The staff at Buona Domenica (meaning me) are taking an unscheduled break this week to recharge. We will be back next Sunday with some Italian Easter treats.
In the mean time, I have a question for you, Italian food lovers:
Tell me about an unforgettable Italian meal, or dish, you had—recently or long ago, in Italy, at your local red sauce joint, or in your home. What made it memorable? Was it the flagrant perfume of the white truffle that a waiter showered onto your plate of risotto? The way the food truck guy with sea glass eyes handed you a panino, piled with warm porchetta and wrapped in paper, across the display case? Maybe it was a slice of pizza al taglio on your first trip to Rome, or an unplanned stop at a country inn that turned into a lavish feast. Or a family celebration around your dining room table.
I am curious about the way people experience Italian food and what makes it special to them, so please share a few lines, or paragraphs, in the comments. This is my first open thread, and it’s my hope that these occasional posts will be like a virtual piazza, where we can congregate and converse on a subject we all love.
2017 we were in marvelous Bari traveling with our Swedish friends. Experience told me that when traveling with them the minute our friend Bo gets hungry we have to eat. We were on a pier, he was starving and he spotted a tiny, whole in the wall restaurant with maybe 4 tables, a wonderful gritty place, friendly bar man, we asked for a menu, ridiculous, there was none they had fried calamari and spaghetti with red sauce, that was it and that was all it needed to be. The spaghetti was amazing with an intense tomato flavor only those hot Italian nights in Italy can give a tomato but the calamari, one of our favorite fish, was unlike any we had ever had. So light they could drift like a cloud, as we bit into them a burst of intensive calamari taste from the sea, crisp and so tender our teeth barely needed to bite through. Immediately a 2nd order was requested. This is the beauty of eating in Italy you never know, it simply happens and you never forget. Susanne
Many years ago were on one of our first trips to Italy - in the fall. We were staying in Firenze in a B&B at #1 Corso. Early one Sunday morning we decided to take our rental car to visit Sienna - a first for both of us.
We took the backroads. The weather was beautiful and the beauty of the Chianti countryside was intoxicating. My poor Italian was practically non-existent back then. I kept seeing little billboards for La Fattoria. I looked it up in my Italian dictionary - a farm house. We were driving a narrow winding road and suddenly there was a big sign at the top of a rise and behind it was a big sprawling barn of a building. The road curled around the building and headed down the hill which also brought us down wind and the incredible aromas flooded in our open windows. I shouted, “Stop!” I suddenly knew to my marrow what ‘La Fattoria’ truly meant.
The grassy parking area nuzzled up almost into the rows of vines stretching away, all heavily laden with the black black berries of uva.
We walked to the front and were met with a large stark empty gray foyer with stone pavers centered with large fireplace. There was a small fire and above that heat at a discreet distance was a grate with a dozen big fat porcini caps slowly grilling. In the hearth below was a small old chipped terra-cotta bowl half filled with green tinted olive oil and soaking in the oils was a big bundle of thyme tied with brown twine. I felt a small tremor.
A nice young woman burst into the foyer and quickly determined we had no reservation and proceeded to usher us into a cavernous dining room, almost empty. It was early - late morning but I was a little worried. I’d worked in restaurants all through college and knew that many empty tables might not bode well. She ushered on to the patio - but patio is a small word for the nearly plaza sized dining area filled with tables and people.
She led us to a table.
I’ve had many meals in Italy and in Italian restaurants, some might well have been finer, but this one early meal has been my Ur, my alpha, my enravishment - fresh grilled porcini, fresh wine, my first porchetta, a pasta, insalata verde,my first pan cotto.
There were a dozen looong tables with multi-generation families adoring their babies and toddlers. Every once in a while a bit if fall wind would blow and stir up the fires of the grilles where the mamas and grandmas were working their magic. We never got to Sienna that day.
Fall of 2016. On a wing & a prayer, we found my grandmother's family in the Pescara region of Abruzzo. It all began with a return address on untranslated letters to her from the 1960s/70s, a couple of photos from my grandparents' trip back to Italy in the 1970s & one very special couple who owned the Agriturismo where we stayed who helped us with our limited Italian. We spent four glorious days visiting & getting to know the family I never knew I had - but they knew of me, since they brought out childhood photos of my sister & I that my grandmother must have sent to their parents so many years ago. Everyone wanted to get together on our last night & our Agriturismo hosts offered their large kitchen-equipped basement. We didn't quite know what to expect, but they told us to just go touring during the day, they would take care of everything. When we returned, there were about 25 people altogether, all ages from 12 to 85. The tables had been pushed together & were spilling over with food that everyone brought: antipasti, pastas, vegetables, pastries - all family-prepared & thrilled at the opportunity to explain their dishes! At one point, everyone started spilling outside where a few of the guys were preparing arrosticini and we all brought them back in, hot off the grill. Our Agriturismo host helped me translate a toast, which I still don't know how I got through. I can't remember all that we ate that evening, but the room was overflowing with love, newly kindled family ties & that memory will remain with me until the day I die. In the 5+ years since, there have been births, weddings, funerals - & we've been included in one way or another with everything.
Ciao Domenica I remember as a kid my mom and dad making polenta and rabbit, the most delicious meal I will never forget. My dad would make the polenta and my mom made the rabbit. My dad would have this wooden board that he put the polenta on and my mom would put the sauce on top. We all had a fork and sat around this wooden board and made are way through this polenta dinner, we devoured this meal in no time.
