About Bella Via

Bella Via is a popular regional Italian restaurant in Highland Park, IL. The food is prepared to order in an intimate setting. Specialties include gnocchi, potato pasta stuffed with portobello mushrooms; lobster tortellacci, homemade pasta filled with lobster and topped with a tomato cream sauce; veal saltimbocca, veal medallions sauteed with prociutto and a sage leaves; and sea bass piccata, fresh sea bass with a lemon and wine piccata sauce.

Growing up in Italy, Maurizio LoBosco was surrounded by family. And the gathering place for the family was always the kitchen. "For Italians, cooking is a social event," says Maurizio. "Everyone crowds into the kitchen to help make the tomato sauce, sausage, wine. At the end of the summer, the whole town would smell like tomatoes, as everyone prepared jars and jars of tomato sauce for the winter.

"The most difficult thing about Italian cooking is getting the recipe - not because it's a secret but because it's never written down. It's a little bit of this, a handful of that, a glass of something. We don't measure. We cook from the heart, by tasting and watching and feeling the texture. We always prepare simple food. When the food is simple, it's good and healthy."