Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors and Forgotten Recipes from an Ancient City: A Cookbook

by Katie Parla, Kristina Gill

A love letter from two Americans to their adopted city, Tasting Rome is a showcase of modern dishes influenced by tradition, as well as the rich culture of their surroundings. 
 
Even 150 years after unification, Italy is still a divided nation where individual regions are defined by their local cuisine. Each is a mirror of its city’s culture, history, and geography. But cucina romana is the country’s greatest standout.
 
Tasting Rome provides a complete picture of a place that many love, but few know completely. In sharing Rome’s celebrated dishes, street food innovations, and forgotten recipes, journalist Katie Parla and photographer Kristina Gill capture its unique character and reveal its truly evolved food culture—a culmination of two thousand years of history. Their recipes acknowledge the foundations of Roman cuisine and demonstrate how it has transitioned to the variations found today. You’ll delight in the expected classics (cacio e pepe, pollo alla romana, fiore di zucca); the fascinating but largely undocumented Sephardic Jewish cuisine (hraimi con couscous, brodo di pesce, pizzarelle); the authentic and tasty offal (guanciale, simmenthal di coda, insalata di nervitti); and so much more.
 
Studded with narrative features that capture the city’s history and gorgeous photography that highlights both the food and its hidden city, you’ll feel immediately inspired to start tasting Rome in your own kitchen.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Italian Literature, Italy, Travel

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 2016

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are new several cookbooks out there on Italian cuisine this spring but this is definitely the one I've been most excited about. Focusing exclusively on Roman cuisine, the popular American blogger from Katie Parla showcases a wonderful assortment of the cucina povera that makes Rome such an exquisite food city. Having lived in Rome myself and followed Katie's blog for some time, I found her choice of recipes and restaurants to spotlight well curated. The photos are wonderfully done, showcasing an array of salty antipasti to decadent dolci. I most appreciated having a resource to turn to of authentic Italians recipes, just like you'd find in Italy, adapted to American measurements and markets. Often times, authentic recipes seem to get warped and lost in translation but after sampling the Torta di Ricotta, Sheep's Milk Ricotta Cheesecake, the real thing has finally made it into the country!
However, I think she would have done better to touch more upon the Roman culture, inside and outside of the kitchen and restaurants. A great deal of Roman cuisine stems from the Jewish ghetto in the city center, such as carciofi alla guidia, artichokes in the jewish style, and for non-Italians, further depth into this part of the eternal city's history would be much welcomed. This is definitely a must for the novice cook or the passionate Italian chef-a beautiful book that I'll definitely be revisiting again and again.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

[Tina Culbertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ex-Pat dream…..living in another country and exploring the food, art and culture. This book isn’t an Italian cookbook. This is a memoir about life in Rome and it’s filled, chock filled, with recipes and history about the dish and the area. The photos are incredibly vibrant and you want to leap into the page, grab one of the savory pies (Tortas) and immerse yourself in the experience.

Of the many things I enjoyed looking through this book is the focus on using fresh and seasonal ingredients. I am a pasta addict and have to limit the number of times I could have it on our dinner table. There are enough pasta recipes to keep me going for a long time. I’ve made cacio e pepe before but never thought to use it as a filling for suppli. What is suppli you may ask? Fried rice formed in balls and filled with mozzarella or mincemeat or the wonderful peppery cacio e pepe. Roman street food. I want some.

The recipes are easy to follow and I love that they are titled I Italian followed by the translation. This book is certainly appealing to both the armchair traveler and those who love to cook. If you have an interest in Rome and the wonderful foods as well as a historical perspective, this is the book for you. It would make a great gift for someone who likes these topics.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tasting Rome isn't your ordinary cookbook. It's part recipes and part Roman history with a beautiful layout and cover. The recipes all look really good and I can't wait to try all of the dishes but I wish there were more pictures of the food! This book has lots of lovely photos of Rome and its people but not too many food pictures! One of my requirements of cookbooks is that they have to have photos for every recipe and this book falls short of that. The recipes all sound so delicious that I'm almost willing to overlook the lack of photos.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book with narratives and photographs of both Roman food and the city at large; probably most enjoyable if you have been to Rome and can reminisce alongside the authors. Offers good advice on how to source some of the Italian products in the US. As if I didn't already want to go back to this beautiful city...

[Hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gorgeous hardcover cookbook, Tasting Rome had me within its first few pages. Filled with mouth-watering dishes, beautiful photographs, and write-ups about Rome both past and present, I fell in love with this book at first glance. (Just the picture of a gelato stand was making my mouth water.)

A closer look at the recipes has me a little more mixed. I love Italian food, but I am an American, and some of the dishes are a little outside my comfort zone. Still, there are more than enough other recipes to make up for it. However, because several of the dishes are unfamiliar to me, I do wish that the book had a picture of every recipe so I knew a little more of what I was getting into.

Still, overall I think this book is a keeper, and it will probably end up being one of the more used cookbooks on my shelf.

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

[Ivanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not such a big selection of the recipes as I expected, but giving 4 stars for the beautiful photos

[Virginia Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long-time residents of Rome, Italy, Katie Parla and Kristina Gill are also seasoned wine and food experts and bloggers. Their culinary collaboration, “Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors & Forgotten Recipes From an Ancient City” is a wonderfully-told history of the cuisine and culture of a timeless city—a city which holds an endless appeal and fascination to the world at large. The recipes “don’t just vary from region; they also vary from cook to cook”, and, indeed, this is a book of great variety. A foreword from renowned chef, Mario Batali, begins your tasting tour of Rome, and you will enjoy the recipes and rustic, warm-toned photographs tinted by the Roman sun. Along your journey, you will find many delicious dishes such as these: “Tortica Rustica”(Savory Pie)”; “Leonardo Vignoli’s Cacio E Pepe” (Pasta with Cheese & Black Pepper); “Picchiapo” (Simmered Beef with Tomato & Onion—sandwich filling); “Pollo Alla Romana” (Chicken with Tomatoes & Bell Peppers); “Brodo Di Pesce” (Fish Soup); “Pomodori Con Riso” (Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice”; “Insalata Di Finocchio, Radicchis, E Pera” (Fennel, Radicchio, and Pear Salad); “Pizza Romana (Thin Crust Roman-Style Pizza); “Castagnole” (Fried Dough Balls with Sugar); “Sorbetto Di Pesche E Vino (Peach and Wine Sorbet”; “Granita Di Caffe” (Coffee Granita); “Maritozzi Con La Panna” (Sweet Buns with Whipped Cream); and “Brutti Ma Buoni” (Hazelnut Meringues). After reading “Tasting Rome”, you may just be tempted to experience the unequaled history, beauty, and feast for all the senses that is the incomparable city of Rome. KATIE PARLA moved to Rome in 2003 after graduating from Yale. She holds a sommelier certificate and a master's degree in Italian gastronomic culture. She writes about Roman food and beverage culture, and has contributed to and edited many travel guides. She often appears as a Rome expert on the History Channel and the university lecture circuit. She has created two mobile dining apps and blogs at KatieParla.com/blog. KRISTINA GILL is the food and drinks editor at DesignSponge.com, a home and lifestyle site with over 1.2 million readers per month. Her original recipes, and those she hand-selects from celebrated authors, chefs, and readers have appeared weekly as the "In the Kitchen With" column since 2007. She is also a food and travel photographer. Kristina transferred to Rome in 1999 after earning her BA from Stanford and her MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS.

Review Copy Gratis Clarkson Potter Publishers via Blogging for Books

[Sammm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will officially thoroughly read this in 2017; I flipped through it, and it looks pretty decent. I'm putting the rating up because I really want this to at least be nominated in 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards for "Food & Cookbooks"; so anyone who does read cookbooks, please consider checking this one out? xD

My hopeful candidates for 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards "Food & Cookbooks" category:

(In book title's alphabetical order)

[Silvia · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me this is yet another cookbook that should have been marketed as a book *about* food. I enjoyed reading through it, especially since my family is from Italy and I have cousins in Rome. But there are very few recipes, if any, that I'll actually cook for myself at home. A surprising number of recipes are for fried food, which is difficult for most home cooks to produce successfully. Other recipes call for ingredients that are difficult to procure, even in a foodie city like Seattle. So while this may be an authentic cookbook, it is more useful to me as a reminder that I need to book a trip to Italy, and a chance to reminisce about the good meals I've eaten there.

[Cristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Italian food is so incredibly simple that it leaves me wondering why cookbook after cookbook try to comprehensively cover the subject. This one is visually beautiful and contains many paragraphs on the history of the region and how it connects to its food. This rounds it up to 4* but in reality it's a solid 3.5* for my personal taste. While I'd use a few notes from the baking chapter it's not something I need to buy. Back to the library it goes.

[Mina-Louise]

Stunning!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple, basic recipes will please those hoping to learn about Roman cuisine. Very little complexity or hard to get ingredients. Brief introductions look at a dishes provenance as well as where you might eat the dish in Rome. One of the authors is a photographer so there are lots of picture of the food and Rome. Separate chapters focus on Rome Jewish cuisine, which I found to be the most unusual and unique including recipes like anchovy and frisée casserole and honey soaked matzo fritters. Several recipes also use organs and other rare parts of the animal.

[Karen]

Even 150 years after unification, Italy is still a divided nation where individual regions are defined by their local cuisine—mirrors of their culture, history, and geography. But the cucina romana is the country’s greatest standout. Speakeasies, ten-table restaurants, and street food stalls may not be the first things that come to mind when you think of Rome, but these new realities have joined the traditional bars and trattorias of the Italian capital as bastions of great food and drink. In Tasting Rome, journalist Katie Parla and photographer Kristina Gill capture Rome’s unique character and truly evolved food culture—a culmination of two thousand years of history.

The recipes here, each selected for the story it tells, acknowledge the foundations of the cuisine and demonstrate how it has transitioned to the variations found today, ranging from genuine classics to fascinating but largely undocumented Libyan Jewish fare to centuries-old offal preparations, and so much more. Part cookbook, part travel memoir, this book transports all of the flavors of Rome into your kitchen.

[Janet Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half memoir and half cookbook, good photos. Anyone who has spent time in Rome will love this book. Full of what I find most amazing about Italian cuisine--simple, few ingredient recipes that are incredibly delicious. Shaved artichoke salad, "misticanza"/ green salad w/ hazel nuts & pecorino, pumpkin frittata. Good travel book.

[Angela Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful photography and descriptions of Rome. However, quite a few hard-to-find ingredients and no photos of some of the more unfamiliar dishes that would be helpful to have a photo of the finished product. Pollo alla romano is delicious, though, and I'm looking forward to making some of the other pastas and baked goods.

[Jesika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar thoughts as to Parla's second book: Food of the Italian South. Beautiful pictures. Excellent historical information. Just a few recipes which the people purchasing her book will possibly never attempt.

[Kmilford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A love story about Rome. And food. Great descriptions and pictures. I’m not sure I’ll make any of the recipes, since many of the ingredients are hard to find where I live and the recipes are rather laborious but I love the book. It also gave me great inspo for place to visit in Rome.

[Dray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book, authentic and with a lot of lore about Rome and its meals and cooks.

[Avi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting recipes. More like a 3.5

[Jessica K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written guide to the City of Rome but it needs to be read in connection with updated sources to be effective.

[Edie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t tried any of the recipes. They look good. Nothing unusual. I guess you could call that classic. Lovely pictures and interesting insights on Rome.

[Tonstant Weader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors and Forgotten Recipes from an Ancient City is as much travel memoir as cookbook. Katie Parla and Kristina Gill provide a rich narrative story of the neighborhoods and culture of Rome. Interviewing the chefs and bakers of Rome, they are able to share all sorts of inside knowledge and background.

The organization is not the usual antipasti, primo, secondo, and dulce arrangement by cause. Instead it organizes around themes, street food, the classics, immigrant fusion cuisines, recipes using offal, veggie dishes, bread and pastas, sweets and cocktails.

