A husband-and-wife duo has brought the taste of Italy to East Idaho.

Marco and Flaminia Assirelli, who moved from Rome to Idaho Falls in 2019, operate two food trucks year-round and offer authentic Italian cuisine to those craving anything from carbonara to cannoli.

“At the end of 2020, we created Mama Fla,” said Marco, who initially moved to the Gem State for his business in the medical field before transitioning into the world of cuisine when Flaminia wished to open a restaurant. “We started to make the production of every kind of pasta and our most important Italian sauces, and we are importing all the ingredients from Italy.”

The pair had opened a restaurant on the river in Idaho Falls at beginning, before they decided to scale back and serve their dishes and desserts from food trucks instead. Since then, Marco said reception from the community has been wonderful, and he explained that most local residents don’t know what authentic Italian cuisine tastes like until they try Mama Fla.

The fact that Flaminia is a professional chef of 15 years also helps.

“We are doing great,” Marco said. “Without the restaurant, life is easier. Especially because it’s very difficult to create a reliable team in the restaurant and because here we have less employees but it’s more professional in the kitchen.”

Their two food trucks are permanently located in Idaho Falls, with both stationed at 680 First St. and offering different menus.

Their black truck, which is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., offers a wide array of items from appetizers like bruschetta pomodoro to entrees like Risotto Amatriciana to desserts like gelato affogato. And of course, there’s several options of pastas and sauces for those with a particular palate for one or the other.

Their red food truck, open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., caters more toward the lunch crowd and offers paninis, salads, soups and desserts.

Both operate year-round, and meals can be ordered ahead of time. They also offer take-and-bake options, as well as catering.

In addition to running food trucks, they’ll also be hitting up farmers markets in Idaho Falls, Driggs, Pocatello and Jackson, Wyoming, as vendors throughout the summer.

Here, browsers can pick up fresh sauces, frozen lasagna, pasta salad and try out their profiteroles, also known as cream puffs, and their Sicilian cannoli, which is fried, rolled pastry dough stuffed with creamy filling.

“The people here are used to American Italian cuisine,” he said. “This is completely different.”

The Assirellis attend the markets in Driggs on Fridays, Jackson on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Idaho Falls on Saturday and the Portneuf Valley Farmers Market in Pocatello on Saturdays. For more information on their food trucks and catering, visit mamafla.com.