Pasta La Vista
During March, I was out and about traveling. One of my favorite destinations during this time was in Milan and Lake Como, where the food was fresh and local. One of the best restaurants I went to was dai Viga pasta fresca in Bellagio, one of the towns in Lake Como. I always get a little nervous recommending food or restaurants on group trips because not everyone will love it. This was probably 1 of 4 or so meals my friends and I had where everyone was relatively satisfied with their meal.
I had previously gone to Lake Como a couple of years prior and had seen the line out the door (as is usual for peak tourist season). My family and I weren’t hungry enough to thug out the stifling July heat and wait over an hour in that line. I bookmarked it and it slowly faded from memory till my friends decided to add Lake Como to our travel itinerary. As the resident foodie (read: the person very focused on making sure we wouldn’t eat American-based chains while in Europe), I needed to make sure the pasta(s) we tried were representative of what we had to offer.
Even in the off season, the line was a bit long, but the service quick, snappy waiters and cramped interior included. The concept of the restaurant is also interesting, where you pick a pasta shape (made fresh!!!) and one of the sauce pairings that it goes with. I chose the rigatoni shape and carbonara sauce, and watched as they made my food.
The presentation came in a paper plate, which honestly made me more excited to try it because the lack of frills meant I could only focus on their flavor. The quick service, casual air, and general vibes promised good food.
And sure enough, the meal delivered. The carbonara was delicious and the rigatoni was so delicious that my mouth is watering thinking about what a great first bite it was. Silence reigned as my friends and I ate our meals, and that is one of my top markers of a good time. 3 out of 5 people on this trip are yappers to the highest degree (I’m proudly one of them) and not even a single sound was made.
Pesto spaghetti where you could smell the pesto from a mile away
In my previous posts about Italian food, I’ve waxed poetic about the food not being worth the price or being able to make the same quality (or better) at home. But I can say with a sureness that there was no way I could recreate the same flavor without a lot of practice and access to kitchen tools that I don’t have the big girl money to splurge on yet.
Cacio a pepe that looked so so good
And to top it all off, tiramisu. The only picture I have is a bowl that’s scraped clean because we couldn’t resist. No thought to take a picture even crossed my mind, which is unheard of since my phone always eats first. We ordered a second and surprise, we also got no pictures of that one.
The picture of our second tiramisu
(see how there’s already greedy spoonfuls taken out)
I’ll continue to dream of this random hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Lake Como and the tiramisu that brought tiramisu lovers even closer together.
