Italian eats: The other side of that menu

The non-pizza chef offers even more

Okay! Let’s not have pizza today, but try a whole meal. The drinks menu obviously stays the same, but below it is another portion that didn’t scan that lists the primi, or first courses, which is often pasta. Just as with the rest of the menu, anything that might be frozen is starred. In this case that’s the stuffed pastas.

The pastas available are penne, tagliatelle and ravioli. Penne are short tubes, tagliatelle are egg noodles and ravioli are stuffed with ricotta and spinach in this case. None of these are homemade, but all are a good quality. Even though this restaurant gets a lot of tourist trade, it is essentially a local folks hangout, so the food must suit that picky crowd. The sauces available may or may not be made in house. It depends on the season and the day. The choices incluse butter and sage, tomato, arrabiata which is a bit spicy, pesto or truffle sauce. This last one is never made in house, because we have a terrific truffle company in town that does a great job of making truffle stuff. The Bianchoni family makes everybody’s truffle stuff here. Each of those pasta dishes costs €5 and is a bargain compared to most simple cafes. So if you are interested in the Italian many-course meal, start here and pick one.

Next comes the meat list. This means something at Pizzeria Roma. There is a butcher’s case that separates the kitchen from the dining room and in it are the qualities of meat available in the hunks that come from the primary butcher. Fez, the meat chef, cuts your meat to order from those loins. There are almost always Danish beef, which is on the small side; Chianina, which is the famous white Tuscan breed that grazes Umbrian hills as well, and non-specific Italian beef. If you ask he will show you the ticket that tells you everything about the meat he offers. It will tell you where the animal was bred, where it was reared and where it was butchered. You can see for yourself what it’s like. Italian meat is very lean, like most European meat, because it is grass fed and not fattened on corn in pens. Internal and to some degree external fat is minimal. There will also be lots of Italian pork which is the Umbrian go-to meat. Local sausages are made daily and are piled up in the case. What you see is what you can get.

First on the list is beef steak sold by the 100 gram measure. The price of €3 per etto means that it’s about $15 per pound, and that’s not bad. When it comes to the famous grilled T-bone called the Fiorentina, you cannot order less than about 600 grams, because it can’t be cooked over wood coals from the pizza oven in smaller sizes. Don’t order it unless you have company willing to share or you can eat 1.5 pounds of steak on your own. It can only be cooked to rare. If it arrives just too rare for you, Fez will re-grill it a tiny bit more. Because there’s so little fat, cooking it beyond rare makes it inedible. Trust me, I cook with it and it’s true!

Next on the list is braciole, or pork chop. This is superb meat. It’s grilled over coals until just done and then drizzled with thre drops of best EVOO. I eat this.

The next four items are boneless escalop of pork. They are prepared in the ways typical of the once upon a time veal scallops. The first is with a mushroom sauce of butter, white mushrooms, milk and salt, the second is sauced with garlic and white wine, the third is prtepared with a sauce of butter, milk, cheese and traditional raw ham of Italy, then the fourth has an artichoke sauce made ith garlic and milk. They are all good, believe me.

The next ityem is the ubiquitous Umbrian sausage, lean and salty and grilled over coals. You should try it at least once. It’s a bargain at €5.

Then come two filet dishes. The first is just charcoal grilled filet at €4.50 the etto or 100 grams. I think you can get a filet as small as perhaps 250 to 300 grams and expect it to be good. The quality of the meat will at least be awfully good. The other filet is an Italian classic prepared with butter, green peppercorns, cognac and cream. It’s yummy, too, and at €14 a surprisingly popular menu item.

Spiedine means brochette or shashlik. You will find cubes of meats and sausages, both beef and pork on your skewer.

Coteletta alla Parmigiana is a pork cutlet dredged and breaded, then fried and sauced with tomatoes and grana padana, a grating cheese from Emilia-Romagna. This may be the heaviest preparation in the whole cafe. You may love it.

Tagliata di manzo is beefsteak either grilled then sliced extremely thin or reverse that process. It is then served with rucola or rocket and probably a wedge of lemon, too. It’s very good, but if it is cut then cooked, it cannot be rare, so I prefer it cooked then cut.

Follow two hamburgers. They resemble no American hamburger you have ever met. No one here seems to know that, but what the heck. These are cooked and served as your Mum did… as meat on the plate with no bun. It isn’t a sandwich. The first one is served with that 4 cheese sauce, the second is served with fried potatoes. With the exception of this plate, none of the meat plates come with anything. You order side dishes separately.

Cotolette is the same cutlet of pork, but just dredged, breaded and fried.

Caprese is a big plate of mozzarella slices, tomato slices and basil all drizzled with good local olive oil.

Scamorza is a dish most foreigners don’t want until they see one served. It is a cheese shaped like a figure eight, cut in two and grilled until runny and sometimes a bit browned. This cheese was born to do this and when you see it, it seduces you.

The last entry is mozzarella, and that’s just what it is. It’s a bll of fresh mozzarella and you can just order whatever side dishes you would like with it.

The side dishes are few and simple.

Crochette are potato croquettes from the frozen case and they’re fine, just not as tasty as Tater Tots.

Patatine fritte are french fries, the second best in town and totally worth the calories. The best ones in town are fried in oilive oil, but the restaurant is painfully noisy and for all of that so crowded you must have a reservation, so I settle for Fez’ chips if I am going to have any.

Insalata verde is a salad of only greens. Healthy. Italian salads are served with vingear and oil that you use yourself. Dressing doesn’t exist here.

Insalata mista is salad with grated carrot, onion, tomato, cucumber and sometimes mising one of those or with something additional that caught Claudia’s eye.

Fritto Misto is not like what you eat at the Italian beach. It’s various vegetables, breaded and deep fried. What’s in the frozen mix is seasonal. In the winter it is heavy on the artichokes but in the summer often includes peppers. There’s always zucchine, just like everywhere in Italy.

Zucchine fritte is FRIED ZUCCHINE! Just in case what’s in the fritto misto isn’t enough.

There are always specials up on the white boards and they are worth asking about. The gal on the cash register speaks English and can explain most things to you. She also speaks some of 5 other languages, even Japanese, so give it a shot. In summertime there is a sidewalk eating area, but on busy days you may need to eat inside.

This is where I ate most of my meals before I got a kitchen installed. It’s cheap, the food is good, they are very honest and forthright and they try to be as friendly as the crush they serve allows. It’s just half a block off Piazza Mateotti and everybody knows their name. Mangiate!