Apr 3, 2022·edited Apr 4, 2022Liked by Domenica Marchetti
My 60th birthday lunch in Florence, buttered fettuccine smothered in shaved white truffle. The proud waiter brought out a plate of white truffles to show off to our ohs and ahs.
Every meal I have had in Italy has been unforgettable! The ambiance, the quality ingredients, the care that goes into preparation, the entire experience of eating anything anywhere in Italy is simply amazing. We spent four years living in Munich and traveled a lot to Italy. Here are a couple of my favorite experiences:
Ristorante Osteria Casa Vino Consegna a domicilio - Vicolo Morette, 8/a, 37121 Verona VR, Italy,
Ristorante Wine Bar Bottega de Corgnan - Via Corgnan, 12, 37015 Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella VR, Italy
Since discovering your website and cookbooks, I've been able to create some amazing Italian dishes at home. I am pretty sure that I have everything that you have published and I've had success with every recipe I have tried! Thank you for bringing Italy to me in OHIO : )
Ciao! Four years ago we visited my husbands family in Abruzzo. They live in the typical Adriatic seaside town- Tortoreto where one generation lives above the other generation. Our memorable meal was taken upstairs where the nonna lived. We first were shown how to make homemade pasta on a chitarra. A experience so memorable in itself. Then she had cooked all day for us and the meal was fantastic! We lost count on the number of dishes served but the best was the maccheroni alla chitarra with ragù. Same as your recipe in your lovely book- The glorious pasta of Italy ( which I bought after returning home from this trip/meal)! The generations eating together and enjoying the entire evening of such wonderful food and family will long be in my top memories of life!
And then—see, I can't stop myself!—there was the time shortly after Costanza in Rome that we drove up to the Castelli Romani on Ferragosto, stopped in one of the towns where a man came out of a restaurant carrying a tray of roasted potatoes to his car. I suppose to take to the holiday table at home. We all kind of followed him, I guess, to his car, being lured by the aroma of those beautiful little potatoes, when he stopped and told us to help ourselves. We did! And then we all went on our separate ways. Only in Italy!
So hard to choose! Some from over the years that I still dream of...
A lunch we had in Lucca on a rainy weekend--in that overtired/over hungry state that happens when traveling, we stumbled on a classic trattoria/ristorante with outdoor seating under canopies. We ordered asparagus ravioli in a sauce of asparagus--something I never would have imagined before but was so delicious.
At cafe Cibreo in Florence, a whole artichoke served upside down in a baking dish of potato puree with a warm runny egg yolk tucked inside the carciofo cavity.
A thousand years ago we were in Naples and took a taxi out of town to Rosiello is Posillipo at my Neapolitan Italian teacher’s recommendation, and had the freshest swordfish (we watched a fishing boat pull up and deliver at the restaurant’s dock) served with cherry tomatoes from their gardens.
And from childhood, meatballs in my mother’s kitchen, just fried but before they were put into the sauce pot✨
As others will surely say, so many wonderful Italian meals to taste again in my mind that it’s difficult to choose just one. On my very first visit to Italy so very long ago, in Florence, the taste that has lingered with me through the years, was of a simple bowl of fresh raspberries in cream. No raspberries since have equaled those fresh, sweet, delicious jewels of my memory. On my most recent visit to Italy in 2019, for a wedding in Napoli, we all dined in a restaurant where I spotted a dish on the menu that sounded good, so I ordered it. That was my first taste of Spaghetti alla Nerano, recently celebrated by Stanley Tucci. I was transported! I had to have it again before we left for home, and so I did. My attempts to recreate it in my own kitchen have not measured up to my satisfaction, so I must return, maybe even to visit Maria Grazia’s restaurant where it originated.
The best meals and dishes for me are those our family members in Abruzzo prepare for us when we visit. We lived in Biella, have traveled thru the Lake region, Liguria, the Mediterranean coast, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche and have experienced all kinds of wonderful food in each. However, it’s the family member’s prepared meals’ with simplicity and delectable flavors of the dishes that remain in my memory most of all. ❤️
So so many! But the one that comes to mind is eating mortadella sandwiches on pizza Bianca near the Cine Citta supermarket on the tail gate of the big black chauffeur-driven car I had when filming Eat Pray Love in Rome. We had gone to gather supplies for the shoot with my driver Walter and my assistant Walter (!). Everything was so warm and fresh and tasted so good. Plus we were hungry. I finally understood mortadella.
The chicken parmigiana at the Club Lago in Chicago. Same family owners since 1952. Now operated by 2 brothers. Old-school red sauce joint. Thin, tender chicken with great red sauce served with pasta. A place like "Cheers" -- they always know your name!
Hi Domenica, around 35 years ago I was in Venice (on a strict budget). We went into a small shop that sold take out foods as well as other goodies. I bought a potato salad that was layered with white asparagus and it was so delicious - I'm still thinking about it!!! Any suggestions on how to replicate that recipe would be much appreciated. It was creamy and very very tasty. Kathleen
Having grown up in an Italian family in the UK, big bowls of pasta are the taste of my childhood.
