Cannelloni With Marinara and Mozzarella: A Lesson in Airport Food

Ciao! I am in Italy! And boy, has it been an adventure so far. But now it is time to share the adventure with you! Starting with the bumpy ride here.

My parentals dropped me off at the airport at about 12pm on their way to Florida. My new Nintendo 3DS kept me company for the wait and the start of the flight. About 5 minutes in, I discovered that I was across the aisle from what would soon be revealed as the quintessential screaming plane child. Little sleep was had, but I have successfully navigated about 30% of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and managed to get fired from, ironically, a culinary career track in The Sims 3D.

I arrived at Roma Fiumicino at something like 10am Italy time. My outgoing was at 5. So, understandably, I did some wandering. While Catherine (Hi Q!) was with me, we grabbed some food at a little caffè and met some adorable people from Lebanon. When Q caught her flight, I alternated shopping, sleeping, and eating until boarding. And that’s when I found this gem.

I really had no idea what cannelloni was when I ordered.

Cannelloni, I discovered, is a large round noodle usually used for stuffing. In this case, it was left plain and perfectly al dente, topped with the brightest red marinara you’ve ever seen (they call it pomodoro here) and chunks of locally made mozzarella. The restaurant actually centered around its mozzarella. Each place setting came with a booklet describing the proper way to make mozzarella, and they sold mozzarella by itself in massive quantities.

But it was tasty.

I was incredibly impressed with the dish, and then I remembered where I was. I was in an airport! That food was better than some of the stuff I’ve gotten in pretty well-regarded restaurants in the US and this stuff is just meant to tide you over while you wait for a flight. WHAT?

Whatever. It was good. Unfortunately, you will see for the first few entries that I didn’t take notes, so I won’t have restaurant names for about the first third of the entries. However, I can say with confidence that the mozzarella restaurant in Roma Fiumicino was a grand start to my culinary journey.