When in Rome: Food!

On my website, I detailed convent cooking among Rome's worst things, right up there with mosquitoes and motorini. But this time we had a lady come in every morning to prepare pranzo (the sacred midday meal) and cena (light supper), and she was fabulous! Read my first blog to learn about the pasta. Just keep in mind that for pasta arrabiata you don't add grated cheese. That is a rule.
Here is another thing I learned about Roman dining: red table wine is a deep purple, and so it is not called "red" wine (as in "please pass the vino rosso"). It is called "black." ("Il nero, per favore.")
And speaking of wine... The only salad dressings available are olive oil (ONLY extra virgin olive oil with its distinctive greenish cast) and white wine vinegar. As a big salad lover, I also frequented the oil and vinegar, of course, until I learned to be more cautious. On our second free day, at cena, I noticed two dead fruit flies floating in the wine vinegar. I glanced over at Sr. Lea, one of the Italian sisters participating in the retreat, and she followed my gaze (and my distressed expression) to the wine vinegar. "Oh," she said, "We call that the 'madre del vino' ("mother of wine"). It's a sign of very high quality vinegar."
Just thought you'd like to know.