I'm particularly fond of Calabrese dishes (which is where my nonna's side of the family hails from) and partial to nduja pasta with freshly cooked prawns and mussels.
No matter where I am in the world, every time I eat an Italian dish I'm right back in my nonna's kitchen, the food, heritage and history connecting across the years.
My experience is around how Italian our so welcoming when it comes to the food scene. In 2007 we were staying at Villa Pisani in Vescovana in the province of Padova, we asked our host “La Contessa” if she had a suggestion for a place for diner, she recommended Ristorante Da Marco and made a reservation for us. When we showed up at 8:00 PM the place was empty and we got a bit worried, but not for long because all of sudden several local families filled the place. We were 3 in our group and one of us talked a bit of Italian and combine with the fact we were guest of “La Contessa” we were received like royalties. Everything on the daily menu looked excellent and we told the owner that we had difficulty making a selection and joke that we wanted everything. His reply was stunning, he told us that he could serve everything on the menu in smaller plates with wine that pairs well with this bounty. This was one of the best epicurean experience I ever had, it was FANTASTIC. What was on the menu I do not remember but I could honestly say that it was the best of Italian food.
I bet you share my memories. First is breakfast in Rome consisting of fresh rosetta and butter. Zia Gilda would buy the rosette fresh each morning when she went out to do the days shopping. Next is our first trip to Venice with mom and dad. We stumbled on a little restaurant for lunch and I had the best risotto alla pescatore I have ever had. Lastly is our family trip to Lucca. Our first night there we had a wonderful farro soup at a little trattoria. After dinner, we wandered through the town. It was a warm summer evening and everyone had their windows open. The first Three Tenors concert was on tv and we could hear the show as we strolled around Lucca.
Cascina Schiavenza is in Alba. Our traveling party happened upon it in October 2008, high time for truffles. Upon entering and sitting down, the waitress said the harvest of truffles was down and that she didn't think they had any. But she checked in the kitchen. There were some to be enjoyed for the first time in my life. Out from the kitchen came a plate of linguine. Onto its top the waitress shaved and shaved and shaved white gold. I must have passed out since don't recall a specific aroma or remember a specific taste, disappointingly. But, I do remember the sensation of slipping into a delightful food coma of an unfamiliar sort in which the world was even lovelier than it normal . . . . [http://www.schiavenza.com/it/azienda]
Such a great subject! Thank you for starting all these memories. I'm still haunted by the artichoke focaccia I had in Venice at least 25 years ago. It was from a small bakery stand at the Rialto Market. The artichokes had probably been pureed and incorporated into the dough, and the bread simply topped with lots of olive oil and coarse salt. I've never been able to find a reference or recipe for this unforgettable little treat.
In 1983, my mother and I were making the rounds to visit her various first cousins who had trickled from Abruzzo in the 60's to live in the Montespeccato area of Rome which boomed after the war. One cousin, Lina, lived "in the country" at the edge of a Rome address. As we were saying our goodbyes, Lina poked around in the grass of her front yard and picked a few scraggly green leaves. Mangia, she said. I wasn't keen on tasting weeds, but I had to take a nibble. Mmmmm, peppery I thought. Rucola, she said with an open smile and spread her arms to show that it grew wild all around her home.
I am currently living in Italy. My most memorable food moments have been when I order and converse with waiters and shopowners purely in Italian. Whether it's pizza al taglio after hiking around Lake Bracciano (for a euro!) or showing friends my favorite spot for cacio e pepe in Testaccio. I feel closer to the food and my Italian roots.
Ciao, Domenica, so many memorable meals in Italy over the years - porchetta at street markets in Tuscany, a wonderful asparagus risotto! Best ever lunch though was in the Mugello, Tuscany at thouse of a lovely Italian woman called Evalina, a friend of my family there. I was newly married, visiting with my husband, and she invited us all for lunch. Prosecco and crostini to start with. Evalina's own-made tortelli di potate - up there as among the best pasta I've ever eaten, bistecca grilled over charcoal, a simple but exquisite sponge cake, light as a cloud. Beautiful food - deceptively simple, made with such skill and care. True hospitality. Decades later, we all still talk about this lunch!
As a proud mezzo-sangue, half-Italian, half-Irish, I have had a lifelong love affair with Italian food, and those I shared it with. The Italian side of the family could be a little loud, but there was so much fun and so much joy. But when you posed the question as to the most memorable Italian meal I've ever had, the one that sprang to mind immediately was from the fall of 2019 on the exquisite Costiera Amalfitana, in Positano. A beautiful first afternoon there, I walked down from the Duomo towards the beach, and chose a restaurant with a seaview. I didn't go for any of the best known places, and it was late enough in the afternoon that I was able to get a table right along the front wall of the restaurant, with the sea to my left just down beyond the sand. What I ordered that day was a seafood marinara pizza, and a limoncello spritz. What made the meal so perfect was the pizza, just a delicious Napoli style crust, marinara sauce, no cheese, and a large helping of the freshest seafood piled on top of the sauce, much of it still in its shells. The day was perfection, and the meal was perfection, not to mention a wonderful limoncello spritz, my very favorite drink. I would go back to that place in a moment, and I hope to have the opportunity to do so, someday.
