The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again. – George Miller
The above cliche is based upon the bad, cheap, fat-laden Italian food that continues to enthrall the American middle class (see Olive Garden, Maggiano’s, Macaroni Grill et al). It’s too bad though, because true Italian food, like Japanese, is about ingredients (or good groceries, as Alan Richman says) more than technique. For pirouettes on the plate, one usually looks to China or France, but for pristine ingredients that shine with only a minor flourish or two, you can’t beat a purist Italian meal prepared by a great chef.