At Senza Gluten, the Gluten Isn’t Missed | The New Yorker

"A reliably good and gluten-free Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village, Senza Gluten delivers familiar, comforting versions of classic dishes without wheat: everything is gluten-free here, a fact the staff declare with near-religious certainty. I once took my gluten-free girlfriend there just hours before proposing, and the happiest photograph from that day shows her inspecting the dessert menu and asking, “The biscotti is gluten-free?” and “And the tiramisu is gluten-free?” Not long after the place opened, seven years ago, an elderly woman ate the lasagna—layer upon layer of rich Bolognese and melted Parmesan—broke into tears, and kissed the chef’s hands because she hadn’t tasted lasagna in fifteen years. There are few surprises on the menu by design: the point is to conjure recognizable tastes from the Before Time, and the substitutions (rice, chickpea, tapioca, corn, potato flours) are meant to be invisible. On a recent evening the Cavolfiore alla Parmigiana’s fried-and-baked cauliflower, coated in white-rice flour, was delectably crunchy against soft, warm mozzarella; the corn-flour rigatoni with smoked prosciutto, three varieties of wild mushroom, and white-truffle oil was flawlessly al dente; the corn-based spaghetti alla pomodoro alongside the chicken parm had a lovely bounce; most pasta is imported dry from Italy, while an off-menu handmade potato-flour gnocchi submerged in a prodigal sauce of mozzarella, Fontina, Parmesan, and Taleggio is silky and indulgent. The head chef, Jemiko Solo, a Georgian who is neither gluten-free nor Italian, learned his craft in New York trattorias and translates many classic recipes into gluten-free versions so faithfully that an old northern Italian boss could still claim, half-jokingly, “That’s my dish.” (Dishes $14–$47.)" - David Kortava