Impronta – Sicily's imprint on Milan's farmland

Impronta sits behind a modest sign in Albairate, a farming village some twenty minutes beyond Milan's outer ring road, inside a dining room that once belonged to a different restaurant altogether. The MICHELIN Guide calls it an elegant restaurant that has the feel of a private home, with its beautiful light-wood tables, and notes that the Sicilian origins of talented chef Andrea Colombara are reflected in his dishes, which have a strong Mediterranean flavour. Colombara opened Impronta in May 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, at the age of twenty-five, on the site of Charlie 1983, the Albairate trattoria where he had trained years earlier. Before that he spent several years in the kitchen of La Madia, Pino Cuttaia's two-MICHELIN-starred restaurant in Sicily, and later qualified as a pastry chef. Today Impronta is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a listing earned without a star, built on home-made pasta, seasonal seafood and a kitchen that lets each ingredient do the talking.

01The room and the setting

The two dining rooms keep the proportions of the old trattoria, furnished with the light-wood tables that MICHELIN inspectors singled out for their private-home feel. Outside, a terrace and garden absorb the warmer months, and the restaurant keeps a private open-air car park and space for bicycles — useful, since Albairate is reached by car from Milan rather than by train.

The dress code runs from casual to business without insisting on either, and the restaurant describes itself as pet-friendly, a small detail that matters in a village where many guests arrive from nearby farmhouses and weekend addresses rather than from the city.

02The chef

Andrea Colombara was born in 1996 in Abbiategrasso, the market town a few kilometres from Albairate. After training at the local Istituto Alberghiero, he spent several years as a student and stagiaire at Charlie 1983, the Albairate restaurant run by Lele and Marika that occupied the very address Impronta now holds.

Insider tip

Closed Monday and Tuesday; Wednesday dinner only; lunch and dinner Thursday to Sunday. Booking by phone or online.

From there he moved to Sicily and joined the kitchen of La Madia, Pino Cuttaia's two-MICHELIN-starred restaurant, working as a cook for several years until the pandemic closed the dining room. Rather than wait it out, Colombara trained at the Congusto Gourmet Institute and qualified as a pastry chef in 2021, then returned to Albairate to open his own restaurant at twenty-five, in the same building where he had once learned the trade.

03The cooking

Impronta's own description of its kitchen is a journey through the countries bordering the Mediterranean, built to let taste lead rather than crowd a plate with effects. Each dish, by the kitchen's own discipline, is built around one main ingredient and two or three companions, never more — a rule meant to let even a simple, everyday ingredient stand on its own.

A signature example, as the MICHELIN Guide notes, is delicious mullet with caponata which is served with onions, pine nuts, capers and small vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce — a dish that carries Colombara's Sicilian training straight onto a plate otherwise built from Lombard produce.

04What to order

The spring à la carte runs from starters such as macco e sgombro — fava bean purée with mackerel and wild fennel — and vitello tonnato with wild greens, fennel and Pantelleria capers, through to pasta courses such as ravioli alla Norma, filled with aubergine cream, salted ricotta and tomato, and a risotto of peas and scampi finished with lemon zest.

Regulars return most often to the courgette-and-anchovy ravioli and a Sicilian cannolo with pistachio ice cream, and to a spaghetti dressed with sea urchin that has become something of a fixture on the menu. Bread and breadsticks are made in house and dipped in the restaurant's own extra-virgin olive oil, bottled under the name "U Trappitu".

05When to go and booking

Impronta opens for dinner only on Wednesdays, then for lunch and dinner from Thursday to Sunday; Monday and Tuesday are rest days. Tables can be booked by phone on +39 02 9143 9075 or through the restaurant's own site, and the kitchen caters for vegetarian, vegan, lactose-free and gluten-free diets across its seasonal tasting menus.

The MICHELIN Guide places the spend here as moderate rather than exceptional — this is a neighbourhood table that happens to cook with uncommon care, not a special-occasion splurge.

06The neighbourhood

Albairate is a small farming village south-west of Milan, in the metropolitan province, a quieter and more intimate area than the city centre, suited to a dinner out of town reached comfortably by car. The nearest landmark is the Agricultural Museum Angelo Masperi, a reminder that this stretch of the Milanese hinterland still runs on rice fields and dairy farms rather than tourism — which is precisely why a chef trained in two-starred Sicilian kitchens chose to plant his flag here rather than in the city.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.