Rosto is a Gibraltarian dish of penne in a slow cooked tomato sauce with braised meat, carrots and usually mushrooms, finished with grated queso bola, the local Edam. It is a home dish rather than a restaurant one, commonly a Sunday meal, and every family makes it slightly differently.

Why is it called rosto when nothing is roasted?

Because the name describes the meat, not the oven. Rosto is the Ligurian word for roast, given as ròsto in the DEIZE Italian to Genoese dictionary, against arrosto in Italian. The meat is a joint browned and then braised slowly on the hob, which Italian cooking calls arrosto morto, a roast done in a pan. The Wikibooks recipe makes the point directly: two complete courses cooked in one pot without the need for an oven.

Is rosto Italian or Genoese?

Genoese, on the evidence of the name. Wikipedia's page on Gibraltarian cuisine says Italian origin, but its page on the Genoese in Gibraltar names rosto specifically, and the word rosto matches the Ligurian ròsto rather than the Italian arrosto. The dish is also built like the Genoese meat sauce tocco: one piece of meat, hours in tomato with dried mushrooms, the sauce on the pasta and the meat eaten after. No archival source documents the transmission, so this is an argument from the evidence rather than a proven chain.

What meat goes in rosto?

It depends who you ask, and the disagreement is genuine. The Wikibooks recipe calls for a kilogram of pork loin. Wikipedia says beef or occasionally pork. Mama Lotties, Gibraltar's own recipe site, uses 500 g of chicken or beef braising steak, and a reader replies that in their family it is pork on the bone. Pork sits with the more traditional versions and the current recipes tend to beef or chicken, but we found nothing that dates the change.

Does rosto have to be topped with Edam?

Queso bola, the ball of Edam, is the standard and it is what Wikipedia specifies. In practice the published recipes vary more than the tradition suggests: one offers Edam or Parmesan, one uses cheddar, and the Mama Lotties recipe does not mention cheese at all. We would use the bola, because a dry grating cheese that arrived through a free port is the part of the dish that could only have come from here.

Can I cook rosto in a holiday apartment in Gibraltar?

Yes, and it is the one Gibraltarian dish that fits an apartment kitchen, because it needs no oven. Calentita and fideos al horno both have to be baked. Rosto needs a hob and one deep pan: soften onion and garlic, add tomatoes and carrot, brown and stew the meat with a splash of dry white wine until tender, boil the penne 9 to 10 minutes, then combine and rest it 5 minutes. Buy the meat and a whole bola at Morrisons on Westside Road.

Where can I eat rosto in Gibraltar?

Look for the kitchens cooking Gibraltarian food rather than international menus, and ring before you go. We could not verify which restaurants have rosto on the menu this week, and we would rather say so than publish a list that is wrong by the time you read it. Be careful with search results too: on 21 September 2026 the address search engines return for Sacarello's on Irish Town was redirecting to an unrelated site.

Victory Suites Gibraltar

Please enable JavaScript to view this website.

Contact us: +350 56020139 | enquiries@victorygate.gi