These nonnas definitely had thoughts.
Reviewed by Dietitian Katey Davidson, M.Sc.FN, RD, CPT
Key Points
- We asked nonnas their favorite chain-restaurant pasta, but they couldn’t name a single one.
- Chain-restaurant pastas tend to be overcooked and have too much sauce.
- They say the safest options are lasagna and manicotti, which are the most forgiving.
As an Italian-American, I can tell you that there is one stereotype about Italians that’s 100% true: we like to argue. So, when I was tasked with finding at least three nonnas who could agree on a single favorite chain–restaurant pasta dish, I knew it would be a tall order. See, Italians will debate about anything … but food? That’s probably our favorite topic to spar over. Add into that the ask for the best chain-restaurant pasta, and these nonnas had opinions.
“Oh, I don’t like Olive Garden,” Annette Ferrano, an Italian American grandmother from Toms River, New Jersey, told me in no uncertain terms. “It really isn’t Italian! I haven’t gone in a long time, but the food doesn’t really taste Italian,” she continued. Most other nonnas I spoke with did agree on this point: Chains have some work to do when it comes to their pastas. (All except my own Italian grandmother, Patricia Rotondo, who told me “People are too fussy.”)
Even well-known nonnas were quick to dismiss chains. “Nonna doesn’t go to any chain Italian restaurants,” says Maddie of her Internet-famous grandmother, Grandma Finawho has nearly a million followers on Instagram. “The key to a good Italian restaurant is to keep the menu simple and traditional,” she adds.
What Chain Restaurants Could Do Better, According to Nonnas
Italian grandmothers are some of the best home cooks around, so they did offer up plenty of advice on what would make the chains better. One of the biggest complaints? Overcooked pasta smothered in too much sauce.
“At any restaurant, chain or independent, I look for al dente pasta first, then something not drowning in sauce,” says Elizabeth Williams, a New Orleans–based grandmother and the author of Nana’s Creole Italian Table.
Franz Sidney, a Wyoming-based grandmother born and raised in Italy, agrees. She recalls a visit to a well-known Italian chain in the United Kingdom, which left her and her father disappointed. “Salty, excessively dressed with sauces we do not use, over- and undercooked and the pasta brand was less than second class,” she said. “We were just so sorry that visitors would think this is what we eat in Italy.”
Nonna Fina explains that chain restaurants could feel far more authentic by leaning into simplicity and focusing on high-quality ingredients. “A good tomato passata (sauce) makes or breaks the dish. If the tomatoes are not ripe and/or the passata isn’t made in store [in-house] then it will likely not taste traditional and the best,” she said.
What Pasta Dishes Nonnas Actually Order
Of course, most of us find ourselves at a chain restaurant at some point, if not often. So, when Williams ends up at one, she has one clear suggestion for what to order: “Lasagna, lasagna, lasagna,” she says. “I order it because I expect the sheets of pasta to meld into the sauce and cheese, so it isn’t like eating pasta.”
Angie Caprio, another nonna from New Jersey, agrees. For her, she says she appreciates the nostalgia of the dish and doesn’t expect perfection. “I grew up on the taste,” she said. “Of course it doesn’t come out the same, though.”
My grandmother’s go-to is manicotti, another dish where a slightly overcooked pasta may be forgivable. When she makes it herself, she makes fresh, individual crepe-like pasta sheets, then rolls and stuffs them with a ricotta mixture. However, chains are more likely to use dried manicotti in their versions.
As for Nonna Fina and Ferrano, they prefer pastas that are fresh and simple when at a restaurant. Nonna Fina typically orders spaghetti Napoletana, a straightforward dish with a sauce made from fresh tomatoes. Ferrano’s typical order is linguine with clams, taking advantage of restaurants that offer fresh seafood options she doesn’t always have at home.
Small local chains can have great Italian food, Sidney notes. She points to Denver’s Cinzetti’s, where her favorite is gnocchi in vodka sauce. “The taste was divine and the gnocchi was not overcooked.”
The Bottom Line
While Italian grandmothers couldn’t agree on a favorite chain pasta dish, they did reach a consensus on why chain pastas often miss the mark: the pasta is often overcooked and drowned in a heavy sauce.
For them, simple, well-made dishes are often the best, be it spaghetti with a tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes or a garlicky sauce with fresh clams. At a chain, they find dishes like lasagna and manicotti are the most forgiving orders, since the pasta’s texture matters less.
In the end, they may debate restaurants endlessly, but they all agree on one thing: homemade is always best.
Comments are closed.