“Using top-quality imported ingredients where necessary, while sourcing the freshest fish from the sea and meat and produce from our local lands, we soulfully aim to offer an Italian experience that lets Maine’s ingredients sing.”

Sfoglia di Capesante: Maine celery root with honey and scallops; Pansotti al Sugo di Noci: seasonal farm greens and local ricotta stuffed into handmade “pouch“ pasta; Pesce alla Ligure: locally-caught fish with hydroponic cherry tomatoes, locally-cultivated mushrooms and farm parsnips in winter/spring or new potatoes in summer/fall.

It’s no wonder Paolo Laboa says that Maine, more than anywhere else he has lived outside his native Genoa, Italy, feels most like home. Solo Italiano practically sits on the edge of the sea, in Portland’s historic Old Port, and just steps away from the wholesaler he visits every morning to handpick his seafood for the day. Organized from antipasti to secondi, Solo’s Ligurian menu changes daily, though Laboa’s silky handkerchief pasta, tossed in the bright herbaceous basil pesto that won him the 2008 Genova Pesto Championship, is a mainstay and not to be missed. From crudo to handcrafted pastas and fish and meat mains, Laboa takes inspiration from his hero farm suppliers, cooking with a micro-seasonal and nose-to-tail mindset that produces some of the best Italian cuisine this side of the pond.