Learn to Clean an Artichoke: A Cooking Class in the Ghetto

The hard part of Roman fried vegetables is not the frying. It is the preparation: stripping an artichoke down to the tender part without taking off too much, or opening a courgette flower without tearing it. Nobody teaches this, and it is what separates the fritto romano you eat in the Ghetto from the version that arrives soggy. This class teaches it. You clean and prepare the vegetables yourself, whatever is in season, and then fry them. Alongside that, fresh pasta made from scratch, Roman style. The chef learned to cook from her grandmother and now does it professionally, which shows in the corrections she makes to your hands rather than to your technique in the abstract. Dessert is torta di ricotta e visciole, the ricotta and sour cherry tart that belongs to this quarter and to almost nowhere else, made from very few ingredients. The class runs with the history of the Jewish Ghetto woven through it, and why the food here developed separately from the rest of Roman cooking. Children are welcome, and so are vegans and vegetarians. Meet your host in Piazza Mattei, outside the restaurant La Taverna, Via del Portico d'Ottavia 8.