I love fish fried in batter. Rarely a week goes by without me enjoying the traditional English fish and chips. So when we visited Rome last spring I was very keen to check out this Roman institution: Filletti Di Baccala.
It didn’t disappoint. The name says what it serves: fillets of salt cod, battered and fried.
A beautiful spring evening in May, sunshine, atmosphere, the lot. An old Italian couple sat next to us, enjoying themselves and laughing at us not knowing what to do and advising us that the salt cod didn’t need any more salt and how to wrap the fillets in the plain paper to eat them without the need for cutlery.
A simple green salad, the lightly battered courgettes/zucchini, wine in a little jug made up the rest of the meal which didn’t come to much more than 30 euro at most. It might even have been as little as 20 euro.
It felt very Roman to be sat in the shade of the church. As the Fodor’s review says
“The location, down the street from Campo de’ Fiori in a little piazza in front of the beautiful Santa Barbara church, begs you to eat at one of the outdoor tables, weather permitting.”
Read the Fodor’s review in full
It can be little hard to find though so here’s where it is on the map. worth making a note of directions from Campo De Fiori, which is actually relatively simple once you know which corner to aim for.