our trip contemplated derailing our plans to head back to Orvieto to buy a giant bag of them to bring home.  They are not very sweet, almost like a slightly sweetened anise-flavored cracker.  I will definitely have to try to recreate these at home because the alternative is flying back to Orvieto and that isn’t really in our budget!  (UPDATE: I used this recipe from Italian Food Forever with some minor tweaks and it turned out great!)  I Dolci di Moscatelli had other pastries, but none came anywhere close to their unassuming, but intoxicating anise ciambellette cookies.

While walking through the streets of Orvieto, we saw a sign that said olive oil tasting, followed the arrows, and ended up at Bartolomei.  There was a little bit of a timeshare feel when we walked in as the woman working there put in a movie about how Bartolomei makes olive oil, but she was so nice and the movie was actually really interesting, so our concerns vanished, especially when she brought out the incredible olive oil to taste!  Not only did the tasting include two types of delicious olive oil poured over freshly toasted bread, but also two types of olive spread and wine. 

Gelateria Giuseppe Pasqualetti (Piazza Duomo, 14) had the most incredible pear gelato I have ever had.  It was like a pear exploded in my mouth every time I took a bite.  Even my partner who isn’t particularly fond of pear gelato loved it and referenced it several times in our future gelato tasting.  (We really took our gelato tasting and comparison very seriously.)

Honorable mention goes to Bar Pasticceria Montanucci for their outstanding cream puff.

Spoleto

Our stop in Spoleto was somewhat accidental.  We rented a car the day after we arrived in Italy and we were still pretty jetlagged.  Since I can’t drive stick, my partner was responsible for all the driving and we stopped in Spoleto mostly because he was falling asleep while driving.  Also, I had read about Spoleto and was happy to explore some places I had written down while he took a nap in the car.  Fortuitously, there was some kind of food festival going on.  There were stands set up on the main street selling and giving samples of different types of meat, cheese, olive oil, and TARTUFO SALSA!!!  Don’t know what that is?  I didn’t either, but it is DELICIOUS!!!  It’s a mix of chopped porcini mushrooms, some small percentage of truffles, and olive oil.  It is sublime spread on bread or a cracker (or I’ll admit, eaten straight out of the jar).

Norcia

Norcia is a weird place.  It has a touristy (though almost exclusively Italian tourists), carnival feel, but also a rustic, local feel at the same time – very hard to explain.  Norcia is known for its many, many pork products, mainly made from cinghiale (wild boar), and most butcher shops in Italy are called Norcinerias after this town.   There are wild boar heads and walls of prosciutto everywhere you look in this town.

This region is also known for its truffles, which I unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to try.  They’re so plentiful that stores just leave them outside in baskets for customers to sell.  Have you ever seen such enormous truffles?!

If you want to taste some local specialties, visit Norcineria Fratelli Ansuini, an established and respected store with friendly staff.

Food report from Tuscany coming up …

Eating in Lazio (Rome)

We got back from our eating tour of Italy almost two weeks ago, but I’ve been having a hard time figuring out how to share all the amazing things we ate in an organized way that isn’t overwhelming to readers – chronological, type of food, order of deliciousness?  So many options!  I finally decided that region by region will be easiest, so here goes starting with Rome in the Lazio region.

Volpetti = Cheeseboard in Roma

You all know that I heart the Cheeseboard in Berkeley, so when Steve from the Cheeseboard told me to visit Volpetti on my trip to Rome, I knew I had to go.  It did not disappoint.  Mmmmmmm.  We went to a LOT of cheese shops during our trip and Volpetti was by far the best.  Just like at the Cheeseboard, they are happy to let you try lots of different types of cheeses and give you recommendations.

My favorites were the gorgonzola and the hard goat cheese.

Volpetti also has bread, meat products (salami, prosciutto, etc), and prepared food.  The arancini were really delicious and the roman artichokes looked great, though regrettably (and a great source of FOMA later that day) I did not try the artichokes at Volpetti.

Gelato, gelato, gelato

We certainly didn’t lack options for trying gelato since there are more gelato shops in Italy than there are Starbucks in the US.  Our favorite in Rome was Il Gelato di San Crispino.  Their ingredients were super fresh and their strawberry gelato was delicious.  To put that in context, I don’t really like strawberry ice cream, but my partner is partial to both strawberry ice cream and gelato and fortunately, this led to my discovery that strawberry gelato is far superior to strawberry ice cream.  The meringue-based hazelnut at San Crispino was also delicious, but if I had to pick one flavor (thankfully, I did not have to pick just one!), I’d go with the strawberry.  Mmmmmm.

While we were waiting for Volpetti to open, we tried the gelato place just a few doors down.  I can’t remember the name, but the banana gelato was amazing.  It tasted just like … well … bananas!  My friend who is not usually into banana flavored treats was so impressed that at our second of three gelato stops that day, got her own banana gelato 🙂

Gelateria del Teatro (Via di San Simone, 70) has a really weird vibe.  They play techno music and have a constantly looping video of people making gelato that is more sterile than drool inducing.  There is one young guy who is super nice and an older, grumpy guy that doesn’t seem to notice that he works around a delicious food product all day!  The gelato, though, is pretty tasty!  This is the place to go if you’re interested in trying interesting flavors like white chocolate basil, ricotta fig with almond, and  sage and raspberry.  We also tried their pear, kiwi, almond, and pistachio (there were four of us!) and were less impressed.  I’d say try this place out if you are into unusual combinations, but if you’re looking for the more common flavors, San Crispino is the place to go.

Giolitti is famous for its gelato, super touristy, and in my opinion overrated.  I was unimpressed with the service and most importantly, their gelato tasted like gelato you could get in the US.

Though not gelato, if you like coffee, you must go to Caffe Tazza D’oro and have an espresso granita.  Service isn’t great, an unfortunate and common ramification of being a popular cafe in a touristy location, but the granita is delicious.  There is just a small scoop of granita sandwiched between two huge globs of fresh, unsweetened whipped cream.  I could have used a higher granita/whipped cream ratio, but you do need the creaminess of the whipped cream to counter the super strong, delicious espresso granita.  This is no joke, try it!

Bakeries

Even though I don’t frequent many bakeries in the US, FOMA required me to visit two or three bakeries in every city we went to in Italy.  One of my favorites was Biscottificio Innocenti, a small, unpretentious, untouristy shop in Trastevere (Via della Lucce, 21a).

Their brutti ma buoni (literally translated “ugly, but good”) cookie was so good that we bought a few, gobbled them up as we stepped outside, looked at each other, and wordlessly went back inside to buy more!  They were so fresh and magical.  These cookies are definitely worth a trip to Biscottificio Innocenti when you’re in Rome.

My partner was partial to the marzipan cookies that were dipped in chocolate.

Miscellaneous Food

Since we were lucky enough to be in Rome during artichoke season, we tried the two most famous preparations in the Jewish quarter: carciofo romanesco alla giudia (“Jewish style”) and carciofi alla romana (“Roman style”).  The carciofo romanesco alla giudia is deep fried whole until the outer leaves become so crispy that they taste like artichoke potato chips.

The carciofi alla romana is trimmed and then braised with olive oil, garlic, and herbs.  Both were very delicious.

I’ll give an honorable mention to Enoteca Vini e Buffet (Vicolo della Torretta, 60) near the Spanish Steps.  This simple spot is an oasis in a very touristy location.  My friend’s partner is a wine connoisseur and he seemed pleased with the options.  The mushroom pate was delicious and everything else was tasty, but nothing all that memorable.

So that’s it for Rome.  Stay tuned for food reports from Umbria, Tuscany, and Emilia Romagna.