Today Is World Pasta Day — Here Are 21 Bowls of Pasta Worth Booking a Flight For

Massimo Bottura’s tiny tortellini swimming in 36-month Parmigiano. Heinz Beck’s fagottelli, which hide an entire carbonara inside the pasta. Umberto Bombana’s tagliolini, buried under Alba white truffle in Hong Kong. Today, October 25, is World Pasta Day, and I can’t think of a better excuse to admit something: I would rearrange an entire itinerary for the right bowl of pasta. These are the 21 worth booking a flight for, all at two- and three-Michelin-star restaurants from Modena and Rome to San Francisco, Tokyo and Dubai.

Museums can wait.

Of course, “the right bowl” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. We’re talking about the dishes you remember long after you’ve forgotten your hotel room number: the Santini family’s pumpkin tortelli, a recipe carried through generations of Mantuan cooking; an egg yolk that becomes its own sauce in Imola; pasta made from the entire egg, shell included, outside Padua. Each one is here for a different reason: a signature that’s become inseparable from its chef, a regional specialty treated with near-religious care or an idea that changes how you think about pasta altogether. Italy gets the lion’s share (obviously). But Hong Kong, Tokyo and San Francisco have reservations worth chasing too.

Photo Credit: Kondor83/Shutterstock.com

Osteria Francescana

Modena, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Massimo Bottura | Order: miniature tortellini

Bottura’s obsession with art, memory and Emilia-Romagna runs through every inch of Osteria Francescana, where contemporary works hang alongside some of the most talked-about cooking in Italy. His miniature Modenese tortellini are where it all comes home: tiny filled parcels in a light, creamy sauce of 36-month-aged Parmigiano Reggiano. The references are familiar to any Modenese grandmother. The scale and care are not. And yes, you can also order tagliatelle al ragù, which tells you everything about a kitchen confident enough to put the classics beside its most conceptual creations.

Haute Living take: The pasta pilgrimage starts here. Order both.

Da Vittorio

Brusaporto, Italy | Three Michelin stars | The Cerea family | Order: paccheri alla Vittorio

You could spend days exploring the Cerea family’s cooking (and plenty of people do), but the paccheri alla Vittorio are non-negotiable. Generous tubes of pasta in tomato sauce, finished tableside, are among the most recognizable signatures in Italian fine dining, and a refreshingly unpretentious calling card for a three-star kitchen. The family is everywhere, in the kitchen and the dining room, and that warmth is half the magic. There’s something deeply satisfying about discovering that the dish you traveled for is also the one you simply want to eat.

Haute Living take: Three-star pasta that tastes like Sunday lunch. Bliss.

Dal Pescatore Santini

Runate, Italy | Three Michelin stars | The Santini family | Order: pumpkin tortelli

Dal Pescatore’s pumpkin tortelli carry generations of Santini family history: Bruna Santini introduced the dish back in the restaurant’s trattoria years, and its mix of pumpkin, amaretti, mostarda and Parmigiano Reggiano remains pure Mantua. Sweet pumpkin and almond meet the mustardy kick of mostarda and the savory depth of the cheese, and somehow it all makes perfect sense. In a family restaurant in the Lombard countryside, that continuity feels genuinely moving. If you’re planning an autumn pasta pilgrimage, this goes near the top.

Haute Living take: The most soulful plate on the list. Go in autumn.

San Domenico

Imola, Italy | Two Michelin stars | Massimiliano Mascia | Order: uovo in raviolo

The uovo in raviolo is the kind of dish that makes you forget everything else you meant to order. A single egg yolk sits inside the pasta, waiting to become the sauce the moment you cut in, with mountain butter, Parmesan and white truffle completing the restaurant’s version. It sounds simple. It is not. Pasta and yolk have to arrive at exactly the right moment together, every single time. In a region already spoiling pasta lovers rotten, this is the indulgent detour you’ll tell people about.

Haute Living take: One cut, one golden yolk, one very happy diner. Order the truffle.

Villa Crespi

Orta San Giulio, Italy | Michelin-starred | Antonino Cannavacciuolo | Order: Gragnano linguine with baby squid

Cannavacciuolo’s Gragnano linguine with baby squid and rye-bread sauce has been a fixture at Villa Crespi for years, and the bread is the twist that makes it unforgettable, adding a nutty, toasty depth to the squid. The menu also wanders into combinations like spaghetti with saffron, sea urchins and puffed quinoa. Add the Moorish-style villa on Lake Orta and you have a reason to visit the Italian lakes that has nothing to do with George Clooney. Make time for the scenery. Plan the trip around dinner.

Haute Living take: Lake Orta’s best reason to visit. Book the room, too.

Le Calandre

Rubano, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Massimiliano Alajmo | Order: Suono n’uovo

Alajmo’s Suono n’uovo begins with a frankly wild proposition: fresh pasta made from the entire egg, sanitized shell included. Conceived as an exploration of sound and texture, it pairs smoked pasta with butter, celeriac extract, aromatic herbs, Castelmagno fondue and double chicken broth. There’s an enormous amount of thinking on that plate, as you’d expect from one of Italy’s most cerebral chefs. If you want to see where pasta can go when someone refuses to accept its usual limits, this is your table.

