Fermentum

Throughout our trip to Italy, I had some of the most amazing food I've ever tasted. However, there was one meal which came out on top by a clear mile. Before we left, my gran gave us both £20 to spend while we were out there, so we decided to spend it on a meal in a restaurant called Fermentum. It was recommended to us by Alessandra and Marco - the owners of the B&B where we were staying in Rome. It was situated in a beautiful location on the outskirts of an aqueduct park on Via Lemonia and was the perfect place to spend my gran's money. Ale and Marco had told us that the pizza dough was slightly lighter than normal and that the toppings were 'special' and 'different'. We didn't really know what this meant, but seeing as we received 20% off our total bill due to where we were staying, we decided to head to Fermentum on the second night of our stay in Rome.

Fermentum - cibando.com

Aqueduct park - TripAdvisor

We'd spent the whole day sightseeing around Rome and were really hungry so wanted a really filling and appetizing meal and fortunately we were not disappointed! Not sure what to have, Jack and I asked the waitress (who luckily spoke a bit of English) what she recommended. For the meat-lover she suggested the 'Pizza All'Amatriciana' (which normally comes as a pasta) so Jack went for that (even though he had no idea what was in it!), whereas I decided to have a spicy sausage, mushroom and bacon pizza. We also decided to order drinks; a beer for Jack and a glass of Prosecco for myself which was absolutely divine! Fruity, yet light and extremely refreshing.

To start, we ordered Classic Suppli, a typical Roman dish which Ale and Marco had raved about. We had no idea what to expect - apart from the fact that there was rice involved! What arrived was basically a ball of tomato flavoured rice and mozzarella. It sounds so simple yet it was so delicious! Here is the link to their facebook page - click here to see more Suppli: https://www.facebook.com/Fermentum?filter=1

It seemed as though all the locals were trying the more exotic styles of Suppli, but we had no idea how to go about ordering those and were happy enough with our classic ones. I have to say at this point that being a language student, yet not properly managing to communicate with people in their own language was quite frustrating! I didn't want to come across as a typically arrogant Englishwoman so tried my hardest to speak as much basic Italian throughout the duration of the holiday. This proved a huge struggle and explains why we didn't order more! 

After our 'Suppli Starter', our pizzas arrived. We were sat right by the chef's station and therefore we could observe the whole process - from the rolling out of the dough, to the plating up of the meal, which was a real privilege. Jack described his as 'the best pizza he's ever eaten' and mine wasn't far off whatsoever. The pizzas were HUGE and Marco was right about the dough - it really was something else. As for the toppings, I'd be quite intrigued to try the Pasta All'Amatriciana and see what it's like, but the pizza exuded flavours and aromas of smokey bacon, rich tomato & parmesan and as promised was like nothing I've ever tasted before. As for mine, the kick from the spicy sausage combined with the earthiness from the mushrooms and classic toppings of bacon and mozzarella created a damn good pizza!

We left feeling extremely satisfied with the food, drink and price. Just want to say thanks to my gran for helping us to have such a lovely meal in such a lovely place! As it was outside of central Rome, it wasn't touristy at all, and it was really nice to eat in a restaurant that the locals loved as it proved just how good the food was. 

We ended up eating out a bit later than we would normally as we needed a nap and relax after our tiring day out, which meant that by the time we actually got there (around 9pm) it was buzzing. There were people sat inside and out, and there was generally a really good atmosphere which made the whole dining experience really enjoyable. I'd most definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone who is travelling to Rome and/or staying in the outskirts. 

To find Fermentum on the Metro (how we did) just hop off at Subaugusta on Line A and head towards the aqueduct park where you will find Via Lemonia. Follow the road down and you can't miss it. And... if you want to enjoy 20% off at Fermentum I'd most definitely recommend a stay at the B&B Acquedotti Antichi with Marco and Alessandra. They were extremely hospitable and provided amazing breakfasts! For us, their B&B was in a really good location. Not central, but close enough to the centre for us to be able to do all the touristy things that we wanted to do. 

As I've said, the holiday allowed me to experience some of the most delicious food I've ever tried. However, now I'm back, I'm trying to lose some weight and therefore eat more healthily - so in the next post I'll be sharing some of my healthy meal ideas with you!