Nothing like Italian food from Italy... The water, the soil, the process is different and it is as close to heaven as you can get...But there are a lot of old italian families in New York in the boroughs like Brooklyn and mama is still making dinner. Doesn't make the pasta necessarily from scratch but the food is so much better than any restaurant. BTW: There are amazing markets with ingredients from Mexico in Mamaroneck, NY not to be pronounced Mama ro neck as was mentioned in one thread
and you can get absolutely the most authentic ingredients for anything in NY. Yeah, taco bell is pretty scary.