Hi Domenica! It’s Evie, I’d have to say a gnocchi dish at an old momentary near Bologna I think it was called SanDomenico. But the hay and straw your mom made was so so memorable. I made it with my girls this past Easter in honor of your mom and figured we had a lot of time during Covid. They all helped me, we made it over two days and they all Loved it!!! I plan to make it again this Easter.
Perhaps it was the lunch at, what we referred to as the Blue Bus Stop, a little spot across the road from the bus stop between Buon Convento and Montalchino. We stopped for late lunch and we’re told that the kitchen was closed, but the family was about to eat, and if we wished, we could join. The lasagna was layers and layer of paper thin pasta with minimal amounts is sauce it was so light, so fresh, but the overwhelming friendliness of an invitation to dine with the family….
Or then again perhaps the most memorable was cannelloni in the Piazza Navonna or maybe the lunch overlooking the Val d’orcha
In 1969, I was in Rome with some other high school students. We stayed in a convent. Our first night there, the nuns served us spaghetti, grapes, and Coca Cola. I still crave that meal!
For me it's the thin slices of veal with cubed potatoes that are bright yellow thanks to the homemade olive oil, which was also drizzled over the green beans made by my nonna.
Apr 3, 2022·edited Apr 3, 2022Liked by Domenica Marchetti
Back in 2016 my husband and I went to Italy with our two children and my husband's parents. We were there for three weeks. One of our weeks was spent in the area around Lake Como. There was a restaurant near our house called Taverna Blu. We passed it every time we left the house, so one night we decided to give it a try. There were six of us and we showed up without a reservation (not knowing that one was needed). Fortunately they seated us anyway at a quiet back table, which was appreciative since we did have a two and four year old in tow. I remember being surprised that our "waiter" was also our chef. He was so very friendly and accommodating when it came to our two boys. The whole staff was very friendly and enjoyed talking with us from time to time at our table. Our meal finally came out and both my husband and I ordered the white truffle risotto. It was the best risotto I think I've ever had. Even our boys plain Pasta con Sugo di Pomodoro was amazing. That was probably the best meal we had the entire time we were in Italy. We still talk about it from time to time today and we all smile about how a pear fell from the tree above our table and almost hit my father in law in the head. Free dessert!
Love that you’re doing this. While I’ve never been to Italy, sadly, I have experienced many memorable Italian meals, most of them in Rhode Island. But the best was a meal prepared by my friend, Carolyn, both of her parents were Italian. She served manicotti. The fragrance of the sauce and stuffing was intoxicating and the manicotti were handmade and like clouds, so light, so delectable. Best Italian meal I ever had. Her recipe was a family secret so, alas, I never had the chance to try and recreate that meal but that’s okay. I’ll always have that delicious memory.
I could go on forever. But I'll begin with my first meal in Italy, in Rome, in 1992. Italian-American though I am, when it came to eating in Italy, I was as green as a freshly plucked summer zucchino. (A line I stole from myself in my first small tome.) My then husband and I along with our two young daughters sat down to our first meal at Costanza in Piazza Paradiso with Roman friends. I recognized nothing on the menu, so I asked our friends to order which led to a life-ever-after-that-long love affair with the food of Italy. Tagliatelle con moscardini e bottarga, rombo al forno con patate, and so on. I had never tasted food like that in my life.
Apr 3, 2022·edited Apr 3, 2022Liked by Domenica Marchetti
Being Italian, and living in Italy, does not make me the right person to join this thread. What I can say is that it is fascinating to read your experiences and look my country with your eyes and memories. For me, food symbolizes treasured time with family and friends. In Italy eating well is a signal of respect for your guests, and for yourself, and probably the strongest common element for a nation which considers itself still too young and too diverse. I would have plenty of favourite food and moments to recall. I will choose the week end in which my husband proposed: we were in Florence, a place dear to us, having dinner at Cibreo. I always liked the relaxed atmosphere, the simple yet impeccable service, the elegance and coziness of the place. And the unforgettable ribollita, so nice in a winter night of February, and absolutely true to its origin.
My only trip to Italy was 30 years ago with the love of my life and our best friends. It was early November. We landed in Rome and the 4 of us rented a very small car to drive to Siena where we stayed at a farm that had rooms for rent. They grew olives and other vegetables. We had many excellent meals at several restaurants but this is where my love for olive oil began. We had freshly harvested olive with every meal. Lissa Mattson
My wife and I were in Rome and a friend who lives there took us to his favorite local restaurant in Trastevere. The area was a mob scene, with lines to get into every restaurant. It was a blast. A 45 minute wait later we were seated in Tonnarello. What followed was the best damn spaghetti carbonara I could ever imagine. My wife, who suffers from Celiac disease, opted for the gluten free version. I couldn't tell the difference between her's and mine. Just a few days ago we were reminiscing about that meal. LOL
linguine al vongole for lunch at a small trattoria on the railroad tracks in Ventimiglia...incredibly fresh, light, flavors balanced, perfectly cooked.....
Mid summer morning in Liguria, standing on the stone steps outside a tiny storefront, where I purchased a warm slice of transcendent olive oil drenched focaccia. In one hand the bread and the other a warm fuzzy skinned and oozing summer peach I bought earlier at an outdoor stand. Have never forgotten the perfection of that moment. Searching for that focaccia ever since.
