Note that Italo closed down in January 2024!
We have been to Italo a few times before and it is a sort of a hidden gem in Stavanger. During the day it is a small café with good homemade gelato, delicious coffee and selection of various goods (such as coffee beans, dried pasta, olive oil etc) – and in the evening you can get good pasta with some wine. We stopped by on a weekday afternoon to get some food before going to the movies and there are many classic pasta dishes to choose from. I chose linguine all cozze e Vongole (pasta with mussels and vongole shells) and Nikki decided to have Pasta all'Amatriciana.
Pasta is basically Italian fast food and so our pasta was served within minutes. My linguine was like a lot of food in Italy – that is, few ingredients, quite simple yet so lovely. The pasta was in focus in this dish but with some mussels and vongole shells mixed in together with a couple of small tomatoes and herbs. There was also a bit of fresh bread so I could soak up some of the lovely juice from the pasta. Nikki was pleased with her Pasta all'Amatriciana, a pasta with tomato sauce with guanciale (cured pork cheeks), some chili and some parmiggiano reggiano! As the pasta came so quickly (and I still had room for more food), I ended up getting some tiramisu for dessert. This one was also very tasty even though I would have soaked the biscuits a bit more. Nikki enjoyed a chocolate sorbet – i.e. dark chocolate ice cream that is made without any dairy products! We also got a small taste of the other varieties of gelato that they have and here there is a lot to choose from! "Grazie mille" to Italo for a great meal that gave us flashback to our trip to Naples last October! Next time I hope that you also have some whipped cream so I can have my espresso con panna.
Comments