Years ago, while attending the North Italia grand opening hosted by celebrated Restaurateur Sam Fox, he shared, “There’s an energy here that’s palpable, the community is diverse and they love great food. We get excited about the unique mix of businesses, organizations and residents in Santa Monica – there really is nothing like it.”

The large exhibition kitchen features chefs starting from scratch to create handmade pizzas, pastas, and other crafted dishes from ingredients they acquire from gardens, farms and the sea.

There is always a great selection of small plates and antipasti on the menu that are ideal for sharing around the table. Besides a daily soup, they offer grilled bread with grand padano, similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano with good olive oil. My favorite starter is their farmers market or classico chef’s board. The farmer’s market option arrived on a long wood board filled with a colorful array of glazed chioggia beet and fuji apple slices. The eye-catching chioggia beets are an Italian heirloom variety of a garden beet. Sometimes it’s called Candy Stripe Beet or Bull’s Eye Beet. It’s known for its alternating rings of scarlet red and white. Also on the board were slightly sweet roasted butternut squash, lovely heirloom carrots, crispy brussels sprouts, grilled asparagus, broccolini, hazelnut, basil pesto and slices of grilled hearth bread. It could be a meal with a glass of California wine.

We really enjoyed the crispy eggplant parmesan that arrived with five plump eggplant slices that were lightly breaded and fried. They were topped with a slightly spicy vodka sauce and baked with fresh melted mozzarella cheese. Torn fresh basil leaves on top heightened the flavors with earthiness.

The kitchen also makes crispy Cacio E Pepe Aranchini filled with pecorino romano, crushed pepper blend and a pesto aioli. Breaking them in half, steam rises and strings of melted cheese are pulled as one pops one of these rice balls in one’s mouth.

Salads are full of seasonal ingredients, such as the Italian Farm layered with salami, speck, provolone, pepperoncini, olive, heirloom cherry tomato, cucumber, pickled red onion, roasted pepper and herb breadcrumbs. They slick the salad with an oregano vinaigrette dressing. Other salads include a Tuscan Kale with crispy pancetta, charred grapes, pistachio and a parmesan vinaigrette.

Pastas include crushed beef meatball ragu with blistered onions, and a chicken pesto with shaved garlic, toasted pine nuts and crispy capers.

Favorite pizzas include the roasted mushroom fungi with meaty cipollini and melted smoked mozzarella.

Main entrée menu items are driven by both traditional Italian cuisine with a lighter and healthier twist. We ordered the roasted salmon served with caramelized green romanesco, broccolini, with fregola semolina dough balls mixed with a house pesto, lemon gremolata and affinato balsamic vinegar.

They also grill branzino and serve it with roasted fennel, broccolini, brussels sprout, romanesco, fingerling potato, cipollini and a drizzle of caper lemon butter.

The Tuscan half chicken arrives with roasted butternut squash, broccolini, piquillo pepper, cipollini, white polenta and a pour of roasted chicken jus.

For heartier fare the braised short rib is cooked for hours until it is so tender, one barely needs to chew.

We finished with a seasonal gingersnap eggnog butter cake with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Right now, purchase $100 worth of North Italia gift cards through Dec. 31, 2024, and receive a $20 bonus card to use another time until January, 31, 2024. northitaliarestaurant.com. $$-$$$ 1442 2nd St., Santa Monica (310)382-2460, 840 S. CA-1, El Segundo, (310)469-7695 and 6600 Topanga, Canoga Park, (818)710-7246.

This review was also featured in the Beverly Press https://beverlypress.com/2023/12/north-italias-festive-and-healthy-cuisine/ in December, 2023.