Every meal we have had in Italy has been delicious. I can’t remember a meal that wasn’t flavorful and scrumptious but there was one bowl of soup I can almost taste even now after 6 years. It was lentil soup served in a restaurant in Venice called Hosteria Da Zorzi. It was the most delicious soup I’ve ever had and would gladly go back just to have it again. Simply made but exquisitely flavorful!
The best Italian restaurant in Philadelphia for us is L’angolo on Porter St off Broad St. It was recommended to me by an Italian. If you are ever in Philly give it a try but sure to make reservations a few days in advance.
2017 we were in marvelous Bari traveling with our Swedish friends. Experience told me that when traveling with them the minute our friend Bo gets hungry we have to eat. We were on a pier, he was starving and he spotted a tiny, whole in the wall restaurant with maybe 4 tables, a wonderful gritty place, friendly bar man, we asked for a menu, ridiculous, there was none they had fried calamari and spaghetti with red sauce, that was it and that was all it needed to be. The spaghetti was amazing with an intense tomato flavor only those hot Italian nights in Italy can give a tomato but the calamari, one of our favorite fish, was unlike any we had ever had. So light they could drift like a cloud, as we bit into them a burst of intensive calamari taste from the sea, crisp and so tender our teeth barely needed to bite through. Immediately a 2nd order was requested. This is the beauty of eating in Italy you never know, it simply happens and you never forget. Susanne
Many years ago were on one of our first trips to Italy - in the fall. We were staying in Firenze in a B&B at #1 Corso. Early one Sunday morning we decided to take our rental car to visit Sienna - a first for both of us.
We took the backroads. The weather was beautiful and the beauty of the Chianti countryside was intoxicating. My poor Italian was practically non-existent back then. I kept seeing little billboards for La Fattoria. I looked it up in my Italian dictionary - a farm house. We were driving a narrow winding road and suddenly there was a big sign at the top of a rise and behind it was a big sprawling barn of a building. The road curled around the building and headed down the hill which also brought us down wind and the incredible aromas flooded in our open windows. I shouted, “Stop!” I suddenly knew to my marrow what ‘La Fattoria’ truly meant.
The grassy parking area nuzzled up almost into the rows of vines stretching away, all heavily laden with the black black berries of uva.
We walked to the front and were met with a large stark empty gray foyer with stone pavers centered with large fireplace. There was a small fire and above that heat at a discreet distance was a grate with a dozen big fat porcini caps slowly grilling. In the hearth below was a small old chipped terra-cotta bowl half filled with green tinted olive oil and soaking in the oils was a big bundle of thyme tied with brown twine. I felt a small tremor.
A nice young woman burst into the foyer and quickly determined we had no reservation and proceeded to usher us into a cavernous dining room, almost empty. It was early - late morning but I was a little worried. I’d worked in restaurants all through college and knew that many empty tables might not bode well. She ushered on to the patio - but patio is a small word for the nearly plaza sized dining area filled with tables and people.
She led us to a table.
I’ve had many meals in Italy and in Italian restaurants, some might well have been finer, but this one early meal has been my Ur, my alpha, my enravishment - fresh grilled porcini, fresh wine, my first porchetta, a pasta, insalata verde,my first pan cotto.
There were a dozen looong tables with multi-generation families adoring their babies and toddlers. Every once in a while a bit if fall wind would blow and stir up the fires of the grilles where the mamas and grandmas were working their magic. We never got to Sienna that day.
Fall of 2016. On a wing & a prayer, we found my grandmother's family in the Pescara region of Abruzzo. It all began with a return address on untranslated letters to her from the 1960s/70s, a couple of photos from my grandparents' trip back to Italy in the 1970s & one very special couple who owned the Agriturismo where we stayed who helped us with our limited Italian. We spent four glorious days visiting & getting to know the family I never knew I had - but they knew of me, since they brought out childhood photos of my sister & I that my grandmother must have sent to their parents so many years ago. Everyone wanted to get together on our last night & our Agriturismo hosts offered their large kitchen-equipped basement. We didn't quite know what to expect, but they told us to just go touring during the day, they would take care of everything. When we returned, there were about 25 people altogether, all ages from 12 to 85. The tables had been pushed together & were spilling over with food that everyone brought: antipasti, pastas, vegetables, pastries - all family-prepared & thrilled at the opportunity to explain their dishes! At one point, everyone started spilling outside where a few of the guys were preparing arrosticini and we all brought them back in, hot off the grill. Our Agriturismo host helped me translate a toast, which I still don't know how I got through. I can't remember all that we ate that evening, but the room was overflowing with love, newly kindled family ties & that memory will remain with me until the day I die. In the 5+ years since, there have been births, weddings, funerals - & we've been included in one way or another with everything.
Ciao Domenica I remember as a kid my mom and dad making polenta and rabbit, the most delicious meal I will never forget. My dad would make the polenta and my mom made the rabbit. My dad would have this wooden board that he put the polenta on and my mom would put the sauce on top. We all had a fork and sat around this wooden board and made are way through this polenta dinner, we devoured this meal in no time.
My 60th birthday lunch in Florence, buttered fettuccine smothered in shaved white truffle. The proud waiter brought out a plate of white truffles to show off to our ohs and ahs.
