Lamb and Mushroom Flatbread

I was supposed to make this last week instead of the Moussaka but today is the day for one of Nigel Slater's beautifully simple and tasty recipes, Lamb and Mushroom Flatbread.
In essence this is pan cooked lamb mince with garlic and chilli with quartered mushrooms, piled onto salad leaves atop a warmed flatbread. The key tastes here are soft, warm bread, hot lamb and cooling mint yoghurt and olives spooned on top. Not a sensation I usually have but a very pleasant one to add to the repertoire.

Lamb and mushroom flatbread

Ristorante Crispi 19, Rome & Feta Cheese, Olive & Rocket Salad

For my last day of a beautiful weekend in Rome I cannot resist having one last great meal, this time at lunch, before returning home. Again I ask the hotel receptionist (a different one) for a recommendation, who points us in the direction of Ristorante Crispi 19 and makes a reservation for us.
As it turns out we didn't need the reservation as we are the only name in the book when we arrive and indeed the only patrons in the restaurant. An empty restaurant at 1pm on a Sunday lunchtime? Hmmm... this doesn't look promising. The friendly front of house man shows us to the corner of an unremarkable room, with a fish tank containing lobsters and a sea bream in the window. Learning the lessons of yesterday, we cut out the appetiser and head straight for the primi piatta, where I have spaghetti with clams, bottarga, shrimps tartare and a hot carrots cream and She has spaghetti alla carbonara.
My pasta was a beautifully cooked, swirl of al dente spaghetti in the carrot and clam sauce with a little pile of prawns at it's summit - this is really tasty and paired up beautifully with the house white wine. I could not help soaking up the sauce left in the dish with the freshly cooked bread we also had.

Seafood spaghetti with carrot cream sauce

It's only at this late stage that I come to the realisation that despite the emptiness of the place, this is a genuinely good, mostly seafood restaurant, which makes my choice of beef fillet medallion steak for the next course a bit foolish;

Beef fillet medallion

She's not much better with her pork tenderloin, but these transgressions pale in comparison to the middle aged American couple who come in, eat a mixed salad, refuse any other courses, refuse to sample the freshly cooked bread, refuse the wine and eat in silence before settling the bill and leaving. Fittingly the staff hit them with a 15% service charge presumably for being such miserable bastards!

Pork tenderloin

But back to the food, both meats were beautifully cooked, Her's probably a tad better than mine. In fact her dish edges mine with the fried almonds and tangy apple, the meat almost falling off the fork. My medium rare cooked beef with it's marvellous pink inside, has a parmesan crisp on top of it and a brittle net of sweet wine(?) reduction. Both our dishes have a mixture of seasonal vegetables and tasty savoury gravy.
Dessert is a shared affair of 3 cold items, orange ice cream covered in dark chocolate, pistachio ice cream and some other kind of cold cake with sultanas and a swirl of burnt cream on top. Some nice touches by the staff here: they beautifully arranged the dessert on a large serving plate and noticing that I am left handed, put my dessert spoon to my left side, you cannot ask for better service than that! All these desserts are very good, my favourite being the in-season pistachio ice cream.

Dessert

We each end with a coffee and consider the bill, which comes to €135 in total including service charge, which equates to under £60 each, very reasonable for the quality of food and friendly service received. We chat with the owners as we leave praising them for the excellent food, shaking them by the hand and leaving them my email address to send me some recipes. We walk happily away up the street.
My actual supper was a hastily thrown together Feta Cheese, Olive and Rocket Salad with garlic flatbread when I got home. This was something of a let down, but Rome lovely Rome, I shall return to you one day!

Feta cheese and olive salad

Osteria St. Ana, Rome

The Italians know a thing or two about food, they are renown the world over for their dishes, for the care of and use of fresh, tasty local ingredients. However, in common with the rest of the world, they are more than happy to take advantage of tourists with lazy, poor quality, expensive fayre situated within a stone's throw of major tourist attractions. A lesson I know take with me everywhere is: Never eat or drink at an establishment on the edge of a square. Never. The atmosphere would have to be out of this world to counter balance the shite, expensive food served and I have yet to find a place where the ambiance is that good.
With that in mind and after a delightful day taking in the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums, I ask the receptionist at our hotel to recommend somewhere for dinner. In her unique brand of Italian English she recommends Osteria St. Ana, where she goes to eat with her friends, with the caveat that it is not expensive and not touristy. I believe I said something along the lines of 'Perfecto!'
We walk through the balmy evening and across Piazza del Popolo, down a side street to the restaurant and sitting at one of the intimate outside tables. We start with an appetizer, a selection of antipasto including Parma ham, a mozzerella ball, parmesan cheese shavings drizzled with honey, warm ricotta, fresh gala melon slices and peeled figs. The quality of each and every ingredient is beautiful. It's at this stage we realise, having ordered a primo course each, a seconda course each and a bottle of Rose wine, we have ordered too much.

Antipasto

Since I'm in Rome I want to eat, not only Italian, but as the Romans do so I have Bucatini all'amatriciana a lovely thick spaghetti in a hearty pancetta, tomato and chilli sauce, the al dente pasta showing it's quality as opposed to anything you usually get in the UK. So after finishing this with gusto, I know I still have one more course to go...

Bucatini all'amatriciana

 which is another Roman classic: Baccala alla romana, salt cod in again in a hearty tomato, onion and olive sauce. I'm really enjoying the flavours of the typical Roman dishes, but I know I'm almost sunk in terms of stomach capacity as I just manage to finish the fish, but unfortunately have to leave most of the sauce.

Baccala alla romana

I have to turn down dessert. I just about manage the espresso and settle a very reasonable bill which came to around €40 per head (around £35) and stagger down the street very satisfied.

Chicken with Lemony Courgettes, Potatoes & Olives

A clean and simple baked dish for today's dinner but loaded with taste is Chicken with Lemony Courgettes, Potatoes and Olives, a recipe I get from the August edition of Waitrose Kitchen magazine.
Firstly I chop the courgettes and new potatoes to similar sizes, in this case about the size of the smallest new potato, then toss them with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and thyme. Next I transfer them to a roasting tray, making a single layer of vegetables and nestle between them a couple of chicken breasts before putting it in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 30 mins, turning the veg halfway through. I then stir in a handful of large, pitted green olives and cook for 5 more minutes before transferring everything to a serving dish; thickly slicing the chicken and placing them at the crown. Very tasty.

Chicken with lemony courgettes, potatoes and olives