Italian Food and Cooking

$13 at D’Amico’s Italian Lunch Market Café

Osso Buco Me? Osso Buco You!

Our food critic gets tossed out of another restaurant

Scoop It Up at Cricket's Creamery & Cafe

Our food critic gets tossed out of another restaurant

Missing Vowel at Luigi's Pizzeria

Our food critic gets tossed out of another restaurant

Michelangelo's Fave at Gelato Blu

Our food critic gets tossed out of another restaurant

Crash Course at Ristorante Cavour

Get a real Italian experience -- in both food and service

Simposio

An old favorite has opened at a new location, but is its upscale Northern Italian fare still worth the price?

Celebration of Beer Dinner

Chef Igor Rosi proves Italians know beer as well as wine

Frenchie's Italian Restaurant

Chef Igor Rosi proves Italians know beer as well as wine

Antica Osteria

Rice Spaghetti

On Top of Spaghetti

At Antonio's Flying Pizza, we ponder what cheese pizzas and cheese enchiladas have in common

Lucio's

Pork Chop Extraordinaire

Nino's

Nino's turns 30, and Houstonians want gelato with their Italian birthday cake

Gelato Grotto

There's a dark cave in Rice Village where you can linger over ice cream and espresso

The Crudo at Bice

A new excuse to go to the Galleria and play dress-up

How Sweet It Is

Marco Wiles is knocking them dead with his new casual pizzeria in Montrose

Knockout Gnocchi

Perbacco

Complex Cuisine

benjy's

All You Have to Do Is Ask

Carmelo's Italian Restaurant

Less Price, Less Spice

Two Mandola-family restaurants provide a lesson in what we're paying for when we eat out

Best Gelato

Two Mandola-family restaurants provide a lesson in what we're paying for when we eat out

The Cow Says "Oink"

Which Houston restaurants are swapping pork for veal?

Come Back to Sorrento

The latest addition to the "Restaurant District" on lower Westheimer is a gem

Big Flavors, Little Tables

Marco Wiles expands his Westheimer restaurant empire with another great Italian joint.

Cafe: What's a Salumeria?

Photo by Luiz CastroPoscol, Marco Wiles's fabulous new Italian joint on Westheimer, is the subject of this week's Cafe review. While I raved about the food I ate there, I also whined about the cured meats. Wiles calls the place an enoteca (wine bar) and salumeria (cured meat shop). But if you have e ... More >>

Hollister Hospitality

Customers love to get coddled at this new neighborhood grill in Spring Branch.

Top 10 Ice Cream Experiences in Houston

This week, Robb Walsh explores the vast world of Houston's ice cream parlors in the feature story, "The Scoop." In the course of writing his article, he ate more ice cream than Napoleon Bonaparte did at the Ziggy Pig in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (but didn't get a pin afterwards). He imparts t ... More >>

The Scoop

We all scream for Houston's best ice cream

An Ice Cream, An Espresso and A Hookah

Photo by Robb Walsh​While researching this week's ice cream feature, I went looking for Trentino Gelato's dulce de leche -- it's an Argentine-style caramel flavor gelato with big hunks of melted chocolate all through it. I called two of Trentino's biggest distributors, Cricket Creamery and Cof ... More >>

Easy Risotto: An Oxymoron?

Photo by Robb Walsh​My friend Paul Howell makes risotto all the time. Pumpkin risotto and mushroom risotto are two of his favorites. I have always found the labor-intensive stirring and adding of liquid required for perfect risotto a little tedious. But Paul introduced me to the pressure coo ... More >>

Lingering Over the Linguine

Lynette Hawkins's new wine bar Giacomo's Cibo e Vino captures the Italian spirit of drinking, eating and hanging around.

Fall Wine Tasting at Simposio Ristorante

​In 2007, Vasco Luti, owner of Simposio Ristorante, opened the restaurant's new location in an unlikely shopping center at the corner of Westheimer and Dunvale. Historically, this native Tuscan focused on Northern Italian cuisine, but last night, Simposio debuted some new wines and Southern It ... More >>

Fatbutter.com

​Despite what you may think, this is not a website warning you about butter. You know about the fat, calories, and clotted arteries. No, this is the website for La Vista Restaurant. And it's very accurate. Our dining companions had been raving about the dinner they had at the La Vista at 126 ... More >>

Five Delicious Alternatives to Wheat Pasta

Photo by avlxyzWe're here to help support those daily pad thai cravings.​That's right; it's gluten-free time again here at Eating Our Words. But unlike our previous few posts which have been GF product assessments, we're instead going to spotlight some of our favorite (and occasionally overloo ... More >>

Pan-Seared Branzino at Ristorante Cavour

​The tart heirloom tomatoes gushed warm, juicy deliciousness over the flaky flesh of the branzino. The tenderly sautéed tomatoes were a great textural contrast to the crisply seared fish skin, both of which complemented the firmness of the fish. On the side was a shaved fennel salad simply ga ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 3: Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio of Sabetta Café & Wine Bar

