Lindsay Marie Morris

Set on West Hollywood's hip and colorful Santa Monica Boulevard, Pura Vita is a beacon for foodies, Italians, and Italophiles alike. Its low-lit, cozy, contemporary New York City wine bar vibe is as inviting as the food, which is both innovative and delicious.

Start with arancini or eggplant parmigiana, before digging into cacio e pepe or spinach and mushroom lasagna, paired with wine sourced from organic and biodynamic farms. Then, treat yourself to the tiramisu. It's a Grand Tour of the boot and its stones, influenced by chef and owner Tara Punzone's Italian New Yorker roots.

 

Take one look at the restaurant's arresting logo—a chef's knife pierces through a dripping tomato—and it's suddenly clear: no animals were harmed in the making of your meal. In fact, it was the first 100% plant-based Italian restaurant and wine bar in the United States when it opened its doors in 2018. That doesn't stop Pura Vita's largely omnivorous customer base from coveting reservations for brunch, lunch, aperitivo, and dinner.

 

Drawing from the Costa Rican phrase "pura vida," Tara called her restaurant Pura Vita to reflect an Italian version of the pure life. It's also among her many tattoos. She designed the concept, menu, and interior herself, drawing from her master's degree in fine arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. 

Born in Brooklyn to second-generation Italian American parents, Tara grew up in Long Island, influenced by her grandparents' Neapolitan and Calabrian traditions. But after watching a video about slaughterhouses in her fifth-grade class, she found herself rethinking her culture's foods, especially once she became vegan at age 12.

Mom's lasagna was no longer an option, but Tara took to the kitchen, reinventing her favorite family foods in a way that celebrated their rich history.

She documents that journey from plant-based dinners at Manhattan's Angelica Kitchen to opening Pura Vita and releasing her first cookbook, Vegana Italiana (Rodale Books, October 2025), which she co-wrote with Gene Stone. She was also kind enough to share more about navigating that path, from the spark that ignited her Pura Vita vision to her ultimate goal of serving and sharing beautiful, compassionate Italian food. 

Pura Vita Chef and Owner Tara Punzone
Photo by Heidi Calvert

What led you to embrace veganism?

I write about it in the book because it's part of my whole experience that got me here to where I am today. As a kid, I loved animals. Every little kid does, and I was always very finicky about the things that I would eat. But of course, as a child, you don't make the connection to how the food gets on your plate, what the process is from a beautiful doe-eyed cow standing there to a dish that's in front of you. It doesn't occur to you what goes on from one place to the other. So there was no connection for me.

But then in the fifth grade, when I was 10 years old, I had a teacher who showed the class a video of a slaughterhouse, and it was just appalling. It affected me in a very, very profound way.

That was it for me. I didn't eat my lunch that day. I gave it away to somebody else. And I told my parents when I went home that night that I didn't want to eat meat anymore. And that was the beginning of it.

 

How did your family respond?

They were completely perplexed, and I'm sure they thought it was going to fade out after a couple of weeks. I mean, I was 10 years old, but it didn't because I meant it.

Thankfully, I have really amazing, supportive parents. And what happened was my mom said, "OK, well, there's this place, Angelica Kitchen. Let's eat there. Let's make it a positive experience."

She wanted to understand as well. And in front of Angelica, there used to be a little area where all the pamphlets would be from groups like PETA and information about factory farming for people who were interested enough to take it. And I took all of it, and I just went down the spiral of learning about all of the different segments of that industry, and one by one, how revolting it was. And I didn't want to be a part of any of that.

It took me a couple of years to figure out the whole vegan thing. By the time I was about 12, I had given away my leather motorcycle jacket and my Doc Martens, and I was ready to be vegan to make that full commitment. And it was the best. I have zero regrets.

 

How did that affect the way you participated in Italian traditions?

I'm proud of my heritage. I love my family traditions, and I really wasn't enthusiastic about having to let go of that part. So it became my focus to have both things. I wanted to be able to not eat animals and not hurt animals. But I also wanted to be Italian American and participate in all the things that my family was doing, cooking, and celebrating.

The very first thing that made me realize was that I needed to start learning how to make the foods that my grandma and mom made, particularly for Easter. My mom would always make lasagna on Easter, and I couldn't have it.

