The gnocchi were spectacularly light and delicate under an assertive Bolognese sauce.
In Italy, the conservative Northern League is making a comeback under an assertive new leader, Matteo Salvini, who has coupled opposition to immigration with criticism of the euro.
With post-Mubarak and, now, post-Morsi Egypt under increasingly assertive military control, the Arab Spring appears to have been replaced by spreading chaos.
In 2012, under more assertive rules of engagement, EU naval forces attacked one the pirates' safe havens, destroying a number of their speedboats and some of their infrastructure.
You could open either red or white with the Asian-style vegetable-and-veal stew in Mark Bittman's Flexitarian column this week, as long as the wine has lively acidity so it isn't buried under the assertive flavors of the food.
Porsche signalled that a takeover wasn't its immediate goal when it offered shareholders the minimum price allowed by law, but the manoeuvre solidified its strategic control of VW under the assertive hand of Ferdinand Piëch, VW's chairman and a member of the Porsche family.
The night's drummers, physical and virtual, made themselves boosters and goads: Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove, giving a rolling momentum to the annunciatory alto saxophone lines of Matana Roberts, and DJ Spinna, whose drum sounds were on turntables, putting a hip-hop snap under the assertive, melodic jabs of Don Byron's saxophone.
After a lull in tensions, Russia's spy agencies became more assertive under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin.
Saudi Arabia, more assertive under King Salman, has reached out to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president; co-operation with Qatar has also improved.
This was once a rare issue that affected only a handful of Israelis, but this has changed under a newly assertive chief rabbinate, dominated by the ultra-orthodox.
