On the menu at Il Fornaio, Executive Chef Maurizio Mazzon showcases a different Italian region each month. TRY THESE R&I RECIPES: Baked Fontina With Garlic, Olive Oil and Thyme Braised Pasture-Raised Beef Short-Rib “Osso Buco” Bread-Crusted Wild Striped Bass with Olive Purée and Livornese Sauce Capellini di Mare Caramelized Onion, Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza Caramote Prawns with Cannellini Beans Chestnut and Sausage Ravioli with Brown Butter And Crispy Sage Sauce Chicken & Asparagus Pizza Chicken Picatta

These familiar dishes, served in what Chicago Chef John Caputo calls “tomato-sauce houses,” once represented the narrow scope of Italian cooking in most of America—a style favoring big portions, lots of tomatoes and a heavy hand with garlic. Although such Italian-American fare remains popular—in last year'sR&I Menu Census, 35.7% of chefs reported serving pasta with red sauce—it is is losing some ground to authentic, regional Italian plates.

“We've seen increased interest from customers who understand that the food in Italy isn't just Italian food, it's regional food,” says Maurizio Mazzon, executive chef of the 20-unit Corte Madera, Calif.-based Il Fornaio chain.

Chefs from many culinary backgrounds are gravitating toward the more relaxed, rustic cooking of Italy. At A Mano, the restaurant Caputo opened with his partners from brasserie-style Bin 36, guests choose from daily specials that highlight regional recipes such as bollito misto, a Northern Italian dish of boiled meats, as well as house-made pastas. The restaurant represents a shift for Caputo, who, although he grew up eating his mother's and grandmother's Southern Italian cooking, never thought he'd be running an Italian restaurant. “I wanted to get into French restaurants—they were the epitome of cooking,” says Caputo. “Now it's the exact opposite. I am older and I want to get down to the basics.”

For Caputo and other chefs who want to capture Italian cuisine at its most authentic, studying the country's regional cooking styles is the pivotal first step. Chef Scott Mahar made a few surprising discoveries when he and his wife traveled through Italy six years ago. “Town to town, there are differences,” Mahar says. In Tuscany, he offers as an example, “there was a lot more seafood than we expected; inland there's more meat.”

Putting the lessons he learned into practice at his Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen restaurant in Fredericksburg, Va., Mahar serves a seafood stew inspired by one he sampled on the Tuscan coast. Pan-seared scallops and tilapia are deglazed with white wine, simmered briefly in a simple tomato sauce along with shrimp, mussels and a pinch of red chile flakes, and finished with fresh herbs.

Missy Robbins gleaned an idea from a simple staff meal she ate while working at a restaurant eight years ago in Emilia-Romagna, a region of Northern Italy with deeply rooted culinary traditions. “I lived with all these chefs, and they would cook for me,” Robbins says. “One of the things they made was farfalle pasta with pecorino, bacon and cabbage. [That dish] made me fall in love with cabbage.” Now working as executive chef at A Voce in New York City, Robbins calls on similar ingredients, filling pyramid-shaped pasta she calls quadrati with a mixture of ricotta and pecorino cheeses and then tossing them with shredded Savoy cabbage, lardons of bacon and black pepper.

Inspired by the Campania region, Chef Michael White pairs fusilli with pork ragu. Recipe: Fusilli with Pork Shoulder Ragu

With a nod (and a wink) to the past, Chef Simone Bonelli of Perbacco in New York City applies modern techniques inspired by molecular gastronomy to traditional Italian cuisine. “We are still following the original recipes, but we're trying to change the dishes and make them more interactive for the customers,” says general manager Antonello D'Ambrosio. In one example, Bonelli deconstructs a classic grilled Sicilian swordfish with eggplant-and-tomato caponata. His version serves the swordfish with braised eggplant, caper gelato and a tomato-and-olive salad. “We want to bring freshness to the Italian restaurants around us,” explains D'Ambrosio. “We want to be a little bit different.”

Though there are 20 regions in Italy, each boasting its own local specialties and traditions, Southern Italian cuisine in particular seems to be enjoying a culinary renaissance, says Michael White, executive chef of Alto and Convivio restaurants in New York City. “Some of the best cooking in Italy is from the south,” White says. “They have raw materials there that are second to none.” And Italy's south, home of pizza and maccheroni, holds great appeal for American diners: “It's red-sauce-based cooking,” he says. “It's what Americans associate with Italian food.”

For one such red-sauce entrée at Convivio, White tosses hand-twisted fusilli with a ragu of pork shoulder braised with San Marzano tomatoes. The recipe isn't without White's personal spin: For a touch of refinement, servers pour fonduta—typically a northern specialty—at the table. But in keeping with the Southern spirit of the dish, White's fonduta is light. He omits cream, making the sauce instead by blending grated caciocavallo, a Campanian cheese, with hot chicken stock and olive oil. Recipe: Fusilli with Pork Shoulder Ragu

A Sardinian antipasto of squid from Il Fornaio shows the simplicity of Southern Italian seafood.

Filled pastas are generally served for special occasions in Campania, says de Magistris, so it's a dish befitting his restaurant's upscale atmosphere. The chef's forthcoming Il Casale restaurant in Belmont, Mass., will serve more rustic and casual Southern Italian dishes.

Of course, with such culinary diversity throughout Italy—from German-influenced preparations in the northern regions of Alto Adige and Friuli to the North African flavors inherent in Sicilian cooking—there's no shortage of culinary ground to cover. And many chefs offer menus with a sampling of different regional cuisines.

“Any great Italian chef bases their food on what's around them,” says Cosentino of San Francisco's Incanto. “What is unique about California is that we have this abundance of wine and produce and fish and meat, which allows us to basically pick and choose the [Italian] region we pull inspiration from.”

At Seattle's Tulio Ristorante, Chef Walter Pisano creates region-specific menus on occasion, but his daily offerings are compiled from a mix of Italy's cuisines. There's baccala, a puréed salt-cod recipe from Venice, as well as orecchiette with rapini, a traditional Puglian pasta dish. “For me, it's fun to take the whole country and look for inspiration,” Pisano says.

Periodically showcasing different regions can encourage repeat business. As part of its “Festa Regionale” program, Il Fornaio highlights the recipes and wines of a different area of Italy each month. When the restaurant started the program 12 years ago, most customers knew only about Tuscany and Sicily, Chef Mazzon says, but consumer understanding has come a long way since.

In January, the chain will spotlight Friuli, offering dishes such as gnocchi alla friulana, a type of potato gnocchi served with sausage, onions and mushrooms in tomato cream sauce. “We go little by little,” Mazzon says. “We have the trust of our guests.”

Even with the growing interest in regional Italian fare, there likely will always be room at the table for familiar Italian-American dishes. Back at A Mano, Caputo admits that—to many customers' delight—he serves the occasional chicken Parmesan as a special. “Sometimes you can't fight City Hall,” he reasons.