Rome and I Porchettoni

Right before we left for Rome, we caught an episode of Anthony Bourdain's The Layover Rome.  We had never heard of the show, but thought it sounded interesting so decided to give it a try.  For those of you that have never heard of the show, the Travel Channel sums it up this way "Anthony Bourdain is back like you've never seen him before. He is high octane, gritty, caffeinated and traveling with a sense of urgency. Why? Because he has only 24-48 hours to unleash an unpredictable story about a place, a people and their food."  I guess he goes from city to city but the only episode we've seen in the one about Rome.  And I took a lot of notes.

One of the places he recommended was I Porchettoni.  And what is the thing to get there?  Porchetta.  Porchetta is a savory, fatty, moist boneless pork roast that originated  in Ariccia.  The body of a one year old pig is gutted, deboned, layered with meat, stuffing, fat and skin, then rolled, spitted and roasted traditionally over wood. It is usually heavily salted and stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel and wild herbs.  This wonderful place brings their porchetta from Ariccia so you don't have to travel there to taste it.  And let me tell you, it is YUMMY!

We couldn't find anything that talked about hours so the first night we went there at 6:00 p.m. and it was closed.  So, we tried again  at 7:00 p.m. the next night and had better luck.

The restaurant that we went to is about a 15 minute walk from Termini station.

A few pictures that we took on the way to the restaurant.

 And here we are!  I Porchettoni's!

One of the things that we really liked about this place was the prices.  And, the fact that we were the only tourists there.  Typical Italian place for the typical working Italians.  No worries though as both of the waiters that we had (we went several nights) spoke perfect English and were very friendly.

We start off with porchetta for 2 with warm fresh delicious bread.  And it was absolutely wonderful. The skin was so crispy and yummy!  Worth the visit for sure, just for that!

And then we move on to the large mozzarella di bufala.  This was absolutely wonderful!!

I think we were full before the pasta even arrived!  Ron got the Cacio, pepe e nduja.  It was delicious and really spicy!

I just went with the Cacio pepe which is simply freshly grated pecorino romano cheese and freshly grated black pepper.  Simply wonderful and very traditionally "Roman".

 

Look out Miami!  This is Alessandro and he plans to open one of these wonderful restaurants in Miami this year!  You are in for such a treat!

We were stuffed yet he told us we HAD to have dessert.  So, we went with the biscotti al vino that he said his mom made.  It was sooooo wonderful!  Wonderful taste of anise.  And when we left, he gave us a bag of 6 to take with us for free.  To remember them by.  And it worked, because we went back and our mouth still waters just thinking about this place!

If you go to Rome, make sure you check them out!