Thursday is Gnocci Day

Today was a big day with a lot of wonderful food: Italian class followed by a history walk of early Christian medieval Rome, which I might add is quickly becoming a new fascination of mine. The builders often incorporate fragments of ancient buildings in situ or simply reuse or rework building materials for new purposes. It is really amazing to see the layering in these relatively modest buildings. The buildings and materials that were reused (or buried) are the ones that have survived for us to enjoy today.

At the end of our walk we took a lap around the island in the Tiber river, and a few of us ate lunch at this really amazing restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto (happy Yom Kippur!). It is literally a hole in the wall, and there is no sign, or evidence of a restaurant. You approach this opening with strands of rope hanging down like a beaded curtain into a very and narrow passage tightly packed with people and things. It seems like you are in the wrong place, like you just walked into the delivery entry of some establishment, only to be solidified by the look you receive from the guy busy with something up front. When you tell him how many of you there are for lunch, he looks confused and asked if you have a reservation, and asked again how many of you there are. Ah - four, of course, right this way. We squeeze past a line of tiny 2-tops into a slightly wider tiny room that is really rough around the edges. The tiles on the floor are broken, the wall paper is pealing off the walls (covered with tons of posted reviews of the place) and the patrons are shoving food into their mouths like I have never seen any European do. The one menu is hand written on paper with what looks like a Crayola marker. The waitress is spunky and brings us the membership cards to fill out (yeah this is a member's only joint - fortunately free, but leave your sports jacket and tie at home). We all get a pasta (gnocci and fettuccine), deep-fried artichoke (a Judea), and one ox tail. The fettuccine is clearly hand made and cut, perfectly al dente and dressed in soft ricotta and generous black pepper. The artichokes are a deep golden brown, juicy and tender on the inside, and glistening with olive oil. The waitress brings out a bib for the ox tail, which looks very much like a plate of cylindrical ribs, meat hanging off the bone and drenched in a tomato sauce.

In the afternoon with had our first pin-up for our group neighborhood investigation. Afterwards I prepped for my vacation to Cinque Terre and Genova this long weekend, and proceeded to have another glorious meal. We learned today that Thursday is Gnocci day in Roma, so we had to get some. We got a recommendation for a restaurant which turned out to be the exact one I pass every day (and tell myself I need to eat there). The seven of us are taken down into a little room surrounded by stacks of wine bottles. Among many other tasty items, I had the best gnocci I've ever tasted, soft, delicate, and tender - and glazed in a deep purple gorgonzola and radicchio sauce. Wow.