Trecca
Manuel Treccastelli has the Pulicaro farm feed certain hens for Trecca, so the eggs come back fat enough for his carbonara.
Why go
Manuel and Nicolò Treccastelli cook this room and own it. Annie Replogle writes that Trecca shows it's all about the quinto quarto, or what's known as offal, the discarded animal parts that are 'I can't believe I'm eating this and actually enjoying it' kind of delicious
(The Infatuation). Their example is the regaje di pollo e patate, chicken innards cooked with rosemary and white wine and served with potato cubes. The rigatoni alla pajata is milk-fed veal intestine, and it is the dish that scares people off Roman menus.
Manuel asks the Pulicaro farm to feed certain hens a particular diet for Trecca, so the eggs come back fatter and suit the carbonara better than the farm's standard ones (Dissapore, 2020). Gambero Rosso ranked that carbonara second of twenty-one Roman versions the same year and printed the rest of the parts: Lagano rigatoni, guanciale from the Porchetteria Giorgini (Gambero Rosso, 2020). That plate cost ten euros then. Roma Capitale's own listing describes an open kitchen, a big blackboard and a healthy background racket
(Roma Capitale).
Order this / avoid
- Order: the rigatoni alla pajata, then the regaje di pollo e patate. The Infatuation calls them
lusciously tender chicken innards sauteed with rosemary and white wine, served in a pan alongside small cubes of the crispiest potatoes you'll ever taste
.1 - Avoid: writing off the trip. It is four metro stops from the Colosseum, and the Infatuation put it first in Rome anyway.1
What locals & experts say
- Annie Replogle, The Infatuation:
Or their rigatoni alla pajata, which might just make you suddenly crave milk-fed veal intestines.
1 - Gambero Rosso (2020):
The carbonara has excellent silkiness in the cream, well balanced across every part, where a decided note of egg prevails, calibrated by the salt of the pecorino and the sweetness of the crisp guanciale.
2
Good to know
- Booking: worth doing. The room is small and the bar seats are the good ones for a solo dinner.
- Where: Via Alessandro Severo 222, between Garbatella and San Paolo.
Verdict
should-visit — The Infatuation puts this first in Rome and says why in one line about the quinto quarto, which is the harder claim to make and the more useful one. Gambero Rosso ranked the carbonara second of twenty-one and printed the farm behind every part of it. Two brothers cook it and own it. It stops short of must-visit on currency: the ranking and the Dissapore review are both 2020, and no critic has published a verdict on the cooking since.