Every meal I have had in Italy has been unforgettable! The ambiance, the quality ingredients, the care that goes into preparation, the entire experience of eating anything anywhere in Italy is simply amazing. We spent four years living in Munich and traveled a lot to Italy. Here are a couple of my favorite experiences:
Ristorante Osteria Casa Vino Consegna a domicilio - Vicolo Morette, 8/a, 37121 Verona VR, Italy,
Ristorante Wine Bar Bottega de Corgnan - Via Corgnan, 12, 37015 Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella VR, Italy
Since discovering your website and cookbooks, I've been able to create some amazing Italian dishes at home. I am pretty sure that I have everything that you have published and I've had success with every recipe I have tried! Thank you for bringing Italy to me in OHIO : )
Ciao! Four years ago we visited my husbands family in Abruzzo. They live in the typical Adriatic seaside town- Tortoreto where one generation lives above the other generation. Our memorable meal was taken upstairs where the nonna lived. We first were shown how to make homemade pasta on a chitarra. A experience so memorable in itself. Then she had cooked all day for us and the meal was fantastic! We lost count on the number of dishes served but the best was the maccheroni alla chitarra with ragù. Same as your recipe in your lovely book- The glorious pasta of Italy ( which I bought after returning home from this trip/meal)! The generations eating together and enjoying the entire evening of such wonderful food and family will long be in my top memories of life!
And then—see, I can't stop myself!—there was the time shortly after Costanza in Rome that we drove up to the Castelli Romani on Ferragosto, stopped in one of the towns where a man came out of a restaurant carrying a tray of roasted potatoes to his car. I suppose to take to the holiday table at home. We all kind of followed him, I guess, to his car, being lured by the aroma of those beautiful little potatoes, when he stopped and told us to help ourselves. We did! And then we all went on our separate ways. Only in Italy!
So hard to choose! Some from over the years that I still dream of...
A lunch we had in Lucca on a rainy weekend--in that overtired/over hungry state that happens when traveling, we stumbled on a classic trattoria/ristorante with outdoor seating under canopies. We ordered asparagus ravioli in a sauce of asparagus--something I never would have imagined before but was so delicious.
At cafe Cibreo in Florence, a whole artichoke served upside down in a baking dish of potato puree with a warm runny egg yolk tucked inside the carciofo cavity.
A thousand years ago we were in Naples and took a taxi out of town to Rosiello is Posillipo at my Neapolitan Italian teacher’s recommendation, and had the freshest swordfish (we watched a fishing boat pull up and deliver at the restaurant’s dock) served with cherry tomatoes from their gardens.
And from childhood, meatballs in my mother’s kitchen, just fried but before they were put into the sauce pot✨
Being introduced to aged balsamic vinegar at our b and b outside of Florence. Mind blown
As others will surely say, so many wonderful Italian meals to taste again in my mind that it’s difficult to choose just one. On my very first visit to Italy so very long ago, in Florence, the taste that has lingered with me through the years, was of a simple bowl of fresh raspberries in cream. No raspberries since have equaled those fresh, sweet, delicious jewels of my memory. On my most recent visit to Italy in 2019, for a wedding in Napoli, we all dined in a restaurant where I spotted a dish on the menu that sounded good, so I ordered it. That was my first taste of Spaghetti alla Nerano, recently celebrated by Stanley Tucci. I was transported! I had to have it again before we left for home, and so I did. My attempts to recreate it in my own kitchen have not measured up to my satisfaction, so I must return, maybe even to visit Maria Grazia’s restaurant where it originated.
The best meals and dishes for me are those our family members in Abruzzo prepare for us when we visit. We lived in Biella, have traveled thru the Lake region, Liguria, the Mediterranean coast, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche and have experienced all kinds of wonderful food in each. However, it’s the family member’s prepared meals’ with simplicity and delectable flavors of the dishes that remain in my memory most of all. ❤️
So so many! But the one that comes to mind is eating mortadella sandwiches on pizza Bianca near the Cine Citta supermarket on the tail gate of the big black chauffeur-driven car I had when filming Eat Pray Love in Rome. We had gone to gather supplies for the shoot with my driver Walter and my assistant Walter (!). Everything was so warm and fresh and tasted so good. Plus we were hungry. I finally understood mortadella.
The chicken parmigiana at the Club Lago in Chicago. Same family owners since 1952. Now operated by 2 brothers. Old-school red sauce joint. Thin, tender chicken with great red sauce served with pasta. A place like "Cheers" -- they always know your name!
Hi Domenica, around 35 years ago I was in Venice (on a strict budget). We went into a small shop that sold take out foods as well as other goodies. I bought a potato salad that was layered with white asparagus and it was so delicious - I'm still thinking about it!!! Any suggestions on how to replicate that recipe would be much appreciated. It was creamy and very very tasty. Kathleen
Hi Domenica,
Having grown up in an Italian family in the UK, big bowls of pasta are the taste of my childhood.
I'm particularly fond of Calabrese dishes (which is where my nonna's side of the family hails from) and partial to nduja pasta with freshly cooked prawns and mussels.
No matter where I am in the world, every time I eat an Italian dish I'm right back in my nonna's kitchen, the food, heritage and history connecting across the years.
