Discover real Roman food

A vinyl collection helps stock the DJ booth at Mazzo (left); Menabò Vino e Cucina's spaghettoni with mushrooms and roast peppers (top)

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nuggets of salt cod and sun-dried peppers from Basilicata; and ruote pazze ('crazy pinwheels') in a soulful ragu of Sardinian sausage shot through with wild fennel.

Trecca-Roma, Garbatella

Is a bowl of pasta Amatriciana worth taking one bus, then waiting 20 minutes at a deserted stop in the darkness for a second bus to arrive, and when it never does, frantically calling a taxi? We pondered the question squeezed around a marble table at Trecca-Roma.

Located in the southern Garbatella neighbourhood, some four miles from the centre, Trecca is both rootsy and trendy, with a menu of classic pastas and offal delivered by tattooed servers eager to tell you about the biodynamic olive oil. The Instagrammable vibes and the cucina di nonna updated with exalted ingredients come courtesy of brothers Manuel and Nicolò Trecastelli, who own a couple of popular pizzerie in town and know exactly what Rome's cool kids are craving.

My personal craving for tongue was fulfilled by seared slices of lingua in a sharp salsa verde. At an adjacent table a pair of veteran gourmands pronounced their coda (a rich stew of Fassona beef oxtails) the best in the city. Our own meal involved a majestic whole roasted artichoke in a puddle of that beautiful olive oil, hand-torn fettuccine sauced with chicken livers and oodles of butter, and a sizzling skewer of pajata (suckling-calf intestines).