From Eat Pray Love · 2010 · Reconstructed
A Roman Feast, for the Table
Serve when
Serve it the way Liz orders it — everything at once, for the table, no apology — right as she rattles off the order in fluent Italian.
In the movie
Theatrical
- 00:44:36 Rome: Liz, newly confident in Italian, orders an entire table's worth of food at once — artichokes alla giudia, prosciutto with melon, eggplant with smoked ricotta, spaghetti carbonara, pappardelle with rabbit ragù, linguine with clams, tripe alla romana, and saltimbocca — and the camera lingers on each dish arriving.
This is the scene where Liz stops being a tourist. Weeks of language lessons and self-permission collapse into one fluent, unhurried order — a whole table's worth of Roman classics, named without hesitation, no guilt attached to any of it. The film shoots each dish arriving in close-up, the same reverence usually reserved for a reunion. It's the "eat" of the title in its fullest form: not one plate, but an entire appetite, finally allowed to want everything.
Ingredients
- For the artichokes alla giudia (Roman-Jewish fried artichokes):
- For the prosciutto e melone:
- For the spaghetti alla carbonara:
- To finish the meal:
Method
- Artichokes: trim the artichokes down to the pale hearts, halve them, and deep-fry in olive oil at 300°F until tender, then again at 375°F until the outer leaves crisp and splay open, Roman-Jewish style. Salt immediately.
- Prosciutto e melone: drape prosciutto over melon wedges. This one needs no cooking, only good fruit.
- Carbonara: render the guanciale until crisp. Whisk the yolks, egg, and pecorino into a thick paste. Cook the spaghetti, reserving a cup of the starchy water before you drain, then off the heat toss it with the guanciale and its fat, followed by the egg mixture, tossing fast so it turns silky, not scrambled. A splash of that pasta water as you toss is what loosens the sauce to a gloss instead of a clump. Finish with black pepper.
- Bring it all to the table together, the way Liz ordered it — this is a feast, not a tasting menu, and nobody in the scene is rationing themselves.
Substitutions
- Guanciale: pancetta is the standard swap; use a little more black pepper to compensate for guanciale's peppery cure.