Rick Steves' Europe
Travel Bites 963: Testaccio: A Roman Food Tour
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In earthy Testaccio, a lively food tour through a neighborhood market provides a delicious taste.
In earthy Testaccio, a lively food tour through a neighborhood market serves up tomatoes, artichokes, buffalo mozzarella, bruschetta, supplì, porchetta, and pizza bianca — providing a delicious taste of everyday Roman life.
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Rick Steves' Europe
Travel Bites 963: Testaccio: A Roman Food Tour
Clip | 5m 40sVideo has Closed Captions
In earthy Testaccio, a lively food tour through a neighborhood market serves up tomatoes, artichokes, buffalo mozzarella, bruschetta, supplì, porchetta, and pizza bianca — providing a delicious taste of everyday Roman life.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[music playing] Rome is full of characteristic, proud, and distinct neighborhoods.
One of the oldest is Testaccio, once the warehouse district of ancient Rome.
It's built around a literal mountain of ancient pottery shards.
Like any neighborhood, it has a main piazza, a humble park, and street art like this tip of the hat to Rome's legendary founder, the she-wolf.
We're joining a food tour at the historic slaughterhouse to get to know this neighborhood and its market.
-Hello, everybody.
Good morning, and welcome to Testaccio, Rome.
My name is Luca, and I'm going to be showing you around this beautiful neighborhood that is strongly connected to food.
And it goes back all the way to ancient Rome.
This area is known in Rome as Il Cuore di Roma, which means the heart of Rome.
So welcome to one of my favorite street markets in Rome, the Mercato di Testaccio.
This place hosts more than 100 stalls.
It's all about family businesses.
When you come here, you get to know everybody.
Everybody gets to know your taste, what you like, what you don't like.
Look at all these colors.
We have a vegetable and fruit stall that has been here since 1939.
Ciao, Francesca.
Buongiorno.
-Ciao.
-And that's Paola.
Family business.
Now we like to eat what's in season.
So let me show you a bit of things that are in season right now.
Look how beautiful this is.
It's called romanesco, the Roman cauliflower.
This is like a work of art.
Uh, what else we got?
The zucchini flowers.
You know, the Roman zucchini.
It's basically you take the flower and you stuff it with mozzarella, anchovies, and it's battered and deep fried.
I'm gonna show you the king of Roman vegetables over there.
The carciofo, the artichoke.
And this is as Roman as it gets.
Over here, we have lots and lots of tomatoes.
Pomodori, as we say in Italian.
And you have different shapes, different colors.
We're gonna get some tomatoes.
Paola is chopping them up, and we're gonna make some nice bruschetta.
So this is a stall run by Sara.
Ciao, Sara.
Buongiorno.
She's gonna dress it with some olive oil.
She already toasted the bread for us.
We're gonna rub some garlic on it.
This is very healthy.
Uh, it also keeps the vampires away.
Yes.
Yeah.
All right.
And now the best part.
Let's make bruschetta.
Bruschetta.
Not "brushetta."
Oh, get the juice.
-Oh, baby, look at that.
-One of the simplest things and one of the most tasty things you can possibly try.
Now, with these same tomatoes, we're gonna make something else.
We're gonna make a salad.
So, everybody, this is Enzo.
-Enzo.
-Enzo.
Enzo is gonna prepare the caprese salad.
He's already sliced up some buffalo mozzarella.
Because the best type of caprese is made with buffalo mozzarella.
When I say buffalo, before you cringe, it's the water buffalo, which is a type of cow.
Nothing wrong with regular mozzarella.
It's tasty, but this is better.
Grazie, Enzo.
Grazie mille.
Mmm.
-So essentially three or four ingredients.
-Again, it's all about simplicity.
So you have to use very few ingredients, fresh and local.
-Oh, I like it.
-How do you feel about having some Roman street food?
We're gonna have the best, the most popular.
It's a fried risotto ball.
It's called suppli, which kind of means surprise because you don't know what's in it.
No.
You know, I tell you, it's good stuff.
Ciao, Roberto.
Ciao.
This is Roberto.
He just made them.
He make everything here.
So what they do is they -- First they make risotto.
