Eat Like a Roman {Settembrini}

Before Noah left for college everyone said with an emphatic sigh, oh wow your life is going to change! The statement made in the same way people offer that advice to you right before you have a baby; Tinged with a slightly ominous tone. Yes they are right. Our life has changed. The house is much, much,(much) quieter. There is way less laundry. But the biggest change has been our going out on "school nights" We go to friends for lively and delicious dinner parties. We go see movies on a Wednesday evening. Earlier this week we went to fantastic art opening and since we were already out and now with pals, we decided to stay out and have dinner. It had been a long time since any of us been over in the Prati neighborhood and no one had any good ideas of where to eat so Mark led the way. 

The Settembrini brand covers a lot of ground with a casual bar/cafe that has a very busy aperitvo hour (and excellent cocktails), a bookstore that serves light meals and the very upscale restaurant where we ended up.

An aperitivo cocktail was brought with the menu. Elegant nibbles of things like a bite of aperol and crisp ravioli stuffed with fresh greens were presented on thin slabs of slate. The Sommelier advised us on a wonderful Cesanese and we chose from the recited list of pasta dishes the chef had just decided on. Mark and I had spaghetti with the freshest wild Mediterranean prawns and Linda had cappelletti in a clear vegetable broth.  Because it was the last day of Carnival we decided to try three different desserts. The chocolate apricot creation was the most traditional, my aromatic creation of raspberries and chocolate the most daring and Mark's modern interpretation of carrot cake was interesting, but not for me. We finished all of this fanciness with a sweet port-like glass.

Now you probably know that none of us are really in the habit of very fancy meals with very important wine in the middle of the week, but we decided to embrace it. In the spirt of change. 

Settembrini Vino e Cucina

via L. Settembrini, 25

Stanze, Reinventing Renaissance Rooms

Exhibition runs from 17 February 2015 – 5 March 2015
Gallery of Art Temple University Rome
Lungotevere Arnaldo da Brescia 15
Monday to Friday from 10 am to 7 pm; weekends by appointment