Haute Living take: The most daring pasta on the list. Bring an open mind.

Photo Credit: Rome Cavalieri, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel

La Pergola

Rome, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Heinz Beck | Order: fagottelli “La Pergola”

Carbonara is a blood sport in Rome, and Beck has played it brilliantly. His fagottelli “La Pergola” hold a filling of egg yolk, Pecorino, cream and pepper, finished with guanciale and zucchini, and the whole carbonara floods your mouth the moment you bite. Familiar richness, entirely different construction. It’s the dish that explains Beck: technical, meticulous and never at the expense of pleasure. Purists may grumble. I say let them.

Haute Living take: Rome’s cleverest carbonara. Worth its own reservation.

Duomo

Ragusa Ibla, Sicily | Two Michelin stars | Ciccio Sultano | Order: busiate with sardines and anchovies

Sultano cooks Sicily through its long, layered history of ingredients, techniques and cultural influences, and at Duomo, inside Palazzo La Rocca on a Baroque street in Ragusa Ibla, dinner feels inseparable from its surroundings. The busiate with sardines and anchovies are the island’s seafood traditions in their purest form: twisty, salty, utterly addictive. There are more elaborate pasta preparations on the menu, but this is where I’d start. Arrive early and wander Ragusa Ibla first. You’ll thank me.

Haute Living take: Sicily on a fork. Pair it with a Baroque evening stroll.

Enrico Bartolini al Mudec

Milan, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Enrico Bartolini | Order: bottoni with cacciucco and octopus

Bartolini’s bottoni get their name from their tiny, button-like shape, but it’s what surrounds them that sticks with you: olive oil and lime meeting cacciucco sauce and octopus, a nod to Tuscany’s famous seafood stew in an exacting filled pasta. It’s Bartolini’s whole philosophy in one bite, contemporary takes on classic flavors, served inside Milan’s Museum of Cultures. Art and dinner make natural companions here, though the pasta gives you more than enough to contemplate on its own.

Haute Living take: Milan’s most elegant pasta. Do the museum first.

Piazza Duomo

Alba, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Enrico Crippa | Order: the white truffle menu

Crippa’s cooking follows the seasons religiously, moving between Piedmontese references and international influences. And right now is the moment: Piazza Duomo runs a white truffle menu from October into December, with mushroom ravioli among the additional dishes listed alongside it. It’s another way into a restaurant better known for its extraordinary vegetables. Truffle season in Alba plus the Langhe wine country next door? You’re not making a reservation, you’re planning a long weekend.

Haute Living take: Truffle season in Alba. Go now, stay longer.

Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler

Brunico, Dolomites, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Norbert Niederkofler | Order: beetroot gnocchi

Niederkofler’s Cook the Mountain philosophy puts Alpine ingredients, local producers and seasonal preservation front and center. His beetroot gnocchi are one of the house classics, available as an add-on to the published sample menu, and a signature worth seeking out within a tasting experience that shifts with its ingredients. The restaurant lives in a restored villa tied to the historic Moessmer textile mill in Brunico, which gives the visit a design-and-history dimension to match the mountain views.

Haute Living take: The Dolomites, distilled. Add the gnocchi.

Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli

Verona, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Giancarlo Perbellini | Order: garganelli with cuttlefish ink and duck

Perbellini’s Io e Silvia menu is dedicated to his wife and the home they dreamed of welcoming guests into, which is about as romantic as a tasting menu gets. Among its courses: garganelli with cuttlefish-ink emulsion, roasted duck and rosemary sauce, an unexpected surf-and-turf pairing that shouldn’t work and absolutely does. Historic dining rooms and frescoes at 12 Apostoli set the scene for one of Verona’s most ambitious meals. Romeo and Juliet would have eaten here. (Assuming they could get a table.)

Haute Living take: Verona’s most romantic dinner. Order the Io e Silvia menu.

Reale

Castel di Sangro, Abruzzo, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Niko Romito | Order: sheep’s-milk ricotta ravioli with water

Romito lists sheep’s-milk ricotta ravioli with water on Reale’s menu, a description so spare it makes you stop reading and start asking questions. That’s the point. The emphasis falls entirely on what pasta and filling can do with almost nothing around them. His cold spaghettini with parsley and chili follows the same logic. Reale is for diners who care as much about the decisions behind a dish as the plate itself, and it’s well worth the drive into the Abruzzo hills.

Haute Living take: Minimalism at its most delicious. Trust the water.

Il Ristorante–Niko Romito

Bulgari Resort Dubai, UAE | Michelin-starred | Niko Romito | Order: spaghetti with sea urchins

Romito’s restaurant at Bulgari Resort Dubai brings contemporary Italian cooking to a marina-side setting, with seafood and pasta among its great strengths. The spaghetti with sea urchins gives the pasta course a particularly luxurious focus, and a very different expression from the stripped-back ricotta ravioli at Reale. Between the polished dining room and the terrace, this is the most overtly glamorous stop on the list. If you’re already headed to Dubai, build an evening around it.

