Who knew? The master of the quinto quarto (the fifth quarter – that is the offal and remains from butchered animals) in Rome's San Giovanni neighborhood has long been a vegetarian. And yet, Sarah Cicolini, a tough Abruzzese from Guardiagrele, a town in the foothills of the Maiella mountains, has meat in her DNA. Perhaps it's because she grew up in the countryside, a lifestyle marked by archaic rites and rituals such as the art of the pig slaughter and where it's natural to see ham, salami, and pork loin hanging in the botteghe. Today, travelers head to La Guardia (as the town is known locally) for starred meals and pick up some of these edible souvenirs before leaving.
"My roots have deeply marked my passion for food. I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents, waking up at cockcrow, surrounded by the scents of cypresses, linden trees, and peach trees in bloom. Breakfast always comprised homemade ciambellone and beaten eggs, but we also ate many seasonal vegetables prepared with our Leccino olive oil," says Sarah. She moved to Rome to study medicine, but after just four years, she swapped her white jacket for the senàl', or chef's apron.
She worked at several of the capital's best restaurants, including Metamorfosi, Roy Caceres' Michelin-starred restaurant in the Parioli quarter. There, she learned the work of the brigade and met her current sous chef, Mattia Bazzurri, a Roman and leavening expert.
With Mattia and her team, Cicolini opened Santo Palato in 2017. A laudatory New York Times review immediately followed, which praised her trippa alla romana. “My dishes start from the search for an ethical consumption of meat. I believe it is wrong to eat only the noble cuts, ” says Cicolini. With the help of my trusted supplier, Roberto Liberati [also from Abruzzo], I choose and work the forequarters that represent the beating heart of Roman cuisine," says the chef, seated at a table in this colorful avant-garde trattoria.
"The future? It lies in working on whole animals," she says with conviction. Recalling, not without tenderness, the recipe of grandmother Maria that is closest to her heart: frittata with chicken giblets. A "scrambled omelet," as she calls it.
"First I stew the heart and gizzards, which we call gricil, with water, wine and oil, then I add the liver, one egg per person, salt, pepper and fresh parsley." All to the delight of a clientele comprised mostly of young Romans and tourists.
As a good "abruzzese de Roma," Cicolini could not forget porchetta, a boneless pork roast that's a specialty of both regions. With a few substantial differences: "Lazio's porchetta is cut thin and eaten cold, and it's flavored with wild fennel. In Abruzzo, we serve it hot, accompanied by potatoes cut into large wedges with the skin on and baked with garlic and rosemary."
Even the current difficult situation does not stop the creativity of chef Sarah Cicolini, who creates a menu suitable for home delivery, faithful to the soul of her trattoria. Kits contain the ingredients and preparations to be assembled and consumed with a Slow Food approach. The food can be cooked in the oven according to the chef's instructions.
The delivery option also allows the small farmers who are part of the restaurant's supply chain to continue working. The menu remains faithful to the chef's chef's philosophy with dishes such as the tongue and tail terrine with giardiniera (pickled vegetables) and salsa verde, heart prosciutto, and pajata, a pasta (usually rigatoni) with the intestines of a milk-fed calf served with tomato sauce and pecorino.