The other day I had to write up what I thought were the Top 5 Italian restaurants in Honolulu for Haute Living.
And after browsing menus with items like mushroom risotto and veal picatta, I started to crave Italian, too.
I thought about the pappardelle noodles with a curry meat sauce (above) from Prima Kailua, the lobster ravioli from Cafe Sistina, and any of the pizzas (and the panna cotta) from Bernini Honolulu.
My mouth is still salivating!
It made me think: what makes good Italian food?
I have a few theories.
For starters, good Italian food is simple, uncomplicated. It should taste home-cooked and hearty — but not overdone or pretentious.
Dishes should showcase the bounty of fresh ingredients prevalent in Italy. We’re talking tomatoes, potatoes, rice, pasta, sausages, pork, herbs, fish, peppers, garlic, olive oil, nuts, artichokes, eggplants and every cheese you can think of. No canned tomatoes or cheap olive oil. Dishes should be packed with freshness, period.
And finally — and this just might be my rule — you should never leave an Italian restaurant searching out the nearest fast-food joint. You should leave full — not stuffed — and happy. To me, that’s the true sign of success, that you ate every bit your could fit comfortably in your stomach. And even better, you crave it later.
What’s your favorite Italian restaurant in Hawaii and what do you think makes it so good?
6 Comments
When I was a Kailua resident Assaggios was a favorite stop. Loved the linguini with clam sauce and the salads. The in-laws stayed at the Ilikai when they came to visit and Sarento’s was pretty good. As far as pizza goes it was Boston’s Kailua and the place next door called Peppinos. Italian is pretty good in general but it is my once a month thing.
Just to clarify, I always ordered the red clam sauce because it had such a wonderful flavor, not too much a fan of the white sauce.
good, simple cooking make italian food special. I think canned tomatoes and other ingredients (anchovies, sardines, etc) are perfectly fine because you can get a certain flavor from the canned version that you don’t get from the fresh version. as an example, in NYC this past december, my son and I ate at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria (Mario Batali’s lower end, tapas place). the caprese, which we had only ever seen served using fresh ingredients, was canned tomatoes (probably canned in house, of course). the dish was awesome and season appropriate. I read, later, that Batali adjusts recipes not only based on what’s available regionally but also seasonally.
so, i guess I’m somewhat of an italian food (all food, actually) snob. here’s a partial list, off the top of my head, for a good italian restaurant. (I’m not taking about the old school checkerboard table cloth/candle in the chianti bottle joints…those can be awesome, too but, I think, more “Italian-American” than “Italian”.)
-I have a problem with Italian places that think that garlic can cover up any flaw and that think that volume is an acceptable substitute for flavor.
-I have a problem with Italian places that keep that same menu, seasonally.
-I have a problem with Italian places that think covering a dish with mozz and parm and crusting the top is the be all/end all of Italian cooking
-I believe that Italian restaurants should make their own pasta (if you cook based on what’s available at the market, you’ll find yourself making sauces and preparations that might pair better with an orechiette or papardalle than your go to farfalle and spaghetti in a box)
-I believe that every italian restaurant should serve peroni (or, at least, moretti…if you’re having italian food, you should have italian beer)
-I believe that clams should never be served with cream sauce. on second thought, make that all seafood…and throw out the corn starch.
-All Italian kitchens should have immediate access to, an herb garden. even one in a planter box is cool.
Hello Cat!
Happy Friday fuud Pixs!
I don’t have a farvorite I can think of. I like shrimp scampi with lots of garlic, is that italian? And any pasta dish with white sauce like fettucini alfredo.
CAT: I thought the Italian restaurants in Hawaii represented Italian fuud fairly well until I went to Italy! Holy smokes, even the smallest Italian restaurant beat out the fanciest place in Hawaii as far as taste. I think it is more about freshness of ingredients because very few restaurants in Italy would survive using institutional/commercial packed ingredients. All the guud chefs in Europe go the the market themselves. Nobody I think, goes to the fuud warehouse in Italy.
I was intrigued when I was in Italy how good the simplest things tasted. I had some grapes in Venice that were not just sweet, but had a perfume that I yet to find in the states.