Osteria del Borgo
Tucked into a vaulted peperino-stone room on the edge of the old town, Osteria del Borgo is the kind of reliably excellent neighbourhood trattoria that Rome's Castelli towns do better than almost anywhere else in Italy. The menu changes with the seasons but the wood-roasted porchetta and hand-rolled pasta are constants.
What to Order
Start with the affettati misti — cured meats from the Castelli, including a silky local lonza and the house porchetta, roasted overnight with wild fennel and black pepper. Follow it with tonnarelli cacio e pepe made with pasta rolled that morning, or the pappardelle al cinghiale (wild boar ragù) in autumn and winter.
The secondi lean heavily on the wood-fired oven: abbacchio alla scottadito (grilled baby lamb chops eaten finger-burningly hot), roasted rabbit with herbs, and in season, porcini mushrooms gathered from the Monte Cavo forests and served simply with garlic and parsley.
Wine & Setting
The house wine is a Frascati Superiore DOC poured from unlabelled carafes — crisp, slightly mineral and perfectly suited to the rich local food. The wine list also includes bottles from Castel de Paolis and Fontana Candida, two of the Castelli's most respected producers.
The dining room seats about 30 under low barrel-vaulted ceilings, and in summer a handful of tables spill onto the cobbled lane outside. Booking is strongly recommended for Sunday lunch, when multi-generational Roman families descend on the Castelli for their weekly feast.
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