Trattoria da Checchino, Latina
Tucked into a residential street a few blocks from the centre, Da Checchino is the kind of trattoria that has no website and no Instagram presence but is permanently full of local families on Sunday afternoons. The kitchen cooks strictly seasonal Pontine food — think pasta e fagioli with local borlotti, salt-cod in tomato, and slow-braised lamb from the Lepini hills.
What to order
Start with the bruschetta topped with stracciatella and the local olive oil, which is cold-pressed from Itrana olives — the same variety used to make the famous Gaeta olive — and has a peppery, grassy finish that supermarket oil cannot replicate.
For a main, the abbacchio alla cacciatora (hunter-style young lamb with rosemary, white wine, and anchovy) is the dish the kitchen is proudest of, and rightly so: the meat falls off the bone and the sauce is deep and savoury without being heavy.
The wine and the finish
The house wine is a local Circeo DOC white — crisp, mineral, and slightly floral — produced from Trebbiano grapes grown on the volcanic soils between Latina and the coast. Ask for a carafe rather than a bottle if you are lunching alone.
Dessert is non-negotiable: the crostata di visciole (sour-cherry tart) is made each morning by the owner's mother and disappears by early afternoon. Order it with your main course to be safe.
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