Pajata

Heat a deep, thick bottomed pot with about a quarter cup of olive oil, and as soon as it’s hot add the pajata, with a dusting of salt, the clove, and a dusting of pepper. Brown the Pajata over a gentle flame, gently stirring the rings about lest they form crusts, stick, and break apart.

Head to Sartor, a butcher shop in the Testaccio Market. The Sartor family will tie the pajata into tidy rings for you. Grab some onion, tomato sauce, white wine, and rigatoni at a nearby stall and cook the pajata yourself, simmering for about an hour.

Reach deep enough into the bowels of Roman cuisine and eventually you'll find … bowels. Pajata is the intestine of a suckling animal, traditionally a calf, still containing partially digested mother's milk. Stewed for pasta, grilled, braised or roasted, pajata exemplifies the Italian concept of tipicità, "typicality," something that helps define a place or people. What mozzarella is to Naples, ragù to Bologna, pajata is to Rome, as much as cacio e pepe or fried artichokes.

Eventually the main courses did arrive - I'd asked for 2 cacio e pepe and one pajata, instead 2 pajatas arrived and i had to ask again for a cacio e pepe. The food was good but not what we ordered.