09/25/2026
Rome’s Best Pasta Dishes — the ones I’d actually look for in the Eternal City 🇮🇹🍝
Rome is one of those cities where pasta can look almost ridiculously simple on the plate. Four or five ingredients, no elaborate decoration, no mountain of toppings — and yet when those ingredients are handled properly, you understand why people become obsessed with Roman cooking.
The famous four are where I would start.
Cacio e pepe is probably the purest example: pasta, Pecorino Romano and black pepper. That sounds easy until you try making it properly. The cheese has to become a smooth sauce rather than a clumpy mess, and the pasta water does most of the magic.
Carbonara is the one everyone thinks they know. In Rome, the classic combination is egg, guanciale, Pecorino Romano and black pepper. No cream is needed. The silky texture comes from emulsifying the egg, cheese and hot pasta correctly.
Amatriciana brings tomato into the picture, together with guanciale and pecorino. Bucatini is one of the most famous pairings, but you will also see other pasta shapes used. When it is good, it should taste intensely savoury without becoming a heavy tomato sauce.
Then there is gricia, which deserves far more attention outside Italy. Think of it as one of the foundations of Roman pasta cooking: guanciale, pecorino and black pepper, without the egg of carbonara or the tomato of amatriciana. Simple on paper, incredible when the guanciale has been rendered properly.
But Rome is not only those four.
Artichokes are a huge part of Roman cooking, so pasta with carciofi is always worth watching for when they are in season. Porcini mushrooms appear on plenty of menus too, especially as the weather cools, and they work beautifully with fresh pasta.
Rigatoni con la trippa takes you into a much older, more rustic side of Roman cuisine. Rome has a long tradition of using offal, especially in the cooking associated with Testaccio, and tripe in tomato sauce with pecorino is very much part of that story.
One small correction worth knowing if you are travelling around Italy: pasta alla Nerano is actually a Campanian classic associated with Nerano, near the Sorrento Peninsula, rather than a traditional Roman dish. You may certainly find zucchini pasta in Rome, but if you want to eat the original in its homeland, save it for Campania.
That is one of the things I love about eating in Rome. You can order one of the famous dishes everybody knows, or you can start looking deeper into seasonal vegetables, quinto quarto traditions, local cheeses and recipes that rarely become famous abroad.
If I could put only three on the table, I’m taking gricia, carbonara and cacio e pepe.
Which three are you choosing? 😁🇮🇹
