Eating with Food Allergies in Italy

The Italian “Olive Garden”

Eating with food allergies in Italy isn’t usually a challenge. However, last night I went out to dinner at a restaurant called Rosso Pomodoro (Red Tomato) for one of my friend’s birthdays. I had been to the restaurant once before when it was extremely busy. That night they were afraid of cross contamination, so they told me I could order this massive ball of mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. It was good (one of my favorite salads), but it was expensive, and not what I was in the mood for, especially when I heard the pizza was excellent there!

The restaurant is actually a chain in Italy, kind of like Olive Garden in the U.S., except classier, with real, fresh Italian food. I was hoping that when I went back this time, they would be able to figure out pizza or pasta for me. I found out though, when I tried to order pizza last night, that they use vegatale olio, which is not okay in Italy for people with nut allergies. The vegtable oil here, sometimes has nut oils in it, so you can never tell if it is okay or not, which is why I always have to avoid it.

What Did I Eat?

I ended up getting a salad with chicken breast in it, which was good, but double the price of the pizza, and not what I wanted. This hasn’t happened too often though, so now I know I just can’t get pizza or pasta there! Lesson learned.