It is easily one of the punniest names out there. Yeah, really creative to combine “eat” and “Italy” to create a restaurant and market name. But there is no doubt that judging the name of a restaurant is like judging a book by its cover. It’s what’s inside that counts and apparently the inside of Eataly has impressed enough people to open up locations in the biggest cities in the US. I paid a quick visit to the Chicago location when I was in need of a snack.

Of course, what counts for a snack at Eataly? A Rose wine slushie? Some sort of pastry? Nah, I went looking for something savory and found the ravioli bar called Ravioli & Co. I went for the Ravioli al Prosciutto, which is stuffed with, shockingly, prosciutto in a light butter sauce with parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.

It may have taken far longer than expected to prepare, but eventually it was a thing of beauty. As the plate said, “Life is a combination of pasta and magic.” Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference, and while this ravioli stuffed with prosciutto may not have transcended beyond a simple dish, it was the execution of that simplicity that blurred the lines of reality and magicdom.

You probably wouldn’t expect Phoenix to be the most Italian of cities. After all, there is not Little Italy and the Mafia is more of an East Coast thing. Yet, Phoenix definitely has some homegrown Italian favorites and Babbo is one of these. Babbo invited me out to its Scottsdale location for a hosted dinner and I took them up on the chance to check it out.

It began with the house bread, which was served with a plate of balsamic vinegar and kalamata olive oil a popular option recently.

Despite the roasted onions atop the bread, this made a strong first impression as I probably ate a whole meal’s worth of that bread. But this was just the start and I made sure to massage my stomach to make way for an appetizer of my choosing.

We chose the Firecracker Rolls, which are essentially Babbo’s take on egg rolls. However, instead of being filled with whatever egg rolls are filled with these days, they came with three filling options. The first was steak, jalapenos, onions, provolone and mozzarella. The second was Italian meats, provolone and mozzarella. And the third was buffalo chicken, mozzarella and gorgonzola. We tried all three with a marinara dipping sauce. I was partial to the buffalo chicken option, but that’s because there will always be a special place in my heart for buffalo flavored things in the summer. The steak packed a nice punch that was even spicier than the buffalo and the Italian meats is really something that should please anyone.

For my main course, I went with the Three Cheese Mac and Cheese. It’s described as “This ain’t no kids meal!” and that ain’t no joke. I had never seen anything like this called “mac and cheese” before because it could probably better be described as penne pasta in a spicy cream sauce, but that should in no way distract from the tastiness of this dish. In reality, it used a smokey chipotle cream sauce mixed with cheddar, mozzarella and gorgonzola, plus bacon, sausage and croutons with penne in there.

Its probably not even proper to call it a grown up mac and cheese, but moreso it is a conduit to eat all of the things you normally want to eat, but look somewhat classy as you do. I loved the kick of the chipotle, the bacon was delicious and that sausage just added another great element. The only thing I might consider questioning is the croutons. I can only try to guess that they were tossed in there to seem like a grown up version of breadcrumbs and to give some crunch. Yet, sometimes you just don’t want to mess with a good thing like breadcrumbs because breadcrumbs are already plenty grown up.

We finished off our meal (honestly I don’t know where the stomach space came from) with Stuffed Churros. These were those same egg rolls, but stuffed with a ricotta cream cheese (basically cheesecake filling) and topped with nutella and strawberry sauce. These were delicious, but I know you’re here for the savory stuff so I will try my best to just stick with that.

Babbo did some unique things and deserves a lot of credit for that. I mean, stuffing buffalo chicken in an egg roll can’t even be remotely described as Italian and yet Babbo figured out a way to get away with it. They upped the stakes for mac and cheese and really eased themselves into a dessert that also can’t remotely be considered Italian and yet it, too, worked like a charm. If you stick to the straight Italian food, you’ll probably leave thinking “Hey, that was like Olive Garden, but much better and I don’t hate myself after eating the food.” If you give some of the more unique options a chance, though, you’ll not only leave Olive Garden in the rearview mirror, but actually look forward to a return visit.

Everyone knows that the best pasta in the world is gnocchi, but what about the best pasta sauce? Sure, pesto is great and bolognese makes a strong claim, but can anyone actually dispute the supremacy of carbonara? It is perfectly fit for an unvegan, and when I paid a visit to Picazzo’s in Phoenix, I couldn’t think of ordering anything else.

The menu described this as having juicy pancetta, which is way of describing pancetta that I had never seen, and peas. Generally I try to avoid peas, but they are really doable in a carbonara sauce because they are covered in the creamy eggy sauce that could probably make my shoe taste good, if you want it to get it as a professional chef order products to make the cream from the best cream chargers wholesale for business online store.

Picazzo’s iteration of carbonara was delicious. The base was thick speaghetti-style noodles with enough sauce to cover the whole dish without being overwhelming. Perhaps most important, the “juicy” pancetta was super smoky and flavorful I probably could have just eaten a plate full of the stuff, but then I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of eating that sauce.