They cook the toasted rice directly into the sauce.
They wrap it around fresh mozzarella, which you got right there in the heart.
And then it's rolled in breadcrumbs and it's deep fried.
Now right there you have the telephone cord and it's a good sign.
It means that it hasn't been sitting out.
It's fresh.
They just made it.
It's a long-distance call.
-Wow.
Delicioso.
-When you're really incredibly satisfied, go, "Wow.
Mamma mia!"
All right.
The next Roman delicacy we're gonna try is called porchetta.
It's something that's spread across central Italy.
But you want to eat it here.
All right.
I can see you're salivating already.
Ciao, Ludovica.
Buongiorno.
This is Ludovica.
This is porchetta.
This is the king.
It's a deboned pork loin stuffed with herbs and spices, slowly roasted for eight hours.
And it's usually eaten as a sandwich.
This is the most typical Roman sandwich.
We're gonna have it with pizza bianca.
Pizza bianca is basically flatbreads.
The outside gets crispy in the last 20 minutes when they crank up the heat.
-So it's quite simple.
-Very simple, but it still takes time.
Pizza bianca and porchetta.
-Okay.
-Oh.
-When you bite the crackling, you totally feel it.
-Yeah.
-You got the best part.
-The pork skin crackling and the pizza bianco.
-Pizza bianca.
-Mmm.
Delicioso.
-Okay.
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Now PlayingTravel Bites 963: Testaccio: A Roman Food Tour
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Clip | 5m 40s | In earthy Testaccio, a lively food tour through a neighborhood market provides a delicious taste. (5m 40s)
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NewTravel Bites 957: Capitoline Hill’s Ancient Treasures
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Clip | 3m | Rome’s historic Capitoline Hill brings ancient Rome vividly to life. (3m)
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Clip | 4m 4s | Tracing the story of Rome in a nutshell. (4m 4s)
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NewTravel Bites 954: Paris’ Other Great Museums
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NewTravel Bites 953: Versailles, Europe’s Palace of Palaces
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NewTravel Bites 952: The Orsay Gallery
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Clip | 3m 8s | The paintings of the Orsay take you from 1848 to 1914. (3m 8s)
NewTravel Bites 951: Paris's Louvre Museum
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NewTravel Bites 950: Paris: Boulevards, Les Invalides, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees
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NewTravel Bites 947: Paris’ Marais neighborhood
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Clip | 4m 6s | The Marais is a hub of Parisian history and culture—with its Jewish Quarter, and Bastille prison,. (4m 6s)
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NewTravel Bites 944: The Eiffel Tower
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Clip | 2m 15s | Paris’ Eiffel Tower, a muscular symbol of France’s Industrial Age, has been entertaining since 1889. (2m 15s)
NewTravel Bites 943: Paris’ River Seine
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Clip | 4m 35s | The Seine River defines Paris’ Right and Left Bank. (4m 35s)
NewTravel Bites 942: The Regeneration of London’s Industrial Heritage
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NewTravel Bites 941: The British Library
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Clip | 2m | London hosts the national archive with 12 million books and one Treasures Room. (2m)
NewTravel Bites 940: A Proper Afternoon Tea
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Clip | 2m 6s | Afternoon tea is a great British tradition and London does it with style. (2m 6s)
NewTravel Bites 939: London’s East End Food Tour
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NewTravel Bites 938: London’s Victoria and Albert Museum
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Clip | 4m 34s | “Albertopolis” is the corner of London built by and celebrating the vision of Prince Albert. (4m 34s)
NewTravel Bites 937: The Tower of London
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NewTravel Bites 936: St Paul's Cathedral, London’s Pride
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NewTravel Bites 935: The City of London
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Clip | 3m 34s | London’s historic core is called “The City.” (3m 34s)
NewTravel Bites 934: Britain’s National Portrait Gallery
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Clip | 2m 35s | The National Portrait Gallery is the perfect place. (2m 35s)
NewTravel Bites 933: London’s Westminster and Whitehall, Home of Britain’s Government
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Clip | 8m 40s | The core of royal London. (8m 40s)
NewTravel Bites 932: Istanbul's Grand Main Drag, Istiklal Caddesi
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