Cherry tarts; Natalie and Nick Zarzour A. Jackson

April 6, 2007

Pasticceria Natalina
5406 N. Clark
773-989-0662

IT WASN'T A good day for marzipan. The previous night Natalie Zarzour had slept only two-and-a-half hours in the shop where she now stood building a cassatine -- a miniature cassata, the elaborate glazed and fruit-bedecked Sicilian Easter cake. Under normal circumstances it takes her just an hour or so to stamp out a dozen light green disks of marzipan, mold them in custard cups, fill them with sponge cake, sheep's-milk ricotta, and chocolate, and douse them with rose water and tangerine liqueur. But because the temperature outside had reached the 70s and the humidity was making the sweet almond paste sticky she aborted four attempts.

Since opening their pastry shop Pasticceria Natalina on Valentine's Day, Zarzour and her husband, Nick, have labored to the point of exhaustion to introduce their customers to the culture of Sicilian dolci, where there are no shortcuts, the cannoli are filled to order, and it's appropriate to indulge in something sweet anytime but dessert.

When most Italian immigrants were settling along Grand Avenue or Taylor Street, Zarzour's maternal grandparents left Palermo for Palos Heights, where her grandfather took a job as a hospital lab technician. Like many newcomers, they wanted their children to assimilate, but their isolation kept the family's food traditions alive. "I think I got to learn more intricate recipes because they weren't close to the delis and bakeries," says Zarzour. "They had to make their own because it was so far."

On her first trip to Sicily, at age 15, Zarzour discovered the immense difference between regional Italian foods and what passed for them in America, where immigrants were forced to make substitutions for original ingredients that never made the trip to the New World. Sicily's pastry culture was defined and refined over centuries of conquest by and commerce with the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, and Spanish. "You get a lot of exotic ingredients -- pistachios, rose water, and citrus fruits," she says. "A lot of those earthy, exotic flavors together with classical French techniques, and that's really what makes Sicilian pastry so magical."

Zarzour already had a handle on the simple sweets familiar to Sicilian home cooks, but she had a lot to learn about the baroque, fanciful constructions found strictly in pastry shops, like minne de vergine -- highly suggestive custard-filled "breasts of the virgin," made in honor of Saint Agatha, whose breasts were lopped off when she refused to renounce the faith. Many of these were developed in monasteries and convents to raise funds for the church and originally only appeared on certain holidays and festivals. Now the attitude is bit more permissive. Dolci present a "reason to stop doing whatever you might not want to be doing and enjoy yourself," Zarzour says.

Friends and family encouraged her to go to culinary school, but though she started researching recipes, she decided to study political science at UIC instead. There she met Nick, an engineering student from Lebanon, a country with its own cross-cultural pastry tradition, heavily influenced by French colonization. The pair married four-and-a-half years ago and have taken trips to Italy and to Nick's hometown of Zahle, where Natalie did a short apprenticeship at a French pastry shop. "If you can learn French technique it makes anything you do automatically better," she says.

Meanwhile both were dissatisfied with their career paths -- Nick was working in construction management, Natalie had transferred to DePaul -- and they began to plot an escape. Natalie had received a small inheritance from her grandparents. "I thought if I did something with the money that they would be proud of, it would honor them and hopefully they'd be watching over it," she says. Hence the Sicilian pastry shop. The Zarzours were looking in Andersonville -- they live nearby -- when they found their space, a former Chinese take-out joint. In addition to the inheritance, loans and personal funds went toward the rebuilding.

Natalie didn't want to substitute for critical ingredients like the tangy Sicilian sheep's-milk ricotta required for the cannoli and cassatine, so she uses wholesale importers for some products. For others, like the bitter Sicilian almonds required for the marzipan, she goes direct to the producers.

She thought that once she got in a kitchen with commercial equipment the painstaking, labor-intensive recipes would get easier. They haven't. Natalie says it takes three days to make the frutti di martorana, hand-painted marzipan figs, plums, prickly pears, oranges, and lemons that look as if they just fell from the tree. Nick can spend an entire afternoon cutting and frying cannoli shells for the weekend.

In the weeks since opening, Natalie has rolled out an exotic, ever changing selection: orange blossom or rosewater rice puddings; a boozy rum baba; zeppole, deep-fried fritters filled with custard and sour amarana cherries, traditionally served for Saint Joseph's Day; spicy iced fig cookies called cuccidatti; shell-shaped, ricotta-filled Neopolitan sfogliatelle; and delicate, savory fazzoletti ("little handkerchiefs"), puff pastries filled with combinations like peas, prosciutto, and mint or artichoke hearts, capers, raisins, and pine nuts.