My mom made meat-free lasagna because, for many years, I was still eating dairy, and I still was able to participate. But then one day I realized, "No, now I can't have any of it at all."

And so I started trying to figure out how to make the lasagna. That's where my spark started flying. It was terrible at first. It was just a big fail on the first of many times that I made it. But that's what got me excited to figure these things out. That was the first dish.

 

Tara draws inspiration from family recipes and traditions. 

How did that spark lead to Pura Vita?

I always had the dream of having my own restaurant. You never think it's ever going to happen in real life.

I'd been working in restaurants forever, sharpening my skills and learning about business. When I came to L.A., I was the culinary director for a vegan place that had several locations. So I had the opportunity to learn about business, which is the part of being a chef that you don't necessarily learn. That was extremely helpful for me because I learned all the things not to do, which is sometimes more important than what you're supposed to do.

Then, the original owner sold it to new people, and I decided it was time for me to do my own thing. So I started searching for locations. I found a place that was so fitting in my mind for what I wanted. I fixed it completely, but I wanted it to have a certain feel. I got very lucky with the location. And I was also lucky because I wasn't somebody that people knew.

It was just the absolute right moment in time, in the absolute right place. And I'm so grateful for that. It was a success from the very first night, and thank God we're still there.

 

"I have an amazing staff and people I really trust, who helped me make things happen," says Tara.

How did Vegana Italiana come about?

I always had the idea in my mind that I wanted to write a book. As soon as I opened the restaurant and it was successful, every single person asked me if I had a book. But I was running a restaurant and there for 16 hours a day every day. You can't write a book like that. It's not possible.

So many years went by of me wanting to do it, and then I just got to a place with the restaurants where I have an amazing staff and people I really trust who helped me make things happen.

 

It was super difficult because on my one day off, I was just working on this book. If it weren't for Gene Stone, my co-author, I would never have finished it.

Tell us about the writing process.

Luckily, he lives a couple of blocks away from me and from the restaurant. It was very convenient. There was no driving involved. It was pretty great. We would just spend the day together.

 

I wrote the recipes, but I had to write them for smaller servings. But the stories about my life and my childhood—all the recipes have little anecdotes or little stories to go with them—that was me just recording an idea on my phone.

 

I would just tell the story—for example, Easter lasagna—into my phone and then just send it to him, and he would transcribe my words and then make it a little bit more cohesive. That was fun because it felt free. I was just speaking it out, and he was making it readable. We were a really good team.

 

How did you select the recipes you share?

I wanted this book to be accessible. People who live in L.A. come to the restaurant every day and get to eat my food. That's great because that's the whole purpose I want to share with my community. But so many people can't get here, and I want it to be accessible to those people. So you can't have recipes with wild ingredients that no one can find.

 

So I immediately eliminated anything that included ingredients like that. For example, truffles. It's not easy to get truffles; they're extremely expensive. They're delicious, but that's not what this book is about.

 

I want people to be able to make food for their family—really good old school Italian food that happens to be vegan, whether you're fully vegan, you would like to be fully vegan, you haven't figured out a way to do so yet, or you're just trying to add more plant-based food into your life.

A lot of the recipes are things my family has always eaten, and it turns out a lot of those things were already vegan. For example, in Calabria, it's peasant food: Swiss chard, beans, potatoes, and peppers.

 

Cheers to healthy, plant-based Italian food.

With your restaurant and this book, what is your ultimate goal?

It's always been the same. My grandpa and grandma owned an Italian hero shop in Brooklyn. When I was a kid, I wanted to be my grandpa so much. All he did was make simple food for the community, but it was so wildly popular that they needed to hire a security guard. And I thought that was so cool: the impact that he had on his community, and that's always been my goal: to replicate that in a plant-based way.

 

Providing that community feeling and support, and making people happy through clean, healthy food, has always been my goal. It's very simple. I just love the idea of making people happy through food.

 

 

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Have you gotten your hands on good-quality almonds? Try making some Sicilian almond cookies!

One to try: pizzicotti alle mandorle. Made with freshly blanched almonds, these holiday-perfect cookies are named for the way they are pinched using the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger before they are set in the oven.

