Tramonti La Pizza

This East Village restaurant takes its culinary cues from Tramonti, a small Italian village in the hills near the Amalfi coast. Chef Giovanni Vittorio Tagliafierro grew up there, and brought many of the recipes across the Atlantic to his New York restaurant. Start with fava beans with cherry tomatoes and pancetta ($12), spicy grilled calamari with a fennel-arugula salad ($15) or bruschetta topped with buffalo mozzarella and plum tomatoes ($10). Pasta dishes range from the traditional Tramonti dish of broken spaghetti boiled with potatoes then sauteed with basil, garlic and extra virgin olive oil ($12) to rigatoni with veal meatballs ($16). The pizza menu includes a section titled “The Untouchables”: Recipes so traditional, they’ve never been altered. Try the Al Vesuvio with San Marzano tomato pulp, fior di latte mozzarella, pecorino romano cheese and olive oil ($14) or the Calzone Tramonti with tomato pulp, smoked provola, hot soppressata and black pepper ($16).