All national cuisines have history, but few wear their age as proudly as Italian food. The heritage, passed-down recipes, and restaurants run by multiple generations of the same family is a large part of what makes Italian cuisine so appealing: Eating food that's been made the same way for decades, if not centuries, feels like you're taking part in tradition.
Smooth, silky, with just the right touch of sweetness, the creamy Italian favorite has long been a staple on European menus. As with most food origin stories, there's some debate about its history; the first mention of it in print can be traced all the way back to 1879, when a dictionary first referred to it as "latte inglese," or English milk. Though it wasn't originally called panna cotta, the recipe was the same: Cream, sugar, and gelatin.
First things first. Fans of the ebullient Donato Scotti, chef-owner of Donato Enoteca, need not worry that his presence will be missing from the Redwood City restaurant after a 16th anniversary refresh. In restaurant parlance, he has simply moved from the back of the house to the front of the house, where the loquacious host can make the rounds and greet and chat with diners.
A plate of eggs is the quintessential breakfast, and there's really no shortage of ways to enjoy them. From simple sunny side up or omelets to more elaborate eggs Benedict, you could try a new one each morning without running out of options. For something a little different - and to blur the lines between breakfast and dinner - try eggs alla pizzaiola.
New York City has a countless number of Italian eateries strewn throughout the city, so many that at times it feels like Rome. But owner Darios Asara, who is bringing his Rome-based restaurant Ginger to New York City on October 1, 2025 to 49 th Street and Sixth Avenue in proximity to Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hill, with a style of Italian food that few others contain: Blue Zone diet.
Here's what Tripadvisor wrote about Trattoria Amalfi: Trattoria Amalfi puts you in a comfortable spot with its coastal-inspired Italian cooking and a welcoming atmosphere. The handmade pastas and fresh local seafood are standouts-ask about daily specials and don't skip dessert. Service is relaxed but on point, and the patio's a great call if you want to hang out with friends or family over drinks.
You'd think that having the Kardashians, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Barack Obama as fans would protect a restaurant chain from bankruptcy, but in the unusual case of Il Mulino, sometimes success also attracts more problems. You may not have heard of Il Mulino, because even at its height it only had 17 locations. It occupies that strange, rarefied space of high-end chains with a handful of locations in major hotspots, often from name-brand chefs like Gordon Ramsay.
Italian cuisine so often references old times; I love simple food and forgotten tales, too, but I also feel the need to escape this tradition. We opened our restaurant, Trattoria della Gloria, in Milan in 2023, and instinctively refused to spend every night selling a remote and often fictional past. Instead, we explore and experiment with ancient gestures, methods and pairings to create new old things. That is, dishes that our grannies could have made, but didn't.
There are so many legends about famous dishes that were invented by accident. Ruth Wakefield thought she'd create a chocolate cookie by breaking up bits of a chocolate bar and folding them into her dough, but invented the chocolate chip cookie instead. Chocolate truffles may have been a happy accident, and butter likely came about by mistake as well. Basically, all the best foods are ones we wouldn't have without some clumsy person stumbling around a kitchen,
When most head to Italy for a vacation, they get off the plane at destinations like Milan in Lombardy, Rome in Lazio, or Florence in Tuscany. And while all of these well-known locations are great to visit, Abruzzo also arguably deserves the spotlight, too. The lesser-known region in southern Italy is home to stunning national parks, bustling cities like Teramo, picturesque coastline, rolling hills, impressive peaks, and lots of fascinating historical architecture.
McIlwraith is teaming here as co-executive chef with Kaili Hill the pair met while working at Barcino and went on to open another restaurant outside The Absinthe Group umbrella, Alora on the Embarcadero. (Hill previously worked at the Post Ranch Inn, 25 Lusk, and Niku Steakhouse.) The two are now returning to work with their old colleagues, creating a menu that will be "hyper" seasonally driven, centered on a wood-fired hearth, and offering generous plates of roasted meats and vegetables, as well as house-made pastas, both fresh cut and extruded.
In the early twentieth century, a community of Italian immigrants started selling fruits, vegetables, and other fare in Portland's Central Eastside, earning it the moniker Produce Row. These Italian American fruit markets and groceries planted the seeds of what would eventually become the city's farm-to-table ethos. Despite the outsize impact of the Italian community on our food scene, however, Portland isn't exactly a Little Italy town, lacking a dense concentration of ristorantes and trattorias.
De Laurentiis shared her recipe for roasted shrimp scampi on her website ( Giadzy), where she describes how you can use a baking dish to cook many elements of the meal together, removing a frying pan from the process altogether. A classic shrimp scampi is usually prepared by sautéeing garlic, red pepper flakes, white wine, and shrimp in butter and olive oil.
At the Mona Lisa Restaurant in North Beach, Andrea Bocelli croons over the loudspeakers as diners feast on cacio e pepe, lobster ravioli and Neapolitan pizza. The 46-year-old restaurant is a sensory overload: neoclassical statues wearing motorcycle helmets, rainbow chandeliers hanging from the equally colorful ceiling and a massive mural depicting the "Creation of Adam." Every other free inch of wall space is occupied by framed photos of celebrities:
NORTHPORT, NY - Maroni Cuisine of Northport was named one of the top-rated Italian restaurants in the United States, according to the users of Beli, a restaurant-oriented app. Maroni Cuisine, at 18 Woodbine Avenue, ranked No. 11 on a list of 12 Italian eateries. The rankings are based on more than 70 million ratings on Beli.