 

I recently stumbled on a plant-based pizzicotti recipe on veganhotstuff.com. Many of the recipes Switzerland-based blogger Deborah Bolton has published are vegan versions of Italian dishes. She shared with me more about her version of this classic cookie and her zero-waste way of using chickpea liquid, aquafaba, as a binding.

 

 

Tell us about this almond cookie recipe and what inspired you to make it.

This almond cookie recipe originates from Southern Italy, particularly Sicily, where almonds grow abundantly in the warm Mediterranean climate. These cookies are called pizzicotti alle mandorle in Italian, where pizzicotti means pinches and mandorle is the word for almonds.

 

Pizzicotti alle mandorle are irresistibly crunchy on the outside with a soft, chewy center that melts in your mouth. I was inspired to make this recipe because I wanted to make a plant-based version that no one would be able to distinguish from the original. This recipe can be enjoyed by omnivores, vegans, and people with egg allergies alike.

 

What is the significance of this cookie recipe?

Almonds have always been significant in Italian culture, symbolizing good luck and prosperity. Pizzicotti alle mandorle embody this tradition and often appear during festive occasions and special gatherings. In Sicily, they are a cherished part of feast day celebrations and weddings, symbolizing good fortune and the sweetness of life. These traditional almond biscuits are often made using family recipes that have been handed down through the centuries. Skilled artisans and home bakers alike take pride in their meticulous preparation.

 

 

If you love almonds, you'll adore pizzicotti alle mandorle. Photo by Deborah Bolton.

 

How is your recipe different from the traditional cookie?

As always, I like to keep traditional recipes as authentic as possible but without the use of animal products. The only difference between my recipe and the traditional cookie is the absence of egg white, which I substituted with aquafaba. Aquafaba is the cooking liquid in a jar or can of chickpeas. It has similar emulsifying, foaming, binding, gelatinizing, and thickening properties to egg whites, and the taste is absolutely undetectable. This recipe turned out perfect, and no one could tell that they were vegan.

 

Another thing I like about using aquafaba is the fact it aligns with my zero-waste philosophy. Chickpea water normally gets thrown away. Using it in our recipes instead of eggs is far better than exploiting hens and costs nothing.
 

Are there any specific types of ingredients that work best for this recipe?

Yes. While it's possible to use either blanched or non-blanched almonds, I recommend using blanched (peeled) almonds because they yield an attractive-looking white cookie. In contrast, the brown skin on unpeeled almonds would result in a slightly darker cookie with brown flecks, which would be ideal for amaretti, for example, but not so much for pizzicotti. It's best to use ground almonds, also known as almond meal, rather than almond flour to ensure you get the right texture. If you can't find ready-ground almonds, just buy whole ones. It's very easy to grind your own. This recipe calls for lemon zest, so make sure you use lemons with an edible peel.

 

Last but not least—sugar. Not all sugar is vegan because bone char is often used in the refining process, so check labels. I use white vegan caster sugar. Caster sugar is finer than granulated sugar, which is ideal for this recipe.

 

What are the most critical steps in the preparation process?

This recipe is actually super easy to make. The most critical step is probably weighing the ingredients precisely. If you're approximate, it will definitely affect the texture of the cookies. Use a good kitchen scale because even slight variations in the amount of moisture will cause the cookies to either spread in the oven and lose their characteristic shape or be harder than they should be. The only other critical step is understanding when the cookies are done. They should be soft and pale when they come out of the oven and firm up as they cool.

Crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. Photo by Deborah Bolton.

What do you hope readers will take away from this recipe?

I hope readers will not only fall in love with the taste of these almond cookies but also appreciate the simplicity and authenticity of the recipe. With their crunchy exterior and soft, chewy center, they remain true to the traditional Sicilian cookie, even with the vegan twist. What's even better is the satisfaction of making a cruelty-free version that's just as good as the original, if not better. I also hope it inspires people to be creative with their plant-based cooking and consider the environmental and ethical benefits of using ingredients like aquafaba. And since they make such great edible gifts, especially around Christmas, I hope readers feel encouraged to share them with loved ones, knowing they're spreading a little piece of sweet, homemade joy!       

 

>>Get Deborah's pizzicotti delle mandorle recipe here!<<

 

 

 

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