Sausage antipasti.​Chef Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio of Sabetta Café & Wine Bar is on a mission to bring his customers authentic Italian food. He describes it as Italian home cooking, the kind you would find in your grandmother's kitchen (if you grandmother was Italian, that is). From the food to ... More >>

Michaelangelo: A Masterpiece at Gelato Blu

The Michaelangelo on the left, the chocolate-peanut butter (another favorite) on the right.​With the last few ragingly hot weekends of the year (hopefully) coming to an end, I celebrated with one of my favorite summer treats over the weekend: gelato. Gelato Blu (5710 Memorial Drive, Suite B) ... More >>

First Look at Piola

Photos courtesy of Piola because I also managed to forget my camera last night on top of everything else.​Between a dead car battery and an inhaler emergency (thanks for nothing, Walgreen's) last night, I didn't make it to Piola (3201 Louisiana, 713-524-8222) either on time or in my typical ca ... More >>

10 Pumpkin Dishes to Try in Houston: #2: Pumpkin Risotto at Prego

​I adore pumpkin. It's orange (my favorite color), healthful (fiber! Vitamin A!), and associated with two lovely, food-centric holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving). Starting around October, I always find myself on the hunt for pumpkin-flavored foods, and this autumn is no exception. So, betwe ... More >>

First Look at Sapori

The vitello tonnato is back.​It looks like Chef Alberto Baffoni might have finally landed in a spot suited perfectly for his talents after years of bouncing around, most recently at the ill-fated Bohemia, after leaving his initial Houston post at Simposio (which is also now closed): Saprori Ri ... More >>

Capri in Spring

Little restaurant outside town turns out spectacular Italian food.

Chef Chat, Part 1: Renato De Pirro of Ristorante Cavour

Photo by Matthew DresdenRistorante Cavour executive chef Renato De Pirro.​Last April, Renato De Pirro took over for David Denis as executive chef at Ristorante Cavour, the jewel box of a restaurant inside Uptown Park's Hotel Granduca. Whereas the Provence-born Denis had turned out sumptuous Fr ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 3: Renato De Pirro of Ristorante Cavour

Photo by Matthew DresdenSicilian smoked swordfish and eggplant involtini. Note the Sichuan peppercorn "sea foam" on top.​After our energetic and wide-ranging discussion (covered in Chef Chat, Parts One and Two), Chef De Pirro brought out a few of Ristorante Cavour's representative dishes, each ... More >>

Dinner at Fratelli's

Joanna O'LearyCalamari Fritti​When I lived in Boston, the proximity of the North End to my apartment meant I ate Italian food fairly regularly. I gnoshed on arancini during street festivals, savored truffled risotto at some high-end joints, and devoured slices loaded with sausage and peppers a ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Roma Tomatoes

Photo by John SuhBruschetta [broo-SKEH-tah]​What is it? Also called the Italian tomato, the Roma tomato is a common type of plum tomato: egg-shaped, with fewer seeds than the round tomato. (All Romas are plum tomatoes--also called paste tomatoes -- but not all plum tomatoes are Romas.) Summer ... More >>

Tuesday October 18, 2011 Deals of the Day

​Today's VOICE Daily Deal from the Houston Press is good for 50 percent off ($25 for $50) at Sapori Ristorante Italiano. Their Northern Italian menu serves up dishes by Chef Alberto Baffoni; fresh ingredients showcase classic Italian cooking for lunch, brunch, and dinner. Enjoy the cooler temp ... More >>

10 Pumpkin Dishes to Try in Houston: #3 Pumpkin Ravioli at Fratelli's

Pumpkin ravioli.​In 2010, I had a grand ol' time scouring Houston for outstanding pumpkin dishes. One year later I'm older, definitely not wiser, and still in love with orange squash. So from now until Thanksgiving I'll be counting down (again) 10 Pumpkin Dishes to Try in Houston. Forks at t ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Prosciutto

Photo by John SuhI dream of prosciutto pizza.​What is it? Pronounced "proh-SHOOT-oh," prosciutto is a thinly sliced Italian dry-cured ham. The uncooked version highlighted today is called prosciutto crudo (the cooked kind is prosciutto cotto). The most revered cuts of prosciutto come from t ... More >>

How To: Make an Antipasto Plate

Photo by Bruce TurnerMamma mia!​It's not a holiday in my family without a big platter of antipasti. Every holiday, my aunt Estelle brings all the goodies from an amazing deli in Brooklyn. She leaves the presentation of the plate up to my friend Marisa and me, and then, without fail, proceeds t ... More >>

An Auspicious Dinner at Nardino Ristorante

Photo by Nardino Ristorante.Beef Carpaccio. ​I am usually not one to predict the future. When it comes to prognostication, I am far too conservative and neurotic to articulate publicly my thoughts on upcoming fads, fashions, movements, etc. Seriously, identifying the Big Cupcake as a 2012 foo ... More >>