Today, on a wet and cool Photo Friday, Susan Sanders brings us photos of a favorite restaurant in Trastevere. The images warm our hearts and make our stomachs rumble!
Now that summer is over (and boy oh boy is it over — it rained a week ago and it’s been autumn ever since) and the Romans have returned to their regular routines, it’s time to make the rounds and see just how tan everyone got on their August vacation.
For Susan, the first stop on any such meet-and-greet expedition is Le Mani in Pasta, a beloved trattoria on Via Genovese in Trastevere.
Run by a crew of hardworking ragazzi, Le Mani in Pasta turns out some of the best food in the neighborhood, day after day and night after night. Ivano the cook (seen in both photos above) cheerfully slaves over blazing fires, and in doing so manages to produce a host of pastas sauced in the traditional Roman style, as well as a mean saltimbocca and some extremely fine grilled fish.
The glassed-in kitchen is visible from the dining room and a table near the chef means that all conversation will periodically come to an abrupt halt as guests become utterly engrossed in the kitchen ballet: the choreography includes some dramatic wristwork as pasta is tossed with freshly prepared sauces, extended arm knife slashes worthy of a samurai as artichokes are cleaned and trimmed, exhibitions of brute force as lobsters are wrangled into steaming pots, and an infinite variety of pirouettes and twirls executed as Ivano moves deftly away from flames that blaze up every time he adjusts the ingredients in a scalding hot saute pan.
But what to order? We’ve never met a Le Mani meal we didn’t like. The antipasto del mare is a heaping fresh seafood salad that’s almost too beautiful to eat. Of the fresh pastas, we especially love the rich fettuccine with ricotta and pancetta, the oh-so-Roman spaghetti cacio e pepe, and the less common spaghetti alla vernaccia. After that it’s hard to decide between a saltimbocca that tastes like something your Italian grandmother made and the daily fish specials that are grilled or baked to perfection. Don’t forget dessert. We dream about the pear and caramel semifreddo.
For more photos by Susan Sanders, visit her website: Rome With A View