My experience is around how Italian our so welcoming when it comes to the food scene. In 2007 we were staying at Villa Pisani in Vescovana in the province of Padova, we asked our host “La Contessa” if she had a suggestion for a place for diner, she recommended Ristorante Da Marco and made a reservation for us. When we showed up at 8:00 PM the place was empty and we got a bit worried, but not for long because all of sudden several local families filled the place. We were 3 in our group and one of us talked a bit of Italian and combine with the fact we were guest of “La Contessa” we were received like royalties. Everything on the daily menu looked excellent and we told the owner that we had difficulty making a selection and joke that we wanted everything. His reply was stunning, he told us that he could serve everything on the menu in smaller plates with wine that pairs well with this bounty. This was one of the best epicurean experience I ever had, it was FANTASTIC. What was on the menu I do not remember but I could honestly say that it was the best of Italian food.
I bet you share my memories. First is breakfast in Rome consisting of fresh rosetta and butter. Zia Gilda would buy the rosette fresh each morning when she went out to do the days shopping. Next is our first trip to Venice with mom and dad. We stumbled on a little restaurant for lunch and I had the best risotto alla pescatore I have ever had. Lastly is our family trip to Lucca. Our first night there we had a wonderful farro soup at a little trattoria. After dinner, we wandered through the town. It was a warm summer evening and everyone had their windows open. The first Three Tenors concert was on tv and we could hear the show as we strolled around Lucca.
Cascina Schiavenza is in Alba. Our traveling party happened upon it in October 2008, high time for truffles. Upon entering and sitting down, the waitress said the harvest of truffles was down and that she didn't think they had any. But she checked in the kitchen. There were some to be enjoyed for the first time in my life. Out from the kitchen came a plate of linguine. Onto its top the waitress shaved and shaved and shaved white gold. I must have passed out since don't recall a specific aroma or remember a specific taste, disappointingly. But, I do remember the sensation of slipping into a delightful food coma of an unfamiliar sort in which the world was even lovelier than it normal . . . . [http://www.schiavenza.com/it/azienda]
Such a great subject! Thank you for starting all these memories. I'm still haunted by the artichoke focaccia I had in Venice at least 25 years ago. It was from a small bakery stand at the Rialto Market. The artichokes had probably been pureed and incorporated into the dough, and the bread simply topped with lots of olive oil and coarse salt. I've never been able to find a reference or recipe for this unforgettable little treat.
In 1983, my mother and I were making the rounds to visit her various first cousins who had trickled from Abruzzo in the 60's to live in the Montespeccato area of Rome which boomed after the war. One cousin, Lina, lived "in the country" at the edge of a Rome address. As we were saying our goodbyes, Lina poked around in the grass of her front yard and picked a few scraggly green leaves. Mangia, she said. I wasn't keen on tasting weeds, but I had to take a nibble. Mmmmm, peppery I thought. Rucola, she said with an open smile and spread her arms to show that it grew wild all around her home.
I am currently living in Italy. My most memorable food moments have been when I order and converse with waiters and shopowners purely in Italian. Whether it's pizza al taglio after hiking around Lake Bracciano (for a euro!) or showing friends my favorite spot for cacio e pepe in Testaccio. I feel closer to the food and my Italian roots.
Ciao, Domenica, so many memorable meals in Italy over the years - porchetta at street markets in Tuscany, a wonderful asparagus risotto! Best ever lunch though was in the Mugello, Tuscany at thouse of a lovely Italian woman called Evalina, a friend of my family there. I was newly married, visiting with my husband, and she invited us all for lunch. Prosecco and crostini to start with. Evalina's own-made tortelli di potate - up there as among the best pasta I've ever eaten, bistecca grilled over charcoal, a simple but exquisite sponge cake, light as a cloud. Beautiful food - deceptively simple, made with such skill and care. True hospitality. Decades later, we all still talk about this lunch!
As a proud mezzo-sangue, half-Italian, half-Irish, I have had a lifelong love affair with Italian food, and those I shared it with. The Italian side of the family could be a little loud, but there was so much fun and so much joy. But when you posed the question as to the most memorable Italian meal I've ever had, the one that sprang to mind immediately was from the fall of 2019 on the exquisite Costiera Amalfitana, in Positano. A beautiful first afternoon there, I walked down from the Duomo towards the beach, and chose a restaurant with a seaview. I didn't go for any of the best known places, and it was late enough in the afternoon that I was able to get a table right along the front wall of the restaurant, with the sea to my left just down beyond the sand. What I ordered that day was a seafood marinara pizza, and a limoncello spritz. What made the meal so perfect was the pizza, just a delicious Napoli style crust, marinara sauce, no cheese, and a large helping of the freshest seafood piled on top of the sauce, much of it still in its shells. The day was perfection, and the meal was perfection, not to mention a wonderful limoncello spritz, my very favorite drink. I would go back to that place in a moment, and I hope to have the opportunity to do so, someday.
Hi Domenica! It’s Evie, I’d have to say a gnocchi dish at an old momentary near Bologna I think it was called SanDomenico. But the hay and straw your mom made was so so memorable. I made it with my girls this past Easter in honor of your mom and figured we had a lot of time during Covid. They all helped me, we made it over two days and they all Loved it!!! I plan to make it again this Easter.
Perhaps it was the lunch at, what we referred to as the Blue Bus Stop, a little spot across the road from the bus stop between Buon Convento and Montalchino. We stopped for late lunch and we’re told that the kitchen was closed, but the family was about to eat, and if we wished, we could join. The lasagna was layers and layer of paper thin pasta with minimal amounts is sauce it was so light, so fresh, but the overwhelming friendliness of an invitation to dine with the family….
