Rome: A Culinary History, Cookbook, and Field Guide to Flavors that Built a City

$45 · Offered by Kitchen Arts & Letters

Katie Parla’s Rome is no tidy checklist of classic dishes. It’s a deep, sometimes unruly portrait of a city whose food culture is inseparable from its politics, architecture, and contradictions. An American expat of Italian heritage, Parla brings decades of firsthand research to this independent, densely packed guide to what—and how—Rome eats. Part cookbook, part culinary history, part urban field guide, Rome balances scholarly depth with lived detail. Neighborhood by neighborhood, era by era, Parla explores how migration, empire, austerity, and abundance have shaped the city’s kitchens—from Iron Age foraging to postwar trattorias to modern disputes over authenticity and identity. The more than 110 recipes range from the familiar to the unexpected: Pizza bianca and “pizza tongues” (long flat slabs of dough sold by weight) Minestra di broccoli e arzilla (a traditional soup of romanesco and skate wing) Coda alla vaccinara (oxtail stew) and coratella (lamb offal with onions and white wine) Carciofi alla giudia and other deep-fried snacks Crostata di ricotta e visciole (ricotta and sour cherry tart) Beyond the recipes, Rome includes essays on food myths and marketing, reflections on the fetishization of cucina povera, and a full appendix on the city's evolving drinking culture—from municipal water to natural wine and amari. Illustrated with original maps and drawings by Ian Dingman and photography by Ed Anderson, it’s a vivid, deeply informed book for cooks, travelers, and reader

• Binding: Hardcover

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