Osteria da Fortunata: Warm climate, fresh ingredients: the perfect recipe to celebrate the Christmas season in Miami

MIAMI, Dec. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- How can we express care through food? Is there a recipe for that? This thought might linger in our minds as Christmas supper steadily approaches. It's certainly the question on the staff's minds at "Osteria da Fortunata."

The name of this venue says it all. "Osteria" is what restaurants with a traditional menu and friendly manners are called in Italy, the legacy of a past that preceded mass tourism to the boot-shaped peninsula. "Fortunata" used to be a girl's name in Italy that meant "fortunate." Those words sum up the spirit of a place still run by the same family that started it in Rome a century ago.

For the last hundred years, they've been welcoming visitors to the Eternal City and preserving their recipes generation after generation. Nowadays, the business is owned by 93-year-old "Nonna Iris" and her extended family of 40. Over the years, her love and dedication to tradition have outgrown those of her predecessors to the point that, more than a year ago, she made the decision to go across the Atlantic Ocean. There, she opened a business in Miami Beach modeled after the ones she and her family currently run in Italy.

The move was certainly a challenge, but energetic Nonna Iris has never shied away from one. At 13, she was already helping her mother and grandmother in their family business, learning the trade of pasta-making that later made her a familiar name in Rome. Four decades later, she is still in charge of five restaurants in Rome, plus one in Bologna and another three in Milan.

Within this "realm" of hers, a strict code is enforced: fettuccine, tagliolini, gnocchi and ravioli are all made from scratch. As cooks work to expertly craft them, these pastas take shape in front of clients' eyes on a counter that runs across the room. Premade products are banished from the "kingdom!"

This experience is rewarding since none of the five senses are neglected – the sight of egg pasta's deep yellow color, the sound of rolling pins constantly at work, the homey aroma of yeast, the touch of fresh bread, which is never missing at an Italian table, and, finally, the taste of an amatriciana or a carbonara, two of the most renown among Roman pasta recipes.

Rejoicing is the spirit of any Christmas holiday; showing and receiving care are at the heart of it. Celebrating both feelings while sitting and chatting together in a homey atmosphere, savoring that care-turned-food, may be the nicest Christmas present of all.

Osteria da Fortunata
607 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach 33139 Florida

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SOURCE Osteria da Fortunata