Nonna Betta
Umberto Pavoncello builds his carbonara on dried beef, because a kosher kitchen has no guanciale.
Why go
Scatti di Gusto put the room first on its Rome list and named what makes it: say Rome and you say carciofo alla giudia and the typical dishes of the kosher kitchen
, alongside what it calls Umberto Pavoncello's carbonara made otherwise
, built on dried beef (Scatti di Gusto, 2016).
Katie Parla is cooler and more useful. She calls the cooking inconsistent and gives four things to order: pezzetti fritti, concia, the carciofi alla giudia in winter, and the spaghetti con bottarga e cicoria (Katie Parla).
Order this / avoid
- Order: the carciofi alla giudia if it is winter, then the concia. Katie Parla: "Stick to the the pezzetti fritti, concia (fried and marinated zucchini), carciofi alla giudia (in season in the winter), and spaghetti con bottarga e cicoria."2
- Avoid: ordering off the wider menu. The same writer calls the kitchen "a bit inconsistent".
What locals & experts say
- Scatti di Gusto (2016):
The address to go to is in the Ghetto
, alongside Umberto Pavoncello's carbonara made otherwise, built on dried beef.1 - Katie Parla: this room
serves kosher-style food that tends to be a bit inconsistent
.2
Good to know
- Season: the carciofi alla giudia is a winter dish and Katie Parla says so.
- Where: Via del Portico d'Ottavia 16, the Ghetto's main street.
Verdict
could-visit — A kosher kitchen on the Ghetto's main street, and the thing it solves is the thing worth eating: no pork, so Umberto Pavoncello's carbonara is built on dried beef instead of guanciale. Scatti di Gusto put the room first in Rome in 2016. Katie Parla, writing eight years later, says the cooking is inconsistent and names four dishes to stick to, which is the advice a reader should take with them. It sits at could-visit on that disagreement, and because Gambero Rosso's own carciofi alla giudia guide picks three other Ghetto rooms over it.