From the snowy peaks of the Dolomites to the dusty olive groves of Sicily, and the picture-postcard rolling hills of Tuscany to the jaw-dropping ancient cities of Rome, Naples and Venice, it’s hard to think of a more compelling destination than Italy. The country is also famous for its cuisine, which is loved by diners everywhere. Indeed, if you were to poll diners around the world as to their favourite international cuisine, there’s a strong chance that Italian would come out on top. It’s easy to see why, as every region – in fact, often every village – has its own special ingredient or cooking technique. In Hong Kong, we’re lucky to boast one of the finest ranges of Italian restaurants anywhere outside Italy. With travel to Italy not currently a viable option , we visited four restaurants to try their signature regional dishes, learn what makes them so special and hear how the areas in question are faring given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which hit Italy especially hard. We start at Hong Kong’s newest Italian restaurant, LucAle in Sai Ying Pun. Alessandro Angelini, most recently at the Kowloon Shangri-la’s Angelini restaurant, and Luca De Berardinis of the now-closed Operetta in Pacific Place, Admiralty, are the chefs behind it – and give the restaurant its name. They source their ingredients directly from producers in Italy, and have been able to maintain supplies since opening in early March, at the height of the coronavirus crisis. Despite the timing, they say they’re lucky to have been fully booked every night since opening. Angelini comes from Emilia-Romagna, a northern Italian region famed for its produce. “Emilia-Romagna is home to most of Italy’s famous ingredients like Parmigiano reggiano, balsamic vinegar, prosciutto and plenty of pastas including lasagne , tagliatelle, tortellini and so on. Cappelletti originated in the noble courts and was traditionally served in a broth at Christmas, but today the dish has evolved and every part of Italy has their take on this pasta.” Inside the cappelletti at LucAle is a deep and richly flavoured combination of meats. “We fill our cappelletti with white bolognese – a ragu made with premium beef and veal,” says Angelini. “Unlike traditional ragu it contains no tomato, but I can’t share the recipe – it’s our secret. “Fresh pasta and quality ingredients are important – we use Italian flour and eggs to make the pasta dough – but the key to a perfect cappelletto is the closure of the pasta parcel. It’s a skill best learned from an Italian grandmother and it takes years to master. The shape resembles the traditional Italian rural headdress that gives it its name.” Marcello Scognamiglio from Grissini at the Grand Hyatt comes from Campania, the region surrounding Naples in southern Italy. He says: “Things are getting better back home, the home isolation is over, people are starting going out to work or meet their friends. I’m in contact with my family every day, they have been through a very tough time but now it seems to getting better.” The dish he chose to represent Campania, ravioli Capresi, comes from the island of Capri. “It’s a traditional dish which includes amazing ingredients from that area, perfect to have in summer – marjoram leaves, cherry tomatoes, caciotta cheese, all the best from that region.” At Grissini, the ravioli is artfully arranged atop a sauce made with sweet cherry tomatoes. Biting into them brings a smooth and creamy hit of the melted caciotta cheese sauce that contrasts beautifully with the umami of the tomatoes. Scognamiglio suggests other factors that make it so good: “Ravioli is 100 per cent from the south. We look for the best ingredients, especially seasonal produce, focusing on every detail during the cooking process – and add a lot of love.” Chef Marco Sacco, of the two-Michelin-star Piccolo Lago in Verbania, Italy, and of Castellana in Causeway Bay , comes from Piedmont in northern Italy, one of the regions hardest hit by Covid-19. In common with the rest of Italy, there’s an innate resilience there, but Sacco also recognises that the future of restaurants is at real risk. “All restaurants have suffered a shock from this situation, but certainly the highest-level restaurants are most at risk from the uncertainty and lack of clarity regarding when and how to reopen. We’ve created a delivery service [in Italy], so, even if it’s only for the duration of a lunch or dinner, you can put aside the difficult situation.” Sacco’s choice of dish to represent Piedmont is vitello tonnato, or veal with the unlikely but very successful combination of tuna and mayonnaise. “The dish has evolved over time. Like many other Italian recipes, it was born as a poor dish, where the less noble cuts of veal, the scraps, were boiled for a long time to soften them. Only later was the tuna added to the sauce, and now the most prized veal is used for this recipe that is emblematic of the Piedmont tradition.” Sacco said that every time he ate vitello tonnato there was always too much sauce or too many slices of veal, so he had the idea of hiding the tuna and mayonnaise sauce inside a raviolo made from slices of veal. It looks a million miles from most versions of the dish, thanks to the deconstructed presentation. “In that way, in every single bite, we have the right balance between meat and the sauce. The dish is completed with some capers and veal jus to give more intensity and persistence, and some celery curls to clean the palate and rebalance it.” Josh Stumbaugh ’s name gives away the fact that he is not Italian, but the affable American brings years of experience cooking the cuisine of a country close to his heart, notably at New York’s acclaimed Barbuto. Now executive chef at Black Sheep restaurant group, he heads up Associazione Chianti , its trattoria that celebrates the finest dishes from Tuscany. The restaurant in Ship Street, Wan Chai, elevates the Italian tradition of cucina povera (poor cooking), simple dishes which ensure that nothing is wasted. Stumbaugh’s choice of garganelli omaggio a Trattoria Cammillo honours a classic dish served at Trattoria Cammillo, a dining institution on the south bank of the Arno River in Florence. Stumbaugh says: “The food of Tuscany is all about using every bit of everything you have and you find this a lot in a Chianti ragu, where they take the tougher bits of the beef, add Chianti wine and cook it down. It was a way to turn something that was nothing into a pasta dish. “This ragu packs a lot of flavour, as we added a veal stock and nice wine to the beef cheeks, which makes the sauce gelatinous and coats the pasta nicely.” The house-made garganelli pasta is cylindrical but has ridges, making it the perfect vehicle to soak up the wonderfully rich ragu that has deep notes of Chianti. The beef cheek falls apart at the touch of the fork, while the shards of Parmesan add the contrast needed to complete another dish that perfectly represents one of Italy’s most famed culinary regions, one of many that diners will hopefully be able to visit again in person before long. LucAle 100 Third St, Sai Ying Pun, tel: 3611 1842 Grissini 2/F, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, 1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2584 7722 Castellana 10/F, Cubus, 1 Hoi Ping Road, Causeway Bay, tel: 3188 5028 Associazione Chianti 15 Ship Street, Wan Chai, tel: 3619 3360