Some of the ingredients are new to me, such as ‘nduja, a spreadable salami used in the fried mozzarella recipe, but reading that recipe, I can imagine it giving fried mozzarella a new purpose in life .

I love the simplicity of some of the recipes like the one simply serving from fresh fava beans in their pods with some salami and pecorino romano or the cacio e pepe, recipes many cookbook authors would leave out because they don’t show off, but then look at the finest recipes by Eric Ripert and they are simple. Having the confidence to highlight those simple recipes that expose food at its more pure is a great thing that I appreciate. On the other hand, they also include a recipe for making guanciale, the cured pork jowl that enlivens many of their recipes.

The sections on the Hebraic cuisine and the cuisine of Libyan Jews has some very appealing recipes and it’s fascinating that such small number of immigrants could have such profound influence. For folks who are interested in the cheap cuts and offal, there is an entire section of recipes making use of the so-called fifth quarter of the animal.

Unlike many contemporary cookbooks, there is a nostalgic aesthetic to Tasting Rome. While it is full of beautiful full page photos common to modern cookbooks, most modern cookbook photos have intense, saturated colors with vibrancy increased with filters and layers. These photos are more naturalistic and if anything desaturated. The font for the recipe titles is thick and rounded. It is all very comforting and welcoming and suits the mood of the book with its blend of history and cultural tourism.

I like this cookbook. It’s organizational structure is idiosyncratic, but makes sense in terms of the idea they want to convey about Rome and its food culture. I with there were more vegetable sides and entrees and more recipes overall, but the 80 plus recipes that are included are a good mix of old and new, easy and complex, and all clear and easy to understand. There seemed to be a bias in the recipe select toward recipes with unusual and unfamiliar ingredients. It would be a stronger, more likely to be used until it falls apart cookbook if there were more recipes with everyday ingredients. My favorite parts of the cookbook, though, are the stories of Rome, like the prince who would not make change at his wine shop. Those kinds of details are priceless.

I was provided a review copy of Tasting Rome by Blogging For Books.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...

[Sandra Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhh! Food from my favorite country! Although I’ve never spent time in Rome itself apart from the airport (another story in itself!), I love the flavors of Italy and I waited with great anticipation for this book. It does not disappoint!

Tasting Rome is not just a cookbook. Filled with history, tidbits of information and photos that draw you in and make you long to be there, Tasting Rome is an experience. After the introduction, a section on Rome: Then and Now and a section entitled About This Book (none of which should be skipped over!), the book is divided into sections entitled Snacks, Starters and Street Food, Classic and Variations, Cucina Ebraica (food from the Jewish Quarter), Quinto Quarto (The Fifth Quarter, or offal based recipes), Verdure (Vegetables), Bread and Pizza, Sweets, and Drinks.

One of the things I love about Italian food is the simplicity of so many of its dishes. For instance, Insalata di Misticanza (Micro Green Salad with Hazelnuts and Pecorino), there’s only six ingredients, but those six ingredients combine for a salad that is both simple and delightful. Gnocchi di patate di Arcangelo Dandini (Arcangelo Dandini’s Potato Gnocchi) have 4 ingredients plus the sauce of your choice. Now, I have had gnocchi one other time in my life. They were premade and vacuum sealed and they were terrible! Heavy and chewy, they were not pleasant to eat, so I assumed I just didn’t like gnocchi until I learned years later that they are supposed to be light and fluffy. I just never got around to making them myself…until now. I’ve heard getting the texture right on gnocchi can be difficult and I believe it. I was still happy with how these turned out. There were a little denser and chewier than I think they really should have been, but were still very good. I’ll definitely try these again!

I’m currently searching for ‘nduja, a spreadable spicy sausage from Calabria so I can try the ‘Nduja in Carrozza, a take on Mozzarella in Carrozza where instead of mozzarella sandwiched between bread and fried, this recipe puts the ‘nduja between two slices of mozzarella and bread it before deep frying. It looks and sounds amazing!!

