Admittedly, this North Peoria restaurant’s name is open to interpretation, but chef-owner Fabio Ceschetti, a third-generation pizzaiolo, does, indeed, cook with fire, turning out excellent pizza as well as soulful Italian classics such as cioppino, lasagna, and wood-roasted porchetta or lamb. It’s entirely possible to make a meal of his bread alone, but that would mean missing out on gnocchi Bolognese, butternut squash-stuffed ravioli topped with sage-scented cream sauce, and veal piccata, tangy with lemon and capers. The small wine list is exclusively Italian, and the patio is charming, so it’s safe to say that Fabio is on fire in more ways than one.

Tucked away in a strip mall near Fountain Hills, intimate, upscale Casa Mia has been flying under the radar for over 20 years, but insiders know just how exceptional this small, family-run operation is. It’s the life’s blood of Danilo Sodano and his adult children Nantas Sodano and Hera Ambrosio, who create classic Italian dishes using organic produce, fresh pasta, and grass-fed beef. Get started with a grapefruit basil martini and the burrata appetizer, embellished with prosciutto, mint, and fig syrup. The pasta is outstanding, as is the elegant saltimbocca.

During his 30-plus years in Scottsdale, Calabrian-born chef Giovanni Scorzo has opened and closed two successful white tablecloth Italian restaurants, but he found his happy place when he opened this cozy market-cum-restaurant over a decade ago. Customers line up to order from the daily changing whiteboard menu, pay at the counter, and grab a vintage table set amid grocery shelves lined with pasta, wines, and other imported Italian foodstuffs. The atmosphere is relaxed, almost familial. And indeed, two of Scorzo’s adult children work in the kitchen, cranking out juicy porchetta sandwiches on house bread, house-pulled mozzarella set in a tomato-dotted nest of arugula, obscure pasta dishes that change with the seasons, and delicate desserts that look too pretty to eat.

Fat Ox is the place to go for modern Italian food and the sort of see-and-be-seen crowd associated with Scottsdale. When it’s crowded (and that’s often), the Ox is noisy, but most customers pay no mind to the din once the riveting, beautifully plated food arrives. Pastas, one of the menu’s highlights, are made in-house daily, while premium proteins (think: Berkshire pork, branzino, Ora king salmon, and Linz Reserve steaks) are cooked over wood and charcoal in a custom-made hearth. This is light years from spaghetti and meatballs on a checkered tablecloth. For an affordable, fly-by experience, head to the glitzy bar for good cocktails and appetizers.

Celebrity chef and James Beard award-winner Scott Conant moved from New York to Phoenix in 2017 to open Mora, his loud, buzzy take on Italy’s neighborhood osterias, and diners fell in love. A huge, center-stage bar and an eye-popping, Italian-themed mural set the let’s-have-fun tone, which is reinforced with clever cocktails and Italian dishes that feel traditional-yet-modern, casual-yet-elevated. Start things off with focaccia di recco (Italy’s airy kissing cousin to Arizona’s cheese crisp) before moving on to pasta, pizza, and inventive main courses such as Calabrian black cod, harissa-spiced salmon, or roasted chicken with gnocchi alla Romana.

佛朗哥Fazzuoli老式意大利的舒適的避風港n cooking is a throwback to quieter, more gracious times without the stuffiness and calcification typically associated with decades-old restaurants. Customers who still appreciate the classics — say, a prosciutto and melon starter, capellini pasta with tomato and basil (elegant in its simplicity), or a perfectly rendered chicken paillard — find their bliss here, as Fazzuoli and his staff deftly demonstrate what cordial-yet-professional service looks like. Don’t leave without a slab of half-crunchy, half-silky meringata, a meringue-based dessert made using Fazzuoli’s grandmother’s recipe.

Chef Gio Osso has opened three restaurants over the past decade, but tiny, upscale Virtu, tucked away in the Bespoke Inn, remains the mothership as well as the stage for Osso’s elegant, showy spin on modern Italian. Since the pandemic, the restaurant has moved to a three-course prix fixe menu, which changes often (sometimes daily), but two dishes that seldom, if ever, leave are Osso’s famously tender octopus, laved in Calabrian chile butter, and his thoroughly decadent asparagus, served with an oozy duck egg, bacon candy, feta crumbles, and foie gras hollandaise. Main courses — seared tuna, smoked duck, grilled lamb chops, and the like — are every bit as enticing. Be sure to have an after-dinner amaro from the city’s best selection, and ask for a table on the lush, tiered patio.

Since its 2021 inception, Pa’La Downtown evolved into a different animal from it’s simpler and far more humble predecessor Pa’La, which opened on 24th Street in 2017. Both are seafood-centric and Italian-influenced. Both cook almost everything in a wood-burning oven, but Pa’La Downtown offers full-service, breakable dinnerware (not paper plates), cocktails, and an artsy vibe that draws a younger, hipper crowd. The food is also a little edgier. Executive chef and Roka Akor alum Jason Alford offers tapas, small bites, and share plates that give classic Italian dishes a touch of Japanese inflection. Controne beans and winter greens are given a sprinkle of furikake, while Skull Island prawns, nestled on a bed of sweet peperonata, bear the pungent bite of togarashi. Purists will find a few straight-up traditional Italian dishes, too, but the fun here is in the fusion.