Prego!

Despite the intended freedom that summer is supposed to give a college student, my time is being dictated by a part-time job and my senior thesis (I live, sleep, and breathe Middle English).  And after running into an old friend today who commented on my blog, I decided that I deserved a treat.  So, even if I haven't been able to blog, rest assured, readers, I have continued to eat!

My summer started off with a fantastic two-week trip to Italy.  Two high school friends and I visited Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Palermo Sicily, and, of course, Roma.  I had extraordinary meals in every city we visited (see my mobile upload and Gelato a Day albums on Facebook), but our meal in the Jewish Ghetto of Rome was particularly special.  Not only was the food delicious, but it was Roman food with a Jewish twist.  Since we went to Nonna Betta for lunch, we couldn't eat everything that we wanted, but we figured that an appetizer and a pasta dish would be a good sampling of what the Ghetto had to offer.

Even though it was about 90 degrees outside, we were drawn to the sidewalk seating at Nonna Betta because, how cool would it have been if we had found someone we knew? In Rome?! Of course we didn't end up seeing anyone we knew after all. Right before we sat down, though, we noticed a New York Times article that proclaimed Nonna Betta's fried artichoke the best in Rome.  So, it was decided for us: our appetizer would be the fried artichoke.

According to Wikipedia, the carciofi alla guidia, aka Jewish style artichokes are a staple of Roman Jewish cuisine.  I grew up eating artichokes, but not of the fried variety.  When artichokes are served in my parents' house, they are usually steamed atop the stove for a few minutes and served warm.  We eat the artichoke by peeling off the individual petals and scraping the meat of the flower with our teeth.  Since a steamed artichoke has a pretty bland flavor, some people serve it with mayonnaise, melted butter, or a yogurt and dill blend (my personal favorite).

The Roman artichoke, however, was completely different.  The oil transforms the artichoke by a) making the whole flower edible and b) altering the taste and texture.  Unlike a normal artichoke, the Roman artichoke is totally edible -- leaves and choke included -- and like most things that are deep-fried, the Roman artichoke is delectable! The leaves taste like terra chips and the artichokey taste is overshadowed by the salt and oil, which is perfection.  Also, in contrast to the crunchiness of the leaves, the heart of the Roman artichoke is much meatier.  Perhaps our artichoke was just bigger than the ones I'm used to eating in America, but it felt like there was a lot more to the Roman heart.

Roman artichoke

My second course arrived cooking, literally.  I ordered gnocchi because I hadn't yet had it in Italy and how can you be in Italy and not eat gnocchi? I was thrilled with my gnocchi (after it cooled down and my tongue stopped swelling from the third-degree burn that it suffered).  I eat a lot of gnocchi in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but my local Italian restaurants of choice don't even come close to what Nonna Betta put in front of me.  When I say that the potato dumplings melted in my mouth, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest.  As you can see from the picture below, the tomato sauce was still boiling as the ceramic bowl was brought to my place setting.  The cubes of fresh tomato in the sauce added richness in taste and texture that I have encountered few times in America.  Finally, I have to comment on the mozzarella.  I was initially skeptical of a kosher dairy restaurant because I didn't want to experience kosher-cheese-syndrome.  In America, when you bake kosher mozzarella, it solidifies into a semi-hard (my boyfriend categorizes it as plastic) coating over the pasta and tomato sauce.  When my gnocchi came out, though, the first thing I noticed was that the cheese had the gooey mozzarella consistency that unkosher cheese has.  Yum.  Attention Miller's cheese: Find out what Nonna Betta puts in its mozzarella.

Gnocchi

Our visit to the Jewish Ghetto of Rome was spectacular.  The synagogue was beautiful, it was incredible to hear Hebrew interspersed with Italian in the streets, and as we ate, we talked about how proud and humbling it felt to be sitting in the Roman Jewish Ghetto as Jewish women in 2011.

Visit Nonna Betta -- Cucina Kosher:
+(06) 6880-6263
http://www.nonnabetta.it/il-ristorante/