The big night out

If you’re out to impress in Melbourne, it’s hard to go past the enduring elegance of Grossi Florentino. The upstairs dining room teams polished service with a diverse wine list and precise classics. At Da Noi it’s all about the ever-changing menu of antipasti, handmade pastas and rustic meat dishes, often showcasing produce from chef Pietro Porcu’s farm in Yarck.

Expect a welcome as warm as the Amalfi sunshine and sharp service under the watchful eye of matriarch Maria Favaro at Adelaide’s venerable city restaurant Chianti. The restaurant is pushing boundaries with dishes such as crab pasta with zucchini and crab jelly, and slow-cooked rabbit with pancetta, port and sage.

Tartufo owner Tony Percuoco (whose brother Armando has Buon Ricordo in Sydney) has hospitality in his blood and it shows in the generous service and fabulous food at this Brisbane favourite. Sydney stalwarts Otto Ristorante, Ormeggio at The Spit, Pilu and Lucio’s continue to set the fine-dining bar high with vibrant dishes from the city’s godfathers.

On the west coast, Villa D’Este offers a graceful villa ambience, while Divido is our pick for modern-Italian flavours, with an excellent wine list and sommelier too.

Pasta with passion

Sydney’s A Tavola, headed up by chef/ owner Eugenio Maiale, is known for its silky fresh pasta at the original Darlinghurst. Popolo has a sleek feel, but dishes up sunny southern flavours including fregola (Sardinian-style couscous-like balls of pasta) with rabbit ragu and gnocchi with clams, sea asparagus and cherry tomatoes.

The go-to dish at friendly Melbourne trattoria Thirty Eight Chairs is the curly pappardelle with duck and porcini ragu, topped with ribbons of fresh pecorino; while the kitchen at Etto turns out fresh dough twice daily, which they cook to order with your choice of sauces – try rigatoni with spicy sausage, or tagliatelle with smoky pancetta carbonara, eat in or take-away. Yak Italian Bar & Kitchen on Flinders Lane flies under the radar, but is worth a visit for chef Leo Gelsomino’s handmade pasta, using local stoneground flour.

Strands of freshly made spaghetti hang in the open kitchen at Adelaide CBD’s Borsa Pasta Cucina and the vongole are done with Coffin Bay clams and a flicker of chilli, while the carbonara is tossed at the table.

The right slice

Expect perfectly charry crusts strewn with speck, fontina and mushrooms, or porchetta and mustard fruits perhaps at Melbourne’s D.O.C. Bonus points for the mozzarella bar and BYO wine.

When it comes to Sydney’s best slices, simplicity is key. Iceberg’s Maurice Terzini’s Bondi restaurant, Da Orazio, is all about Neapolitan-style pizza and porchetta in a modern polished-concrete setting. Pizza Mario’s Rosebery spin-off, Da Mario, is as good as the Surry Hills original, with doughy bases topped with fail-safe toppings such as speck and fontina.

After a day at Noosa’s main beach, there’s nothing better than sinking into one of the lounges at Locale for a prosecco and pizza topped with Gympie baby zucchini and buffalo mozzarella.

It might be the romance of the glow of the wood oven at Adelaide’s Est Pizzeria, or it might just be the magnificent crisp-based pizzas with toppings such as mushroom, porcini and scamorza. Either way, it’s easy to fall for this little gem where everything is cooked by the fire, including sublime gnocchi with gorgonzola.

Sweet spots

Top honours go to Pasticceria Papa in Sydney’s ‘little Italy’ of Haberfield for their moreish torta di ricotta (ricotta cake). The doughy cake base is filled with ethereal whipped ricotta and sprinkled with cinnamon — the stuff of dreams. If you’ve made the effort to queue on a Saturday morning, you might as well pick up some panzerotti alla ricotta, pillowy ricotta-stuffed doughnuts. For biscotti and cannoli, head to Sulfaro (119 Ramsay St), a few shops down, where the glass counter is a colourful sugar mosaic and the Italian women behind it take their time, or Fivedock’s Tamborrino.

For a sugar rush in Melbourne, tuck into cannoli, ricotta cheesecake, amaretti biscuits and flaky sfogliatelli pastries filled with sweet, citrussy ricotta from the dizzying display at Brunetti, located in Carlton, the city and Camberwell. Dolcetti is a Sicilian-style pasticceria in West Melbourne best known for its biscotti, honey-laced torrone (nougat) and plump bombalone (doughnuts) filled with chocolate or vanilla custard.

Once you’ve tasted one of the custard-filled cannoli from hairdresser-turned-patissiere Maria De Leso at Dolce Classico there’s no turning back. The buttery pastry tubes are made fresh each morning and filled with a smooth custard that is the ultimate treat alongside a latte. Look out also for the liqueur-soaked layers of the diplomatico mousse cake.