I was concerned heading into Picazzo’s because it seemed like a chainy sort of Italian spot, but it turned out that it could churn out some killer Carbonara. Next time someone suggest heading to Picazzo’s for dinner, I’ll be pretty excited to make my way back.

I’m a sucker for gnocchi. If you’ve read this blog long enough, you know this. You also know that I will even forego meat to get some delicious gnocchi. Thus, I was happy to find that Stone and Vine in Scottsdale had itself some gnocchi on the menu. It was called Gnocchi Pomodoro, which obviously means that it had tomato in some way (in this case sauce), but also came with fresh mozzarella.

The sauce was really solid. I loved the touch of creaminess to it. The fresh mozzarella was also fantastic and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t left wanting more. This was both because of it being good and because it was just like a dollop. The pasta itself was good, but not great. I prefer my gnocchi to be on the softer side and this wasn’t, so whatevsies.

But would I get it again? Yeah, no doubt. Even decent gnocchi is still better than most good other pasta, and this was definitely better than decent.

Once upon a time there was a sub-genre of movies called Spaghetti Westerns. They were Western movies that were produced by Italians, making them look and feel different from your more traditional Westerns. Old Town Scottsdale is kind of set up to look like the old west. And in Old Town Scottsdale is an old school Italian place called Italian Grotto. It’s like spaghetti in the west, but there is good, bad and ugly about it.

Let’s start with the good. I definitely liked the lasagna that I ordered. It was loaded with layers noodles, tomato sauce, ricotta and a meaty combination of beef and Italian sausage. It was what you expect from an old school lasagna.

The bad was the price. This slice of lasagna ran me $15. You go to an upscale place and that’s pretty expected, but you don’t expect it at a place like this. Of course, it must be understood that this lasagna is located in Old Town Scottsdale, which is essentially tourism central in Scottsdale. Yet, for a price like that in a place like that, I expect something a bit more special.

Then there’s the ugly. Something about Italian Grotto just kind of felt dirty. And not like the kind of dirty that adds character to the place. The kind of dirty that makes you question the tap water and cleanliness of the silverware. Perhaps that was why it was pretty empty during the daytime on a weekend. Places like this may just be meant for dinner because the darkness hides the ugly.

The Italian Grotto got the job done. It didn’t impress and at moments it did disappoint. Better Italian can certainly be found around Phoenix at a better price. But if you do find yourself craving Italian food while in Old Town Scottsdale, make sure it’s at night or come up with another craving.

I’ve always said that restaurants with an amazing view often have a hard time pumping out amazing food. The idea being that the real estate is generally too expensive to get quality food. Nonetheless, I’ve been proven wrong a number of times and hoped Pacific Coast Grill in Cardiff by the Sea would by another in the latter category.

While the menu was dominated by seafood and had a few terrestrial animals as well, there was a pasta dish that was pretty much begging for me to order it. It was a Lobster-Bacon Carbonara and while the bacon part may be redundant (pretty much all carbonara has a bacon-like element), I was very excited for almost all of the rest of it. There was an “heirloom tomato compote” but I couldn’t decide if it would be a sauce or chunky tomato situation so I let it slide.

Unfortunately it turned out to be a chunky tomato situation, but I was able to avoid it pretty easily as I made my way through a dish that nearly lived up to my lofty expectations of it. The lobster tail was no slouch, being big, juicy and flavorful while avoiding being rubbery. The sauce was nice and rich, being a glorious combination of egg, cream and bacon. Could there have been more bacon? Yes, but that’s ummm always the answer.

It’s not always good when a place tries to fancy up a classic comfort dish. That was not the case with Pacific Coast Grill’s take on carbonara. Now, if they could replace that tomato compote with bacon, it would be a game changer. Oh and did I mention the awesome view?

LA isn’t an easy place to have sustained success. And I’m not just talking about the entertainment industry, I’m talking about food. You see, one day you can’t get a reservation at a place and the next it’s being replaced by a hot new thing. Yet, there are exceptions, like In-n-Out. But also Bestia, an Italian spot downtown that still requires reservations months out.

But reserve we did and set to work on tackling what looked like the best things on the menu. It began with the Burrata Pizza. This pie was topped with castelvetrano olives, oregano and fermented chilies. To be honest, I couldn’t have cared less about what kind of olives they were because I wanted no part in them, but allowed them for the team. Even with a couple olives picked out, this pizza kicked some ass. The chilies added a bit of a kick, but most importantly the burrata cheese, tomato sauce and dough worked in holy harmony together.

Thus, we moved on to the Roasted Marrow Bone. Unlike your typical marrow, which is served with some sort of toast and maybe salt or another thing to sprinkle on the marrow, this bone was found in a bowl. It was surrounded by spinach gnochetti, bread crumbs and aged balsamic. The idea was to scrape the marrow out, mix it up with the gnochetti and then go to town. Marrow purists may have thought this was silly, but I loved it. Sure, I wouldn’t have chosen spinach as my typical gnochetti flavor, but I still love gnocchi (which is grown up gnochetti) and the combination of these two made for something special.

