PIZZA in ROME

It is said that in Rome one must only have pizza in a restaurant for dinner, allowing time for the pizza ovens to reach a hot temperature. But, for pizza during the afternoon one must go to a Forno.

The forno is an ancient concept dating from a time when individual households did not have ovens, but relied on the town forno for bread and other baking needs. One oven supported the community. The contemporary forno has fresh bread daily ,pizza and other baked goods. The bread in Rome is delicious. The forno where we stop on this day, Roscioli, also has and a salumeria (deli) next door. But our mission today is to try the pizza.

The crust is very thin, and toppings are usually simple, sometimes only with cheese. There is another forno on the Campo de' Fiori that has great pizza, a favorite of ours. Forno Campo de 'Fiori, is filled with hungry diners shouting out their orders, "rosso"or " bianco", not wine but pizza!

Fast and Furious!

We decide to try Roscioli. We make our way to the counter and make our selection, one just cheese the other piece with tomato, basil and sausage. A portion of this rectangular pizza

is shown, "tutto?" (all? ) , "No, mezza, per piacere" ( "No, half please!"). Without haste the piece is cut in half, folded, weighed and wrapped in brown paper. We pay at the register, then go outside amongst the pizza eating crowd to sample it.

Preparing for that first bite. This is pizza to be eaten standing up!

Now that we have had a quick bite we will walk over to for a visit to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva ( look for a posting soon!).

But for now at look at pizza while sitting down..........from a few days ago.

Sometimes , as is typical in Italy,we have a large lunch with multiple courses. In that case we often dine in preparing a light meal ,perhaps a simple pasta and a salad, or we go out for pizza. Pizza for dinner, here we find a small trattoria/pizzeria on a quiet street in Trastevere. We find that Trastevere is to Rome as Cambridge is to Boston. We find this area intriguing and spend time here walking and discovering unique places.

Catching the last sun of the day enjoying the house wine as we wait for pizza. (note the woman in the background with the cute dog in her bag!) Graffitti seems to be a signature of Trastevere!

We have walked miles so it is a pleasure to sit down to a simple dinner of pizza.

Pizza bianca with cheese, anchovies and zucchini flowers. Pizza rosso has a light tomato sauce with fresh mozzerella cheese. Along with this is an arugula salad. Delightful!