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Rachel Roddy’s recipe for spring onion frittata and sweet-and-sour onions | A kitchen in Rome
A favourite local eatery inspires our writer’s moreish spring-onion omelette and a sweet-sour onion antipasto. How much wine you have with it is optional …
The glass door is propped open. It has a branch painted on it, also a barrel and grapes. It is midday, so the glass-fronted counter is full, its metal trays of vegetables with spoons poised like runners on a starting line. There is chicory, well-cooked romanesco cauliflower, cubes of sweet-and-sour aubergine, grilled red peppers, courgettes with breadcrumbs, artichoke frittata, cheese and various salami.
To the right of the cash desk is the mirrored credenza da vino, or wine cupboard, its four taps ready to fill glass flasks of various sizes: litre, half, quarter. A group of regulars sit on the tables nearest the counter, chatting about Gualtieri, the mayor of Rome. The atmosphere, while different in many ways, reminds me deeply of my Granny’s pub. The place is called Fraschetta da Sandro; the eponymous Sandro is gentle and he asks what we want, then tells us to sit down at one of the tables and he will bring it over.In Lazio, the origins of the word fraschetta are related to the ancient hamlet of Frascata (now Frascati), so called because local woodcutters built huts from frasche (branches). Subsequently, local winemakers adopted a medieval custom common all over Italy of hanging a frasca, a branch, often of laurel, over the door to tell people they could buy or drink wine inside. These branched marked places became known as fraschette. There was no food, except maybe bread and boiled eggs, so people brought their own. In the cluster of towns known as Castelli Romani – Frascati, Marino, Ariccia – stalls serving thick slices of porchetta are inextricably linked with fraschette, some of which remain unchanged. Others evolved, and the new generation of fraschette in cities took their own shape, food becoming common – cheese, salumi, vegetables cooked and pickled, and bread, obviously, although wine remains the reason.
UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado
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