The Suppli Classici and Suppli Cacio e Pepe are Roman variations of the Arancini I so love from Sicily. The first is a mixture of rice, chicken livers and pork sausage in a tomato-based sauce inside, while the second is a simpler one with lots of black pepper throughout and mozzarella in the center.

There is so much to learn and love in this cookbook. Take a visit to Rome without ever leaving your home! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

I received a copy of this book through the Blogging for Books program for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Amanda Rogozinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook is authentic, diverse (draws from all classes and a section on Jewish Roman recipes), and absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't be happier with my choice for delving into Roman/Italian cuisine. The recipes remain the star of the show, even while incorporating historical and cultural information which is interesting and concise. You can't escape the priciness of specialty cheeses, and some Roman food items I may choose to order online as they are not readily available in the American market. Fortunately, a list of vendors providing these items is available in the back of the book. These recipes are perfect for a special night when you want to plan ahead, take your time, light some candles, turn up some romantic music, and really love being in the kitchen.

For a complete review visit me at TheWillowNook.com

I received a copy of this book from bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for my honest review.

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not one to completely trash a book in a review. So I will start with the positives before going into the negatives. The positives:
There is a table of contents
The book provides information about ingredients that the reader might not know about if they are not from Rome
Each Recipe is laid out in a simple fashion: ingredients, steps, servings
The recipe title is translated in English
The Negatives:
I would say about 90% of the recipes are all meat
I had to keep flipping back and forth through out the book in order to understand the recipe due to the ingredients
I am not sure where to go to even get half of the ingredients
Many of the recipes lacked pictures so even with the translations I had no idea what I was going to be making
The table of contents is very vague it is hard to locate individual recipes without looking through an entire section.
I was sent this book for free for only my honest and unbiased review.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a book made for foodies. It has beautiful pictures of Rome and shares stories and insight about the Roman culture. It's written by two Americans who go to Rome and fall in love with the city. This is not your typical Italian cookbook with recipes you would find anywhere. This is a book full of traditional and more modern versions of the food you can find Romans eating in their wonderful city. I do wish there were more pictures of the food even if I do enjoy the pictures that were provided of different scenes around Rome. I would have loved to see some of the food as it is meant to be cooked and traditionally served. Overall I find this book a fascinating look into an ancient city. I received a copy of this book by Blogging for Books for an honest review.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book, but for me it fails slightly in the useful cookbook department.

The cover and photographs inside are quite lovely. I like the descriptions and history of Rome. There is a lot of information here. So I guess that's good in a way.

What it was missing was pictures of a lot of the recipes. Some recipes had no picture, and some included a picture of scenery instead of the food. Is day about half had a picture of the recipe.

Then there were a lot of ingredients that I wouldn't be able to find in my little Utah suburb. But I was really interested in the pizza and bread section, and suspect that I'll try at least a few of those recipes.

So overall not my favorite cookbook, but still enjoyable to look at and read.

[Kaitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, thoughtful, interesting cookbook that gives you a peek not just into the recipes of Rome, but the neighborhoods, flavors, and history of Rome. It's thoughtfully written and has great anecdotes.

Maybe it's because I read this while prepping for a trip to Rome, but I couldn't stop reading it! I loved the author's voices and stories. When I was touring Rome, I got really excited when I recognized a restaurant (Nonna Betta!) or dish and tried things I normally would have shied away from thanks to this book.

I haven't tested any of the recipes yet, but I certainly plan to and am really excited to try and replicate some of the flavors I just tried!

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored everything about this book, from the photos to the contextual foundation (I knew very little about the nuances of Roman cuisine and how it has evolved) and the recipes which don't feel intimidating. It's an inviting, inspiring book and will certainly instill wanderlust. Rarely do I enjoy reading cookbooks, even those that bridge on culinary memoir, but I had a ball reading this and am eager to book a trip to Rome to discover it properly!

[Beth Lequeuvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am adding this one to my want to buy list.

It really is a love letter to Rome. Beautiful photos of both food and scenery, well-researched history of Roman culture and cuisine, as well as anecdotes and insights of two expats living in Italy, and the recipes... I'm drooling over here. Can't wait to try these.