25 Iconic Dishes That Define Rome – Rome

It’s not all pizza and pasta in Rome. The city is defined by the dishes that locals argue over, nonnas perfect, and chefs refuse to modernize. The ones that show up in tiny trattorias, spill onto streets from paper wrappers, or arrive at the table with no explanation needed. When putting together this guide, some choices were inevitable. (Yes, certain pastas practically wrote themselves in.) But Rome’s food culture is layered, ancient, and still full of surprises. These 25 dishes represent what eating in Rome really is like.