Rosinella

Rosinella Restaurant Review:

Although the first Miami restaurant opened by the Doino family (mama Rosinella, papa Antonio, and their five children) in the early 1990s was the Sports Café, at the time a trendy sports bar, the food was not fleetingly fashionable but solid stuff from the family's birthplace in southern Italy. And like traditional fare in southern Italy's peasant regions, dishes here rely on the full flavors of ripe vegetables and herbs rather than being enriched, Italian-American style, with tons of meat-based products. Sauces and soups manage to be flavorful without using meat or poultry stock; further, all soups, though some are creamy, are dairy-free. (Note: Many dishes do contain meats and/or cheeses; these things just are not used as cheats.) Notable menu items, aside from the daily-changing and always tasty soups: glistening salmon carpaccio; vitello tonnato (thin slices of veal topped with velvety tuna caper sauce); and airy, delicate gnocchi, available with several sauces. For dessert, forget health and go for Rome's signature sweet: profoundly dark chocolate tartuffo.