Haute Living take: Romito, dressed up for Dubai. Book the terrace.

L’Olivo

Anacapri, Capri, Italy | Two Michelin stars | Andrea Migliaccio | Order: lemon tagliolini with red prawns

Migliaccio’s lemon tagliolini combine raw red prawns, burrata and oyster leaf at L’Olivo, the restaurant at Capri Palace. The ingredients are pure indulgence; the citrus makes it unmistakably southern Italian. The prawns and burrata bring two different kinds of richness, while oyster leaf adds a briny wink of the sea. It’s the dish to have in mind when choosing where to dine on Capri, and the best possible argument for giving Anacapri more than a passing glance.

Haute Living take: Capri in a bowl. Skip the Piazzetta crowds and come here.

Quince

San Francisco, USA | Three Michelin stars | Michael Tusk | Order: whatever the pasta course is

Tusk’s cooking at Quince weaves Italian and French influences through Northern California ingredients, much of it from the restaurant’s partner farm. Pasta has always been a strength. Michelin has singled out the white-asparagus-filled agnolotti, but the course changes with whatever the kitchen is working with, so there’s no single year-round dish to chase. The draw is the care Tusk lavishes on pasta within a broader tasting menu. For anyone curious about how Italian cooking has shaped American fine dining, this reservation is essential.

Haute Living take: California’s best pasta course. Let the season decide.

Acquerello

San Francisco, USA | Two Michelin stars | Suzette Gresham | Order: ridged pasta with foie gras, truffle and Marsala

Gresham’s ridged pasta with foie gras, black truffle and Marsala gives you a very specific reason to book. Those ridges exist to catch as much sauce as possible, and with truffle and Marsala involved, this is rich, unapologetic and exactly what you want on a foggy San Francisco night. Acquerello has been Gresham’s home since 1989, with a serious Italian wine list to match. Pair it with Quince and you’ve got two completely different views of Italian cooking in one city.

Haute Living take: Decadence, perfected. Don’t skip the wine list.

8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana

Hong Kong | Three Michelin stars | Umberto Bombana | Order: tagliolini with Alba white truffle

Bombana built an international reputation on refined Italian cooking in Hong Kong, and his name is practically synonymous with white truffles (there’s a reason they call him the King of White Truffles). His homemade tagliolini with Alba white truffle is a seasonal signature that lets the aroma of the truffle and the texture of the pasta do all the talking. Autumn is the time to go. If your Hong Kong priorities usually begin with dim sum, consider this a very persuasive detour.

Haute Living take: The best truffle pasta outside Italy. Go before December.

Octavium

Hong Kong | Two Michelin stars | Order: red-prawn linguine

Octavium offers another taste of Italy in Hong Kong, with seasonal tasting menus and a real gift for house-made pasta. Michelin has singled out the red-prawn linguine, which reflects the seafood focus and Sicilian roots of the head chef’s cooking. The dining room is intimate and minimalist, furnished with Italian pieces, so all eyes stay on the plate. It’s a distinct experience from Bombana’s flagship, and that prawn pasta is reason enough to book both.

Haute Living take: Hong Kong’s other great Italian. Order the prawns.

PRISMA

Tokyo, Japan | Two Michelin stars | Tomofumi Saito | Order: the seasonal pasta

Saito’s Italian cooking is intensely personal. Seating is limited, and he attends to every detail of the experience, from the menu to the music to the flowers. Past pasta courses have included mushroom-and-truffle tagliolini and ravioli, changing with the seasons, so you come here for the chef’s evolving repertoire rather than a fixed signature. It’s also a vivid reminder of how mesmerizing Italian cooking can become in the hands of a chef working thousands of miles from Italy.

Haute Living take: Italian cooking with Japanese precision. Book well ahead.

How to Plan Your Pasta Pilgrimage

For the icons: Osteria Francescana, Da Vittorio and La Pergola. For autumn: Dal Pescatore’s pumpkin tortelli and white truffles at Piazza Duomo and 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana. For the sea: Uliassi, L’Olivo and Duomo. For the daring: Le Calandre and Reale. For a road trip: Modena, Imola and Brusaporto are an easy Emilia-Romagna-to-Lombardy loop. Menus and featured dishes change seasonally, so confirm availability, supplements and opening dates when you book. Then go hungry. Very hungry.

Uliassi

Senigallia, Italy | Three Michelin stars | Mauro Uliassi | Order: smoked spaghetti with clams

Uliassi’s restaurant sits right on Senigallia’s shoreline, and his cooking pulls directly from the Adriatic outside. Smoked spaghetti with clams and roasted datterini tomatoes is his defining dish: a familiar seafood pairing, sent somewhere new with smoke. It lives on the Classics menu, which is exactly where a first-timer should begin. The more experimental Lab menu shows another side of the kitchen, but this is the pasta that explains why people keep coming back.

Haute Living take: Spaghetti alle vongole, reinvented by the sea. Start with the Classics.

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