When Joe Fugere watched the footage of the 6.2 magnitude Italian earthquake that killed nearly 300 and destroyed entire towns, homes, and irreplaceable art and architecture on Aug. 24, he felt a sadness that was extremely personal.

“Every time there is an event like this in Italy, it tugs at my heart,” said Fugere, whose family emigrated from the Calabria region of southern Italy in the early 1900s.

Although over 5,500 miles away, Fugere was determined to help make a difference in his ancestral homeland by way of his business, Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria, found at five locations throughout Seattle, Bellevue and Issaquah.

It just so happened that this summer, Tutta Bella had been featuring the pasta dish Bucatini all’Amatriciana, which stems from Amatrice, one of the towns badly damaged in the earthquake. Throughout the month of September, Tutta Bella will be donating €2 to the Italian Red Cross for every dish of Bucatini all’Amatriciana that is sold.

“One of our five core values is community — we really strive to make a difference … locally and globally,” Fugere said. “And we want to inspire others to give back.”

Fugere said that the restaurant team had heard of other Italian eateries throughout the world taking similar actions with recipes from the region that was hit, and with the Amatrician specialty already on the menu, it only made sense to follow suit. Fugere chose to donate in euros to “embrace the European tradition,” and through the help of Italy’s Honorary Consulate General in Seattle, Franco Tesorieni, Tutta Bella was able to get a direct link to the Italian Red Cross, the nonprofit that, in Fugere’s words, is “the best distributor of funds.”

This is not the first time that Tutta Bella has jumped in to help after a world crisis. The restaurant raised relief funds for the last major Italian earthquake, L’Aquila, in 2009, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and a local disaster, the 2014 Oso landslide.

“When there’s a natural disaster or tragic event, we mobilize,” Fugere said. “We’re really saddened by this one in particular because of our ties to Italy.”

Issaquah Tutta Bella dining room manager Lindsey Rose echoed this, and added that, with the pasta fundraiser, “it’s fun to get people to try new things.”

Amatrice, which is about 85 miles northeast of Rome, is now famous for the pasta, which features a tomato-based sauce. In fact, the town was just about to host its 50th annual pasta all’Amatriciana festival when the earthquake struck.

The story of Bucatini all’Amatriciana somewhat echoes the current tragedy. After the Spanish burned Amatrice, villagers fled to nearby Naples, taking their beloved pasta recipes with them. Naples “embraced the people and embraced the dish,” Fugere said, and so out of a catastrophe came the spread of new recipes.

Tutta Bella pays tribute to the Italian heritage by researching and producing the most authentic recipes, Fugere said. He said that the food his customers eat is the same that they would have eaten were they in Naples in the 1700s.

“We feel so connected to Italy because we respect those authentic recipes,” Fugere said. “In Italy, food is part of life.”