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“Mia Dona Relaunches, Puglian-style”

Donatella Arpaia has reopened and relaunched Mia Dona as a restaurant devoted to the Puglian flavors she grew up with. The room, food, and prices all reflect the restaurant's more relaxed approach. The space includes rough-hewn wood and whitewashed floors under warm lighting.

No entree is above $20, and the dishes are straight from an Italian mom's kitchen. In fact, they literally are: Arpaia wrote the menu, and she, her mother and aunts trained the kitchen cooks on how to prepare the Puglian cuisine. Some of the traditional Puglian dishes include Taralli (hard bread made with fennel and olive and boiled to reach full crunch) brought to each table, cured and fresh capocolla with asparagus and cerignola olives ($13), winter greens soup with rustic bread topped with gratin of caciocavallo cheese ($8), octopus casserole with spicy tomato sauce and olive ($19), and handmade pastas like orechiette with slow-cooked Sunday ragu with brasciole and ricotta salata ($14). (Because Puglian pasta sauces are usually lighter than other Italian sauces and come with more broth, Mia Dona serves its pasta dishes the traditional way, with a spoon.) Housemade gelati ($6) and limoncello infused ricotta cheesecake ($7) are on offer for dessert.  

Mia Dona is located at 206 East 58th Street (212-750-8170).

--Susan Kane Walkush

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Posted: November 20, 2009 - 4:00 pm

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