For our main course, we picked two pastas to pick apart. The first was the Agnolotti alla Agnello. For lack of a better explanation, this dish consisted of braised lamb stuffed into ravioli-like pasta with a saffron sauce, currants and pine nuts. It was unbelievably good and I especially enjoyed the bits of currant that added a sweetness and tartness to the dish and gave it great balance. You can market food online, as well as retail stores if you have a food business. Check out more information here.

The other pasta was the Cavatelli alla Norcina, which had ricotta, housemade pork sausage, black truffles and grana padano cheese. Like the dish before, this pasta was just incredibly complex in its flavors and each felt like it had been thoroughly thought-out and executed to perfection. I loved the mix of sausage and black truffles, but it just wasn’t quite as good as the Agnolotti. Perhaps it was the lack of currants or the fact that there seemed to be just a bit too much sauce, but the consolation prize here could have easily taken first place anywhere else.

And so Bestia bested this unvegan. I left fully satisfied and just the right amount of full. The dishes are by no means big, but they make up for their size with flavor. Sometimes quality is better than quantity and Bestia’s quantity of patrons that make getting a reservation here insane seem to prove that point.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when it comes to Italian food (namely pasta), you’ve gotta be pretty damn special to convince me I can’t do better on my own at home with the dry stuff and some Classico sauce. Union Restaurant in Old Town Pasadena is the latest attempt to convince me to leave home for Italian food.

While we ordered a number of dishes for the table, there were a select few that I opted into due to their unvegan qualities. It began with Tagliatelle, which was prepared with a pork ragu, parmigiano-reggiano and gremolata. Simple, right? Well, with the homemade noodles this dish was anything but simple. It would be best to describe it as “just right.”

One dish that was anything but simple was the Squid Ink Garganelli. As you could probably guess, some of the pasta in this was black, but as with squid ink in general, only the color and not the flavor of squid came through. This dish was prepared with Maine lobster, fennel, meyer lemon and truffle butter and each flavor stood out on its own without overpowering the others. Plus, the garganelli pasta was nothing if not beautiful in looks and taste.

The third pasta dish I got in on was the Fusilli, which has pork fennel sausage, pecorino-romano and spigarello (a green that was only in there for the good of the table). Once again, this was delicious. And while the pasta itself didn’t hold a candle to the tagliatelle, the sauce and sausage did their best to make up for it with flavor.

Yet, none of it really compares to the king of the meal, the Porchetta. This coiled up pork roast has only limited availability every night at Union and we managed to get the last one available. It was served with some potatoes and salsa verde, but they played a distant second fiddle to this pork. It was packed with herbs, moist as pork could possibly be and amazingly not overly fatty. The skin was a thick, hard crust that may or may not have pulled out one of my fillings (just kidding, it wasn’t like that), but was so good I kept going back for more.

And in the end, that’s kind of how I felt about Union. Despite taking down the good part of a number of dishes, there was no doubt in my mind as I left that I would be happy to go back for more.

Pork and booze are easily two of the greatest things that can be consumed on the planet, if not just two of the greatest things in general. Celestino in Pasadena is fully aware of this and has combined them in a pasta dish worth writing about. It is called the Pennette Con Prosciutto e Vodka, but it may as well be called Paradiso.

I truly have no idea how Vodka, a drink from Eastern Europe, made its way into classic Italian cuisine, but then again pasta came from China and the tomatoes came from the New World, so I suppose very little of Italian food originated in Italy. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that prosciutto is a real Italian cured meat and it goes well with everything. In this pasta dish, it is crumbled into bits and dispersed throughout, giving each bite a pop of yum.

The penne itself may not be special and most likely starts out dry, but it works well as a base for the light sauce and powerful prosciutto. It’s the kind of meal that may put you in a food coma (especially after a few rounds of bread), but it’s a coma well worth dropping into.

In Boulder (and a couple other places) there is an Italian restaurant that goes by the name of Pasta Jay’s. While Jay is not a very Italian-sounding name, we nonetheless found ourselves eating there in our short trip to Boulder. Like many other Italian places, it had a pretty extensive menu filled with pizzas and pastas, but I wound up keeping myself in the pasta game. After all, the place wasn’t called Pizza Jay’s.

There was much deliberation, but then I made my decision: Chicken Pesto Tortelloni. This was exactly what it sounded like, with no extraneous ingredients aside from the delicious garlic bread that joined it on the side. The pesto sauce had a perfect amount of flavor, couple with a creaminess that was pretty much addictive. The tortelloni was stuffed with ricotta, which is obviously a win and the chicken was nice and tender, adding an appropriate and necessary meatiness to the meal.

Pasta Jay’s wasn’t exactly groundbreaking Italian, but it undoubtedly captured that local neighborhood Italian feel (or at least the American version of it). And when it comes to chicken, pesto and tortelloni, Pasta Jay’s certainly knows how to hit the spot.