Food Tours · Tour

Buy the Ricotta at the Butcher, Then Cook It Down the Street

Three hours in Trastevere, twelve people, and the sequence is the reason to take it: you shop before you cook, in the shop the trattoria itself uses. It starts at a traditional Roman norcineria on Via Natale del Grande. Norcini were the pork butchers from Norcia in Umbria who came to Rome centuries ago and whose name still means the trade. You eat pizza bianca stuffed with porchetta and drink a glass of wine while your guide picks out the eggs, the grated Parmigiano and the fresh sheep's ricotta for the class, explaining what makes each one worth buying. Then a proper old-school trattoria on Via Roma Libera for the cooking. You make fettuccine and ravioli by hand, and what comes out is specific rather than generic: pasta alla chitarra with an amatriciana, and ravioli filled with the sheep ricotta you just bought, cut with lemon zest and dressed in butter and sage. The lemon is what makes the filling work; without it, ricotta on its own goes flat. You sit down and eat both with good wine. The last stop is a gelateria for organic gelato, where you learn how to tell the real thing from the piled, over-bright display versions. Wheelchair accessible. Minimum two guests. Children under four join free without food, and there are alternative drinks for kids and non-drinkers. English-speaking guide and chef. Stops and dishes vary with the season. Dietary requirements can often be handled with notice; severe allergies cannot.