A Glasgow winter is not subtle. It is dark by half past four, wet more often than not, and the kind of cold that gets into your coat on the walk from the subway. It is also, as it happens, the exact weather Italian comfort food was built for.
Forget the idea of Italian cooking as summer food, all tomatoes and basil on a terrace. The north of Italy gets properly cold, and its winter kitchen answers with slow-cooked ragùs, baked pasta, buttery risotto and hearty bean soups. This is a guide to the Italian dishes worth ordering when the weather turns, built around what La Lanterna has been serving Glasgow since 1970.
What makes a dish a proper winter warmer
Not everything on an Italian menu is a cold-weather dish, and it helps to know what to look for.
The winter warmers are the slow ones and the rich ones. Anything braised for hours, anything baked under cheese, anything built on beans or root vegetables, anything with butter and Parmesan rather than just oil and lemon. These are the dishes that sit warm in you on the way home, the ones you order when you have come in out of the rain and want the evening to slow right down.
The test is simple. If a plate makes you want to take your coat off, order a glass of red and stay another hour, it is a winter warmer.
The slow-cooked dishes
The heart of Italian winter cooking is the long braise, and it is where to start.
Ragù and slow stews
A proper ragù is winter in a bowl, all depth and rich tomato. At La Lanterna the tagliatelle ragù is a slow-cooked chunky Neapolitan beef stew with red wine and tomato, spooned over wide egg ribbons that carry the sauce. It is the kind of dish that tastes of time taken. The Tuscan sausage and Borlotti bean casserole, salsiccia e fagioli, does the same job in a different key, hearty, beany and warming, and especially good on a winter night.
Roasts and braises
For something with more of an occasion to it, the roast rack of Scottish lamb with a red-wine jus is a plate made for a cold night. These are the dishes that reward the slow cooking northern Italy is known for, and if you want to understand that tradition in more depth, our guide to osso buco, the great Italian winter braise is a good read.
Baked pasta and risotto
If braises are the backbone of the Italian winter, baked pasta and risotto are its comfort blanket.
Baked dishes are the ultimate cold-weather order. A traditional lasagne al forno, layered with rich bolognese, bechamel and a little grated cheese for a bubbling finish, or the baked four-cheese pasta, the Italian answer to a macaroni cheese, both come out of the oven golden. There is nothing clever about them and that is exactly the point.
Risotto is the other great winter comfort, slow-stirred with Arborio rice into something creamy; risotto alla milanese is the classic example. A sausage and truffle risotto on pumpkin purée, or a chicken and wild mushroom risotto finished with Parmesan, eats like a hug on a wet Tuesday. If you want to understand why different dishes suit different shapes and styles, our guide to pasta shapes explains how sauce and shape fit together.
Start warm, finish warmer
A winter meal is better bookended properly, and the Italian table knows how.
Start with soup. Minestrone, the home-made vegetable soup served with crusty bread and a drizzle of olive oil, or pasta e fagioli, the traditional pasta and Borlotti bean soup with garlic, rosemary and good olive oil, is exactly what a cold evening calls for. A shared antipasti board works too, though in winter the warm starters earn their place.
Finish with something that sends you back out into the cold happy. A tiramisu, an affogato, or the Italian way of ending a winter meal, a digestivo. Our guide to amari and digestivi covers the bitter, warming after-dinner drinks that are made for exactly this time of year.
Not every winter meal is a feast
Comfort food does not have to mean three heavy courses. Some of the best winter eating is lighter than that.
A bowl of minestrone and a plate of bruschette makes a complete, warming lunch on its own. A single risotto, or one of the simpler pasta dishes and a glass of red, is plenty for a weeknight when you want warmth more than a blowout. The Italian habit of ordering a starter to share and then one main each keeps a winter meal satisfying without flattening you for the evening. If you are coming in for a quick, warming lunch rather than a long dinner, that is exactly the kind of order to make, and the set lunch menu is built for it.
Puddings for a cold night
Winter is no time to skip pudding, and the Italian end of the meal is built for the season.
A tiramisu, all coffee, mascarpone and cocoa, is the obvious one, rich without being heavy. An affogato is even simpler and somehow perfect in the cold: a scoop of vanilla ice cream drowned in a shot of hot espresso, the warm and the cold at once. If you want to know your options before you order, our guide to Italian desserts runs through them. And a hot chocolate or a liqueur coffee can stand in for pudding altogether on a really bitter night.
The point of a winter pudding is the same as the point of the whole meal: a reason to stay in the warm a little longer before facing the walk home.
Where to warm up in Glasgow
Both La Lanterna restaurants are built for the job, and the choice is the usual one of where you are and what you are after.
The City Centre restaurant on Hope Street is a warm basement a few minutes from Central Station and the theatres, the kind of softly-lit room you are glad to drop into on a dark evening. The West End restaurant on Great Western Road is the neighbourhood option, open seven days, good for a long unhurried winter dinner near home. Either way, you can book a table in a minute.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best Italian dishes for cold weather?
Slow-cooked ragùs and stews, baked pasta like lasagne, creamy risottos, polenta, and bean soups such as minestrone and pasta e fagioli. Anything braised, baked or built on beans suits winter.
Is Italian food not more of a summer thing?
Not in the north of Italy, which gets genuinely cold and has a rich winter kitchen of braises, baked pasta and buttery risotto. Those are the dishes that come into their own in a Glasgow winter.
What is a good warming Italian starter?
A bowl of minestrone or pasta e fagioli, or a warm, cooked-to-order antipasto rather than a cold board. Soup and crusty bread is hard to beat when it is cold out.
What should I drink with a rich winter dish?
A fuller-bodied Italian red with a braise or a baked pasta, and an amaro or a liqueur coffee to finish. See our Italian wines and amari guides for ideas.
Which restaurant is better in winter?
Both are warm and welcoming. The City Centre basement suits a night in town or before a show; the West End is the cosy neighbourhood choice and opens on Sundays.
Book a warming table
When the weather is doing its worst, a long Italian dinner is one of the best answers Glasgow has. Soup, a slow-cooked main, a glass of red and somewhere warm to sit. Book a table at La Lanterna and let the winter wait outside.