Italian take-out is just that. It's Italian food put in little aluminum containers that are given to you so steaming hot that if you don't keep shifting the hand with which you hold them, you risk a searing set of risotto burns.
The bad news is that there aren't many other options for take-out cuisine. But the good news is that once you realize your previous tradition of Friday night Thai food is a thing of the past, you quickly see that your current options will obliterate all memories of the passionate love affair you once had with spring rolls.
Any excuse you can think of - I don't have time to cook; I don't have time to grocery shop; My neighbor's children are practicing the piano and the recorder at the exact same time - is a good excuse to get food from Gambarotta.
This place is excellently normal. There's nothing fancy or luxurious about it but Gambarotta is always full of Italians. Tutti gli italiani eat there: families, young couples, old couples, people alone talking on their cell phones. On weekends it's hard to get a table.
The reason is the food. It's what you expect of dinner at someone's house - that authenticity, that sense of legitimacy that comes from a real meal. It's like rolling up to a relative's house for dinner except that instead of eating there you can take the food back to your house and no one will think that you're rude.
I love the puntarelle with acciughe. Puntarelle are a vegetable that I didn't know existed until I came to Italy. They're crispy shoots that are a sort of cross between celery and fennel, and they go incredibly well with anchovies.
And their bruschettona -- it's so good that certain unnamed family members shamelessly ordered it with three consecutive meals. It's a giant slice of bread piled with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, buffalo mozzarella, and thin stripes of mild anchovies. I dare you to come up with a better bruschetta than this - it can't be done.
The orecchiette with cima di rapa are savory and rich. The ear-shaped pasta snuggles up to the sauteed cima di rapa and there's this delayed kick that comes from what must be red pepper flakes.
If you order these three things you will be ecstatic. And I imagine that if you order anything else off the menu, you'll also be pretty darn happy. The problem is that I keep ordering the same things over and over. It's kind of like what I used to do with Thai food except that now my memories of spring rolls are fading into the distance.
But I can sure tell you about the bruschettona...
Gambarotta, Via Moscova 50, Milano
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