Tasty Roman Dishes at Il Fico Ristorante

We did find some zucchini flowers at a restaurant in Rome.  The restaurant was wrapped around one of the small winding streets behind the Piazza Navona.  It's name is Il Fico Ristorante, and one of the house specialties is the terrine of zucchini flowers (La terrina ai fiori zucchina).  The paper-thin zucchini flower is the perfect vessel to encase creamy fresh ricotta and parmigiano reggiano cheeses melted together with an addition of some chopped parsley.  Many of the dishes we had were simple and delicious. 

Other typical Roman dishes that were also good included:

For starters, both the bruschetta and Caprese salads were fabulous.  The tomatoes are so sweet here you could eat them for dessert.  The Caprese salad was one of the best I've had with those same sweet tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella cheese, salt and olive oil.

Tonnarelli Cacio Pepe & Ricotta -- The tonnarelli is house made.  Tonnarelli is an egg pasta that is a little thicker than spaghetti.  Cacio  e Pepe is a typical Roman dish.  It's also made with few ingredients.  The sauce is basically the pasta water (some places use wine, some don't) heated with pepper. The addition of pepper to the heated pasta water creates a greyish or darkish (scuro) sauce.  Off the heat add the Pecorino Romano (sheep milk cheese).  Fico puts their own spin on the dish and also adds fresh ricotta cheese.  The waiter said the addition of the ricotta lightens the dish a little.

Bucatini alla Amatriciana -- Another Roman classic, and it is my favorite pasta dish in Italy.  The sauce is made with pancetta, tomato sauce--made with the sweet fresh tomatoes, red pepper flakes and pecorino romano cheese.

The prices weren't bad either.  Pasta dishes (primi piatti) were around 8 euros and proteins or second courses (secondi piatti) averaged about 12 euros.  My brother got the Veal T-Bone steak and my sister-in-law the steak, which were both good.

The restaurant is just north of the Piazza Navona, so after dinner we strolled over there and admired the Bernini fountains, pondered buying a painting, watched street artists, and had some gelato for dessert.

Information on Restaurant Il Fico:  Located at Via di Monte Giordano 49, Rome -- www.ilfico.com

Comments

[Jozee]

The Amatriciana at Il Fico sounds delicious. I sometimes go to a local place, Melo's, to eat that dish and it one of my favorites. Lucky you that you are able to have a more authentic meal.
Jozee

[Term Paper]

Roman Culture always used to make this type's of testy foods But I saw first time this zucchini flowers at a restaurant in Rome.Its looks Delicious.