Let’s celebrate the undisputed queen of the counter: potato pizza.
Simple? Apparently, yes. But don’t be fooled. There’s something magical about this roman pizza. For the International Potato Day, let’s discover the best in Rome.
Potatoes in Rome: a true love
Potatoes have a very specific place in Roman food tradition. Especially as a side dish or ingredient in rustic dishes. One of the most iconic preparations are potatoes cut into wedges or cubes. Seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, unpeeled garlic, salt and pepper, and baked until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They are a classic side dish for dishes such as roast lamb or roast pork. Roman tradition dictates that on Thursdays, handmade potato gnocchi are prepared, seasoned with ragù or tomato sauce. It was the rich dish before the Friday of lean food. Stewed potatoes are another humble but very tasty dish, to be eaten with homemade bread. Slowly cooked with tomato, onion, celery and carrot, they were often enriched with a little guanciale or sausage.
Rome’s crispy queen: pizza with potatoes
Let’s face it, potatoes are good everywhere! In Rome they are boiled in soups, roasted next to lamb, but they really do their best on pizza. Among the thousand delights that the bakeries of the Capital churn out every day, there is one. Pizza with potatoes! Sliced very thin (almost transparent), often without even the peel, it is placed on the classic white base, without tomato, together with a drizzle of olive oil and a few needles of rosemary. This combination of simple but expertly measured ingredients manages to create a small street masterpiece. Just enter one of the many historic bakeries of Rome, from Trastevere to Testaccio, from Campo de’ Fiori to Centocelle, to see neat rows of steaming trays, golden and fragrant, with that crunchy crust and thinly sliced potato slices.
Every oven has its own version of pizza with potatoes
We are certainly not talking about a gourmet restaurant pizza. This is a local bakery product. To be taken in slices on a sheet of wax paper and eaten while walking, perhaps while returning from the office or strolling downtown. It is pure comfort food. And the cost is low too! If there is one thing that is never lacking in Rome (besides traffic), it is creativity in the kitchen. Every Roman has his or her favorite bakery, and every forno has its own personal version of pizza with potatoes. Some put them in raw, some blanch them first. Some add onion, some grate a little pecorino cheese on top (heresy or genius?). And then there are those who cook them until they become chips, and those who leave them a little softer, almost melting.
Potato and rosemary pizza is more than a fad
Certain things, in Rome, are sacred. And this pizza is! In fact, the iconic potato pizza is not a passing fad. It is a piece of Romanity, a tradition that resists time and foodie trends. In an era in which everything becomes gourmet, it remains there, true to itself, simple but irresistible. Let’s find out together where to eat the best potato pizza while walking through the streets of Rome:
Forno da Milvio (Via dei Serpenti, 7)
Bonci Pizzarium (Via della Meloria, 4)
Antico Forno Roscioli (Via dei Chiavari, 34)
Forno Monteforte (Via del Pellegrino, 129)
Pizzeria Sancho dal 1969 (Via G. Gioachino Belli, 3a)
Tulipane (Via del Pavone, 28)
Ruver Teglia frazionata (Viale Aventino, 46)