Choosing among her offerings can be agonizing -- and they're expensive. One particular cookie made almost entirely of crushed pistachios goes for more than $20 a pound. The Zarzours are betting people will understand what premium ingredients are worth. And that's why Natalie's willing to persevere with something as difficult and expensive as the cassatine. "I can't really afford to pay people to do that stuff, because I'll be paying so much in overhead to get so little product," she says. "These are things that I absolutely have to do myself. It's not one of my most popular items but it's one of the most special. If they sell only a dozen in two days I'm happy." --Mike Sula

For more on restaurants, see our blog the Food Chain.

Buon Appetito

Twenty-three regional Italian restaurants

A Tavola
2148 W. Chicago | 773-276-7567

F 8.5 | S 8.8 | A 7.8 | $$$ (17 reports)
DINNER: MONDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED SUNDAY

The dining room at A Tavola is dimly lit and intimate, with only ten tables. The menu is equally tiny, enough so that strict vegetarians may have a difficult time making the most of it. I went with the halibut, lightly dusted with seasoned flour and panfried, accompanied by a lemon and caper sauce -- very simple, but perfectly moist and light. An appetizer of grilled portobello and sauteed oyster mushrooms stood out for its surprisingly complex flavor. There are also three small pasta dishes, including the best gnocchi I've ever had, swimming in sage butter and topped with fried sage leaves. The "vanilla-scented" panna cotta (sorry, but that's a descriptor best left to candles) looked like flan and tasted like marshmallows, which fortunately I like. I'm also one who believes there are few more wonderful things you can do with food than bake it with a crisp crust of Parmesan cheese, so the polenta, thick and gooey, may have been my favorite. There was one bite left at the end of the night, and I seriously thought about having it wrapped up. David Wilcox

Adesso
3332 N. Broadway | 773-868-1516

$$
LUNCH: MONDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS; SATURDAY & SUNDAY BRUNCH | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11:30 | BYO

Adesso is a return to his Italian roots for owner Franco Gianni, who's also behind Tank Sushi and Sushi Wabi. The southern Italian cooking in this 32-seat space is meant to be unfussy and accessible, in an atmosphere of festive neighborliness (no kidding -- parties are seated together at communal tables). Simple ingredients stood out in a bruschetta of thick rustic bread, ricotta, and slightly roasted tomatoes topped with honey -- the ricotta was the type of fresh that makes you wonder if you've ever truly tasted a food before. Other starters include the requisite calamari fritti, an antipasto plate, and a generous bowl of meaty mussels in a white wine and herb broth with nicely browned toast, Sicilian style. Zuppe di cipolle e sidro, onion-and-cider soup with a provolone crust, was salty-sweet without being too much of either. But the knockout dish was carbonata di costine di manzo, slow-braised beef short ribs over shallot-studded polenta -- we passed the plate back and forth till it shone clean. Tasneem Paghdiwala

Bacchanalia
2413 S. Oakley | 773-254-6555

$$
LUNCH: MONDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11 | CASH ONLY

For me, it was love at first bite of lobster ravioli: hand-rolled by a local gentleman, enfolding creamy crustacean, and transcending the cliched vodka sauce to achieve a fine balance of richness and acidity. "Seafood and Pasta" is a delicious dish of noodles, calamari, lobster, shrimp, and mussels in a light but intensely flavorful tomato broth. The veal saltimbocca pleased with thin slices, particularly hammy prosciutto, fresh rosemary, and just a touch of cheese. The only weak link in the chain was Chicago's own chicken Vesuvio, but even it packed more flavor than you might find elsewhere. Pork chops Lugana are grilled, seasoned with Provencal herbs in the style of Lombardy, and draped with lightly sauteed herb-flecked peppers, onions, and potatoes. A Milanese Fernet-Branca was recommended as a postprandial digestive, and with a house-made cannoli, it proved a perfect way to "settle up." I liked the food here so much I literally busted a button on my trousers, a sad though strangely satisfying sensation. David Hammond

Bruna's Ristorante
2424 S. Oakley | 773-254-5550

$$
LUNCH: MONDAY-SATURDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11

The pleasures at Bruna's are many. Begin with the bar: swiveling stools with backs (a practically extinct species of chair that was once standard everywhere); a wide selection of wine, including a slightly sweet Chianti imported from Italy and stamped with a Bruna's label; and a back bar packed with decades' worth of detritus. The dining room has murals of the old country, crisp white linens, and a chalkboard menu listing the daily specials like Tomatoes Smith: tomatoes topped with mozzarella, herbs, and oil, then baked. Even if the food were awful, I'd come back to enjoy the ambience and the superb martinis. But almost everything was good: classics like pasta carbonara and lasagna were well above par; the mushroom ravioli was even better; and Dover sole, expertly filleted tableside by our waiter, was sublime. The only off note was the clams, which were grittier than they should have been. The pace here can be leisurely. We were at table for over two hours, but amid all the good food and good cheer it seemed half that. Reservations are an excellent idea, since Bruna's can be jammed on the weekend. Chip Dudley

