What could be simpler and tastier than pasta cooked up with just about any veg you can get your hands on? Just don’t skimp on the cheese …
In one of the communal gardens that skirt a dusty, tangerine block near the Palladium in Garbatella is a small forest of tomato vines. Yesterday (and I am writing this on 13 July), the cherry ones were almost all ripe, hundreds of bright, red balls netted in twisting green, while the bigger, heart-shaped ones were still green bags. I curbed my kleptomania, despite the fact several tomatoes were poking so far through the railings that they seemed to be trying to prod me. I thought I had curbed my son’s, too, by shouting so loudly that a woman looked out of her window. But then later, when we sat down for wine and lemonade in a trendy but hugely likable place called La Mescita, I’m sure there was a seed on his lip.
We took another route back to the car so we could enjoy another part of Garbatella, a Roman neighbourhood sometimes referred to as a borgata – a hamlet on the outskirts – and at others a quartiere paese, which translates loosely as “village within a city”. In another garden under a pale yellow lotto (or block), we spotted more bounty in an orto, or vegetable garden, of the kind that brings out deep envy in me: of the tomatoes and peppers, aubergines, onions, as well as of the care the owner took to grow them.
Continue reading...from Lifestyle | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3izA6Ts