Bravissimo

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/09/2007 (6743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

REMEMBER the long-gone and much-lamented Roma Cafe? Or Rogues’ Gallery? Or the latest of the lot, Picolina?

If you remember them as fondly as I do, you should be delighted to hear that Joe Pellegrino, who was owner or part-owner of the three eateries, has resurfaced at Tomato Pie Co. and, with new partner Paolo Nucci, has once again created one of the city’s best small restaurants.

It’s a sleek but cosy place, with walls partly in varying shades of blue-green, partly of exposed brick. The handsome, substantial black chairs are upholstered in purple ultra-suede, there’s plenty of room between the tables, and huge picture windows offer most of those tables a view of the lively scene at Osborne and Wardlaw.

The straightforward cooking reflects, for the most part, the two partners’ family background in the Campagna (think Naples), and you have to really like garlic to eat here. In fact, the menu warns you that “tons of garlic” are used, and should be taken at its word, although — since in many cases it is sprinkled on at the end of the cooking process — any request to go easy on that fragrant bulb will be honoured.

The same menu is in effect at both lunch and dinner, and the selection is relatively limited. Much of it is familiar, old-school Italian, but with a few twists. Among the appetizers ($6 to $9), for instance, there’s not just Italian sausage sautéed in the usual local fashion, with peppers and onions, but also, more interestingly, with rapini greens, their slight bitterness a fine foil for the spicy richness of the sausage. There are savoury little meatballs as well, which also turn up in some of the other dishes (more about that later). Some starters come with thick slices of grilled Portuguese water bread, others with house-made, foccaccia-like flat bread that is also paired with a chickpea spread, herbed dipping oil or tomatoes, herbs and cheese.

You put together whichever pasta, topping and sauce you might fancy. Most are $13 to $14, plus $3 if your sauce is alla panna, i.e. white wine, cheese and cream. Other sauces include arrabiatta (spicy tomato basil), oil and garlic, tomato and basil or rose (tomato sauce and cream). Among the toppings, roasted vegetables, or spicy or mild chicken, or rapini combined with pine nuts, or with sausage, or with garlic and feta. Different pastas also are featured daily, and one night our twisty mafalda came with those delicious wee meat balls in a creamy rose sauce. For that matter, the kitchen will prepare any reasonable combination of ingredients requested.

There are daily specials as well. On Fridays it’s seafood, and one night ours was a terrific zuppa del pesce, a kind of seafood stew of shrimp, scallops and mussels in a zesty red wine sauce ($16). Also delicious was another night’s twisty mafalda pasta, this time sauced with clams (not in the shell, but fresh and sweet-tasting), garlic and olive oil. Listed among the main courses and always available is baked agnolotti, i.e. oversized ravioli, stuffed with lobster and served in either a tomato basil sauce ($17) or alla panna ($19). They were acceptable, but the already faint flavour of the lobster was further overwhelmed by the ultra-rich panna sauce.

Also listed among the main courses are a flavourful, almost ethereal eggplant parmigiana in tomato, basil and a sauce of parmesan, romano and bocconcini cheeses ($15), and potato gnocchi, also remarkably light in a tomato sauce with cheese ($14). Both items, and the agnolotti, flesh out the very few main courses; the only meat choice on the menu is chicken parmigiana ($15).

However, there are terrific bargains for carnivores among the daily specials. There might be monumentally thick, pale veal chops, for instance, which are grilled and finished in the oven to just this side of pink and perfect moistness, splashed with lemon juice and bits of garlic — a steal at two chops for $26, one for $18. Or two tiny, tender, lemon-marinated fresh lamb chops, grilled to the precise degree of rareness requested, for $17. Both are paired with nicely roasted potatoes and strips of sautéed red pepper, and both are a match for any of the city’s best.

Sometimes available (but not, alas, on my visits) are baccala dried cod, either in a plum tomato sauce or in fritters, or braciola of veal, stuffed with prosciutto, basil and pine nuts, and slowly braised in tomato gravy.

Salad is included with all pastas and entrees, a beautifully dressed mixture of tomatoes, cucumber, onions, black olives and — on occasion — artichoke hearts, which would be even better if the tomatoes were riper.

Aficionados of thin-crust pizza should be in heaven here — these are almost wafer-thin, crisp, and so light they could easily double as a shared appetizer, but those who’d prefer a thicker crust can have theirs on a foccaccia base ($11 to $13). I also loved the two toppings I tried, the elegant Calabrese of prosciutto with bocconcini cheese, and the homier Messina of Italian sausage, baby meatballs and cheese.

The showcase of tempting desserts features such Canadiana as pecan pie and cheesecake, but for the perfect Italian experience there can be no better finale than one of the state-of-the-art, house-made Italian desserts. I’ve never had better, crunchier cannoli than these, stuffed with lemon-scented mascarpone cheese ($1.50) or, for that matter, than the superb, decadently rich tiramisu, drenched in coffee liqueur ($5).

They pretty much get everything right here — the delicious food; the well-selected wine list; the friendly, attentive service; and the warm, comfortable setting. Not to mention prices that are a bargain for the quality. Reservations are taken only for six or more but, judging by the constantly full house on my visits, nobody seems to mind waiting.

Open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Sunday.

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca