Baccano

Pecorino, pepper, the current stove

Pecorino meets freshly ground Sarawak black pepper before the pasta reaches the pass. Nabil Hadj Hassen, chef at Baccano in Rome, works inside that narrow Roman grammar, where carbonara and cacio e pepe leave little room for disguise. His path began in Tunisia, crossed into Italy at 17, and passed through Roscioli kitchens before he arrived at this stove near Trevi. At Salumeria Roscioli he cooked until 2021; at Antico Forno Roscioli he held the head-chef role. Those kitchens matter here because they trained the hand in Rome’s pasta discipline, not as nostalgia but as daily pressure: egg, cheese, cured pork, pepper, heat, timing. Hadj Hassen has spoken of immigrant cooks carrying cultures into adopted countries, with spices combining across Germany, Italy, and France. At Baccano, that biography does not turn the menu away from Rome. It sharpens his attention to the forms Rome asks a cook to respect.

Carbonara without cover

The kitchen’s carbonara is described old-school, built with Pecorino and freshly ground Sarawak black pepper from Malaysia. The point is restraint. A Roman pasta with a spare ingredient list has no garnish to hide behind; the sauce has to hold, the pepper has to register, and the pasta has to arrive with its bite intact. Baccano also keeps cacio e pepe, amatriciana, tiramisu, and seafood in the working vocabulary of the room, with an à la carte format that moves between trattoria anchors and a broader Mediterranean table. The deli counter extends that range with Italian hams, salami, cheeses, oysters, Scottish salmon, foie gras, Buffalo Mozzarella, quality tomatoes, olive oil, and hand-chopped Fassona beef from Piedmont. Hadj Hassen’s other named signature, pasta with anchovies and butter, sits in the same register: fat, salt, heat, and pasta water brought into line by the hand rather than by elaboration.

A brasserie room by Via delle Muratte

The room looks out onto Via delle Muratte from a building dating from the 1800s, close enough to the Trevi Fountain that the street carries its own current. Inside, Baccano borrows from the brasserie more than the trattoria: red leather couches, high ceilings, mirrors, wooden tables covered with paper, dim light, padded benches, a retro warmth that can feel closer to Paris than to the Roman osteria model. RPM Proget realized the space between 2010 and 2011, giving the restaurant its polished frame without removing the noise of the crossroads outside. The name comes from Baccanum, clamor, and the word suits the room when pasta leaves the pass, cocktails move across the bar, and tiramisu is finished at the table.

The dish that keeps the line honest

Baccano holds 2 awards in total, with 1 current-year award and 1 previous-year award attached to this house. Awards do not cook the pasta. Hadj Hassen’s station near Via delle Muratte keeps returning to carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, seafood, and that tableside tiramisu.