Or then again perhaps the most memorable was cannelloni in the Piazza Navonna or maybe the lunch overlooking the Val d’orcha
In 1969, I was in Rome with some other high school students. We stayed in a convent. Our first night there, the nuns served us spaghetti, grapes, and Coca Cola. I still crave that meal!
Yes you must! I would purchase it as soon as in print 🥰 grazie mille
A Mortadella sandwich in Bologna. 😋
For me it's the thin slices of veal with cubed potatoes that are bright yellow thanks to the homemade olive oil, which was also drizzled over the green beans made by my nonna.
Thanks! It was a fun evening for sure.
Back in 2016 my husband and I went to Italy with our two children and my husband's parents. We were there for three weeks. One of our weeks was spent in the area around Lake Como. There was a restaurant near our house called Taverna Blu. We passed it every time we left the house, so one night we decided to give it a try. There were six of us and we showed up without a reservation (not knowing that one was needed). Fortunately they seated us anyway at a quiet back table, which was appreciative since we did have a two and four year old in tow. I remember being surprised that our "waiter" was also our chef. He was so very friendly and accommodating when it came to our two boys. The whole staff was very friendly and enjoyed talking with us from time to time at our table. Our meal finally came out and both my husband and I ordered the white truffle risotto. It was the best risotto I think I've ever had. Even our boys plain Pasta con Sugo di Pomodoro was amazing. That was probably the best meal we had the entire time we were in Italy. We still talk about it from time to time today and we all smile about how a pear fell from the tree above our table and almost hit my father in law in the head. Free dessert!
Love that you’re doing this. While I’ve never been to Italy, sadly, I have experienced many memorable Italian meals, most of them in Rhode Island. But the best was a meal prepared by my friend, Carolyn, both of her parents were Italian. She served manicotti. The fragrance of the sauce and stuffing was intoxicating and the manicotti were handmade and like clouds, so light, so delectable. Best Italian meal I ever had. Her recipe was a family secret so, alas, I never had the chance to try and recreate that meal but that’s okay. I’ll always have that delicious memory.
I could go on forever. But I'll begin with my first meal in Italy, in Rome, in 1992. Italian-American though I am, when it came to eating in Italy, I was as green as a freshly plucked summer zucchino. (A line I stole from myself in my first small tome.) My then husband and I along with our two young daughters sat down to our first meal at Costanza in Piazza Paradiso with Roman friends. I recognized nothing on the menu, so I asked our friends to order which led to a life-ever-after-that-long love affair with the food of Italy. Tagliatelle con moscardini e bottarga, rombo al forno con patate, and so on. I had never tasted food like that in my life.
Being Italian, and living in Italy, does not make me the right person to join this thread. What I can say is that it is fascinating to read your experiences and look my country with your eyes and memories. For me, food symbolizes treasured time with family and friends. In Italy eating well is a signal of respect for your guests, and for yourself, and probably the strongest common element for a nation which considers itself still too young and too diverse. I would have plenty of favourite food and moments to recall. I will choose the week end in which my husband proposed: we were in Florence, a place dear to us, having dinner at Cibreo. I always liked the relaxed atmosphere, the simple yet impeccable service, the elegance and coziness of the place. And the unforgettable ribollita, so nice in a winter night of February, and absolutely true to its origin.
My only trip to Italy was 30 years ago with the love of my life and our best friends. It was early November. We landed in Rome and the 4 of us rented a very small car to drive to Siena where we stayed at a farm that had rooms for rent. They grew olives and other vegetables. We had many excellent meals at several restaurants but this is where my love for olive oil began. We had freshly harvested olive with every meal. Lissa Mattson
My wife and I were in Rome and a friend who lives there took us to his favorite local restaurant in Trastevere. The area was a mob scene, with lines to get into every restaurant. It was a blast. A 45 minute wait later we were seated in Tonnarello. What followed was the best damn spaghetti carbonara I could ever imagine. My wife, who suffers from Celiac disease, opted for the gluten free version. I couldn't tell the difference between her's and mine. Just a few days ago we were reminiscing about that meal. LOL
linguine al vongole for lunch at a small trattoria on the railroad tracks in Ventimiglia...incredibly fresh, light, flavors balanced, perfectly cooked.....
Mid summer morning in Liguria, standing on the stone steps outside a tiny storefront, where I purchased a warm slice of transcendent olive oil drenched focaccia. In one hand the bread and the other a warm fuzzy skinned and oozing summer peach I bought earlier at an outdoor stand. Have never forgotten the perfection of that moment. Searching for that focaccia ever since.
Every meal we have had in Italy has been delicious. I can’t remember a meal that wasn’t flavorful and scrumptious but there was one bowl of soup I can almost taste even now after 6 years. It was lentil soup served in a restaurant in Venice called Hosteria Da Zorzi. It was the most delicious soup I’ve ever had and would gladly go back just to have it again. Simply made but exquisitely flavorful!
The best Italian restaurant in Philadelphia for us is L’angolo on Porter St off Broad St. It was recommended to me by an Italian. If you are ever in Philly give it a try but sure to make reservations a few days in advance.
A friend of mine suggested it might have been made with a bechamel sauce. What do you think?