Ristorante Due Ladroni a Roma

After a harrowing 25 hour trip from New York to Rome (due to airline delays), Michele and  I were really looking forward to having a good dinner at Due Ladroni, one of our favorite restaurants in Rome.

Over the last few years it has become our first stop in Rome.

We like everything about the restaurant, the atmosphere, the hosts, and of course, the food and wine. 

I started with the Alice alla Diavola, grilled spicy anchovies with a salad dressed with lemon.

Michele had grilled octopus on a bed of chick pea puree.

Next I had Pici alle Vongole Veraci Sgusciate, thick spaghetti with clam sauce.

Michele had Pasta alla Norma with red tuna.  Rigatoni pasta in a cherry tomato sauce with chunks of fried eggplant and sauteed red tuna.  Served with ricotta salata cheese.

We shared a plate of Moscardini Fritti, tiny crisp fried octopus. They were impossibly crunchy and juicy at the same time.

Sicilia Menfi DOC 2021 “Cometa” Planeta made from 100% Fiano. The training system is espalier with guyot pruning and there are 4,500 vines per hectare. The grapes come from two different vineyards, Dispensa at 75 meters and Gurra at 35 meters and the soil is mostly lime and chalk. Harvest is at the end of September. After picking by hand, the grapes are stripped of stalks and sent to the press.  Soft pressing and static sedimentation takes place in stainless steel at a low temperature of 6-7°C.  The clear part is decanted and ferments in stainless steel tanks for 90% and for 10% in 35 hl oak barrels, at about 14-15 °C for 12/14 days. At the end of fermentation the tanks are filled up with similar wine and left on the primary lees with daily stirring. This is a well structured and  elegant wine with hints of chamomile, mango, apricot and a slight touch of honey

This is the Due Ladroni version of the classic Torta della Nonna.  Here it was an individual tartlet filled with vanilla pastry cream and topped with pastry crumbles and pinenuts.  I devoured it!  

We couldn’t have picked a better meal to welcome us to Rome!