Daniela Borella was born in Italy.
At her two Tucson-area restaurants she serves meals prepared using recipes handed down from her grandmothers.
Her mother, who for years was the cook at Borella’s Caffe Torino in Oro Valley, still comes into the kitchen a couple times a week “for quality control, to make sure everything is according to her recipes,” Borella said.
Still, Borella worries her two locations, in Oro Valley and the Foothills, aren’t Italian enough. She is torn between giving customers the meals they like and serving food the way it is prepared in Italy.
In Italy, “you would never find meatballs in an Italian restaurant because meatballs are something people eat at home and we don’t eat it with spaghetti either. My brother always makes fun of me because we have spaghetti and meatballs and it isn’t Italian,” Borella said of her menu. Growing up in Italy, “we would have meatballs with vegetables. My mom would make meatballs with red sauce and peas and she would serve it as if it were a meat dish.
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“I feel a little guilty because sometimes it’s not exactly the Italian way, but I want to give people what they want and I think maybe I should serve people the traditional way,” she said. “I try to compromise a little bit and give people what they want. If I start serving meatballs with mashed potatoes and vegetables they will want to substitute spaghetti.”
What is the key to good Italian cooking?
“Italian cooking is all fresh ingredients, simple and cooked well. Use fresh herbs. Basil is my favorite herb and I use it for lots of dishes.
“It’s always very important, if you make pasta, to cook it right. Put salt in the water when you cook it and use fresh ingredients. Lots of people don’t think about it, but that’s a very important thing. You can make the best sauce in the world, but if you don’t put salt in the water the pasta won’t taste right.
“You don’t want the water to be salty, but when you are cooking a big pot you put in a good amount of salt. It’s like when you’re cooking vegetables, you put in a little salt. It brings out the flavor of the vegetables and it brings out the flavor of the pasta.”
What is your signature dish?
“The lasagna. Lots of people think of lasagna made with ricotta and mozzarella, but the style we make is only made with homemade pasta which is usually green homemade pasta. Green because it’s made with spinach, Bolognese meat sauce and Parmesan and bechamel with creaminess. That’s why it’s a little different.”
What is the best or most memorable meal you’ve ever had?
“I still remember this meal I had before I moved to Tucson and I was still in Italy. My mother’s side of the family is from a little town called Bra near Torino. It’s in the wine region of Langhe, where they grow the best wine. I was with friends and they took us to Barolo, a little village, and this guy … took us to this little restaurant. From the outside it looked like a hole in the wall. It didn’t look like anything fancy at all. We passed the kitchen where the whole family was cooking. It was almost like a house. We sat down and I had the most memorable meal ever. Everything was served with a good amount of grated white truffles. We had several courses. I’m talking at least 25, 27 years ago. I still think of that as the most memorable meal because I didn’t expect much, but everything was prepared with so much love and so much truffle! And, of course, all the memorable meals I would have going over to my grandmother’s house. She was the best cook in the world. She taught my mom and she was incredible.”
