La Piccola Amatrice was the first restaurant in Rome where I had dinner and where I have eaten the best spaghetti alla carbonara of my life. A long time passed during which we didn’t go back there, because at that time we worked in Rome just like now, but we lived in Bracciano, a small town almost 50 km northwest of Rome. When we left the studio, we were fed up with Rome and almost always went straight home. During all that time I thought I couldn’t find another carbonara that lived up to that one, because I had only tried it the one week I had spent in Rome as a 100% tourist and under the effects of the silliness of the first few weeks of falling in love. When we moved to Rome we started to frequent this restaurant regularly, which is very close to our house, and I was able to verify that no. They cook a fabulous carbonara, period.
In addition to the carbonara, they serve other equally delicious pasta dishes: Alla gricia allows you to fully savor the crispy and intensely flavored guanciale dell’ Amatrice with which they prepare every recipe that contains it; the matriciana is incredible, the pappardelle al cinghiale, the penne alla vodka, all’arabiatta… They all deserve to be tried. Always perfectly al dente, without skimping on any ingredient. In the kitchen they get straight to the point and don’t make you wait longer than necessary. Even so, you can always stave off hunger by having a small plate of assorted antipasti all’amatriciana, which they have on display next to the kitchen. The little glamour I have left will be lost right now by confessing that in some moments of low spirits at work, it has cheered me up to think that at night I could benefit from the option of eating a couple of spoonfuls of lentils, white beans, and/or chickpeas from La Piccola Amatrice, Trinità style.
If you don’t like pasta, you can fearlessly choose a pizza or one of the second courses from the menu which, by the way, they never bring to the table. As happens in many Roman osterie, they tell you themselves and recommend if they have cooked something special that day. The place is very simple, just like the dishes, but in both one and the other, what matters is definitely the essence: Quality products cooked conscientiously, by a connoisseur of good traditional food without any nonsense. Both he and the rest of his family are very kind, friendly people who, together with some neighbors from the area who are always around, make you feel like you are in your own dining room. To top it all off, the portion sizes are for Obelix after a week of fasting and the price is outrageously reasonable.
[highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]La piccola Amatrice[/highlight]
Via Tripoli, 24, 00199 Rome, Italy
Tel.: +39.06.86200266
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