Have you noticed, those of you who have been to Rome, that among the paintings and photographs that adorn the walls of restaurants in the center, you often find a photograph of Alberto Sordi eating spaghetti? The most curious thing about it is that almost all tourists find it very funny, they recognize the lead actor, but they cannot say which film it belongs to. In case any of you didn’t know, it is an image from a scene in Un americano a Roma. Sordi played the role of Ferdinando Mericoni, a boy obsessed with the USA, a country where he desperately wanted to go to live. Mericoni tried to Americanize his life in Rome, based on the idea he had of it through the films that arrived from Hollywood to Italy in the 50s. The situations he starred in were surrealistically pathetic, but it seems that, although exaggerated to make it completely comic, many young Italians of the time shared Mericoni’s obsession, especially following the arrival of the American troops in Rome on June 4, 1944, to liberate the city from the German army. By the way, the famous Neapolitan song by Renato Carosone Tu Vuò Fa’ L’Americano is based on this same trend. It sounds familiar, right?
The photo belongs to a scene where Sordi initially refuses Italian food, in this case, spaghetti, but which he generically calls macherroni, a term that was also used to disparagingly call Italians abroad, because he only wants to eat “American,” while his poor father, who is trying to sleep, laments, fed up with Ferdinando’s nonsense.
Now, what kind of spaghetti does Mericoni eat? I’ve looked for it, but no one seems to be entirely clear. I found a television program, I Cucinatori, where they talked about 3 different hypotheses. 3 typical Roman recipes with long pasta: Bucatini alla Matriciana, cacio e pepe, and spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino. I think it is very unlikely that it was the matriciana, because even though the movie is in black and white, it is clearly seen that the pasta is white, that is, without any type of tomato sauce. I also don’t think they were spaghetti cacio e pepe. The pecorino and pepper, bound with a little pasta cooking water, leave it quite messy and not loose and shiny like the one Mericoni eats. Therefore, of all three dishes, the aglio olio e peperoncino, if you remove the garlic and the chili once fried, which people often do at home, at first glance it seems that the spaghetti is only seasoned with a drizzle of oil, just like the ones in the movie. Although the program does not mention it, it could also be a fourth type of pasta. At the beginning of the monologue, Mericoni refers to the pasta, which they have left prepared for him, as food for carters. In Sicily, there is spaghetti alla carretiera; the name comes from the fact that, precisely, it was eaten by carters, who, to go on a trip, carried only ingredients that would not spoil. Although mushrooms, tuna, or tomato can also be added, they are only versions of the original recipe, which consisted of cold pasta, usually spaghetti, seasoned with raw garlic, oil, chili, and pecorino. In short, a first cousin of the aglio, olio e peperoncino. Although of Sicilian origin, it seems that it began to be part of the diet of the whole country, especially in times of food shortages.
I leave you the recipe for aglio, olio e peperoncino, because I like it more than the simple alla carretiera. Tuscans, Abruzzese, Romans, Sicilians, and Neapolitans dispute its “paternity,” but the recipe is so old that no one knows for sure where it came from. I have never checked it, but they say it is a good ally for eating in the early morning, after an alcoholic party. I make it for dinner, when I don’t feel like complicating my life, but I feel like a good plate of pasta-pasta, when no one sees me and I want to play the Italian, threatening them with that “maccarone, m’hai provocato ed io ti distruggo adesso, maccarone…” 
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The card
- 200g of spaghetti
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1 fresh chili
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Put the pot with water for the pasta on the fire immediately, because the rest is done in no time.
- Put a good drizzle of oil to heat over low heat in a pan large enough to sauté the pasta.
- Add the garlic and the chili cut into very thin slices, although, if you don't like eating small pieces of garlic and chili, you can simply add the garlic halved and a dried chili to the oil, which you can easily remove from the pasta.
- When the garlic and the chili are golden, turn off the heat, if the pasta is not yet al dente.
- Drain the pasta, reserving half a ladle of the cooking water and add them to the pan.
- Sauté the pasta with the contents of the pan, add the ladle of cooking water and turn off the heat when the pasta has absorbed the water.
