No matter where you go in the world, there is Italian food. From the streets of New York to the jungles of Bali, you can always follow your nose and find a sometimes terrible, often halfway decent bowl of pasta to sate you. Italian makes a great first restaurant (implementation is basically simple, the cuisine based on fresh ingredients that are easy to source), and even mediocre spaghetti and meatballs inspires visceral comfort.

But sometimes you want to know what the platonic ideal of these long-familiar dishes are — what they can taste like, really taste like, when given the chance. For that, you head someplace like Santa Fe’s newest Italian date-spot, Trattoria A Mano.