Visiting Italy is like going to food heaven. Every meal tastes extremely fresh, like it was taken from a farm that morning and made it onto your table in an instant. Whether you prefer pizza or pasta, every meal seems to rank in some of the best meals you’ve ever had. Rome itself is no exception to this – in fact, Rome probably has some of the best pasta you may have in all of Italy. There are four famous pasta dishes that Rome is known for. This post will go over how to order in Italian like a pro, what Rome pasta dishes you have to have, and the pasta shapes that Rome is known for that you can eat fresh while here!
How To Order Food in Italian:
I believe that taking the time to learn a few key phrases is a must when visiting a country that speaks in a language you don’t know. It shows respect to that culture and making an effort will take you far! A few times I’ve received a free shot of limoncello or made a new friend, just by attempting to speak the language.
“Hello”, “goodbye”, “thank you”, and “can I have” are the baseline for me. I also like to add in “good morning”, “can I pay”, “table for two”, and some other phrases to my repertoire. Thankfully, these are not too difficult in Italian.
Vocabulary to Remember!
Hello and goodbye are the same word: ciao. When I enter a store or restaurant, it’s always polite to say hello especially in Mediterranean countries, but I believe in most places in the world. When you enter any kind of shop, I always say “ciao” as I make eye contact with the shopkeeper, and ciao as I leave also.
As the waiter puts your food on the table, say “grazie” which means thank you! I like to challenge myself to order in the local language whenever I go. To order in Italy, you can say “Posso avere…” which translates to, “can I have…”. You can also say “vorrei la pizza” if you want to say, “I would like the pizza.” You can try using Duolingo before you go, but sometimes, you don’t even get far enough to learn all these things in the few first units.
Hello / Goodbye – Ciao
Thank you – Grazie
Thank you so much – Grazie mille
Please – per favore
Can I have… – Posso avere…
I would like… – Vorrei…
Table for two – Tavolo per due
Can I pay – Posso pagare
Can we pay – Possiamo pagare
Rome Pasta Dishes
The four famous pastas that you need to try are all in fact, very similar to each other. The four dishes all have a pecorino cheese base, but are made slightly differently. You can easily make the other by adding or removing eggs, tomato, or guanciale. The four pastas are: carbonara, cacio e pepe, alla gricia, & amatriciana.
- Cacio e pepe
- Alla grigio
- Amatriciana
- Carbonara
Carbonara
Carbonara is my personal favorite, and it is well known for good reason. It’s made with pecorino, eggs, black pepper, and guanciale. Guanciale is an ingredient in all of these dishes other than cacio e pepe, and it’s fatty cured pork similar to prosciutto. The best carbonara I’ve ever had was in Rome. Every time I’ve had it after, I’ve been at least slightly disappointed because they never live up to the one in Rome! Carbonara is often on the menu at restaurants, so it shouldn’t be too hard to check this Rome pasta dish off. Normally, carbonara is made using spaghetti, but you can find it made with other pasta shapes as well.
Cacio e Pepe
Cacio e pepe is the one of the Rome pasta dishes that most people have heard of. Frankly, while this one is delicious, it’s not my favorite. I am not the biggest fan of black pepper, which is why! But if you love black pepper, then you will certainly love this dish! Most places don’t go too heavy on it, so it’s still enjoyable for me, but the others are all just fantastic and out of this world for me that they blow cacio e pepe out of the water. This pasta is also easy enough to find at most restaurants to get an easy 2 out of 4 checked off your Rome pasta bucket list!
Alla Gricia
Pasta alla gricia is fantastic for me, because it is basically cacio e pepe but with tons of guanchiale! It’s a yummy cheese sauce, I guess the closest Italian equivalent of mac and cheese. While this dish is not as easy to find as carbonara or cacio e pepe, it is well worth the search. I had never tried alla gricia until I challenged myself to try all four kinds while in Rome and I became obsessed. Like carbonara, alla gricia has guanciale, which is delicious and salty. The cheesy sauce with the salty bacon-esque meat made it almost as good, if not better, than carbonara! Some people do prefer this dish over carbonara if they aren’t a huge fan of eggs being in their pasta sauce. Honestly you can’t pinpoint the taste of eggs you didn’t know it was included!
Amatriciana
Amatriciana is the same as alla gricia, except you add tomatoes to the sauce. This dish can sometimes be a little spicy, which is a good mix up from the cheese sauce that’s so prevalent in the other three. Amatriciana was the last of the four pastas that I tried. I wish I tried it earlier so I could differentiate the other three more easily since they’re so similar! I enjoyed this pasta thoroughly, and I think you will too if you like a bit of spice.
This dish is more like alla gricia when it comes to finding it. You definitely can’t sit down at any restaurant and expect to find it! So find a restaurant with good ratings that has it on the menu ahead of time if you want to try all four pastas before you leave! Bucatini is the most common pasta shape you’ll find made with the amatriciana sauce.
Pasta shapes in Rome
Most pasta made in Rome will be one of five shapes: rigatoni, bucatini, spaghetti, tonarelli, or tagliatelle. When I was in Rome and I asked for suggestions from my hostel and waiters. I was told that tagliatelle was the best Rome pasta shape since it’s the one they are known for. In general, most pasta is made fresh in Italy. Tagliatelle is super easy to make fresh due to its shape. When you order a tagliatelle dish, you know you’re getting freshly made authentic pasta! While in Italy, you have to try one of the Rome pasta dishes with tagliatelle!
The Pasta Capital of the WORLD
I personally would call Rome the pasta capital of the world. I’ve been to 10 different Italian cities, and my favorite pasta was all in Rome, with the exception of a carbonara I had in Venice that was also fantastic. Thanks to a program to teach English abroad, I had the free time to come visit Italy twice for two weeks at a time! The program is called NALCAP, and if you are interested, you can read more about it here.
I encourage you to also try all four famous Roman pasta dishes while visiting! It’s something not everyone knows and a fun goal to have and tell others about! It personally made me never want to cook pasta again since I don’t think mine will EVER live up to the pasta I had in Rome. I’d also recommend taking a cooking class so you don’t feel as I do!
Enjoy Rome and happy traveling!