Cafe Spiaggia
980 N. Michigan | 312-280-2750

F 8.2 | S 7.6 | A 8.1 | $$$ (14 reports)
LUNCH: MONDAY-SATURDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS; SUNDAY BRUNCH

Like a Himayalan peak, Tony Mantuano's peerless Spiaggia is heartbreakingly out of reach of the average Joe with an appreciation for real Italian food, but at the neighboring cafe, he can at least summit the foothills. The relatively affordable room shares many of the main dining room's bewitching attributes -- the same view over the Mag Mile and the lake, access to the top-notch cheese cave and wine list, plates of the best handmade pasta in the city, impeccable and informed service. Not every bite will weaken your knees the way it would next door, but for the money you get plenty of them. On my last visit I was wobbly over the buttery wood-roasted veal tenderloin with white polenta and perfectly cooked sea bass (crispy on the outside, silky on the inside) with white beans and escarole. Perhaps just by proximity to the main dining room even the simplest of things -- like sardines on crostini with salsa verde and fennel or wood-roasted mushrooms with garlic, rosemary, and white polenta -- seem pretty special. Mike Sula

Campagnola
815 Chicago, Evanston | 847-475-6100

F 7.5 | S 7.5 | A 7.8 | $$$ (11 reports)
DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | SMOKE FREE

Chef-owner Michael Altenberg has moved on to other projects, but under chef Vincent DiBattista, Campagnola's sophisticated Italian fare retains his signature focus on organic and sustainably raised meat and produce. An appetizer of a wood-grilled knob of radicchio wrapped in smoky guanciale came dressed with basil and creamy goat cheese, which effectively cut the vegetable's bitter edge. Other tasty-looking appetizers included steamed mussels in a saffron-fennel broth and wood-fired octopus with scallions and a black olive coulis. I got my sausage fix in an entree, orecchiette with fennel sausage, sweet peppers, garlic, and chile. Despite the meat and strong spices, the dish was remarkably light. Service is professional and unpretentious, and even when we were the last table in the room we didn't get the strong-arm hustle that so often befalls late-night diners. Martha Bayne

Enoteca Roma
2146 W. Division | 773-342-1011

$
DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 2, SUNDAY-THURSDAY TILL MIDNIGHT

This laid-back wine bar, or enoteca, is the newest extension of Letizia's Natural Bakery, a Wicker Park fixture since 1998. Connected to Letizia's cafe and back garden entrance by a short hallway, it offers Letizia's standard menu plus more than 20 varieties of bruschetta, pizzas, dinner salads, and a number of meat, cheese, bread, and olive combinations in the tradition of rustic Roman cuisine. Simple snacks -- two ounces of olives or a plate of bread, walnuts, and grapes -- pair well with a few glasses of wine. Larger plates include a Salamini Flight -- salami and a trio of saucisson, served with grainy mustard, roasted red peppers, and Italian bread -- and the Antipasto Micki, which includes three slices each of capicola, Genoa salami, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, and focaccia, plus a few olives. Several cheeses can be ordered individually, or you can try the cheese flight: your choice of four served on a cutting board with grapes, figs, quince jelly, and dried apricots. Enoteca Roma's specialty is, of course, wine, served without attitude. The philosophy here can be summed up, says manager Fabio Sorano, as "you can get PBR or you can get Pahlmeyer," the former being $2.75 a bottle, the latter a Bordeaux blend that at $200 is the most expensive offering. On any given day between 30 and 45 wines are available by the glass, several for $6 or less. Susannah Felts

Erba
4520 N. Lincoln | 773-989-4200

$$$
DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11 | RESERVATIONS NOT ACCEPTED

Erba, the "urban Italian" restaurant from the owners of nearby Brioso, is sleek and dark, with the barest hints of decoration; the menu's equally spare. Choices include a variety of homemade pastas, among them "discombobulated lasagna," and larger plates like herb-crusted rib eye, roasted pork loin, and sea scallops served, according to the menu, with "expensive olive oil." On a recent visit my companion and I started with bruschetta topped with rapini, grape tomatoes, basil, and pecorino Romano; our other appetizer, prosciutto with asparagus, Parmesan, and white truffle oil, was delicious. Our entrees -- pesto-and-goat-cheese gnocchi that oozed flavor and a fillet of wild-caught salmon served on a warm fennel-and-tangerine salad -- were gorgeous and packed with character. For dessert we had the one and only option: an exceptional chocolate-hazelnut cake so crunchy it seemed to be mostly nuts. The wine list is reasonably priced, with a wide range available by the glass. Chip Dudley

Fiorentino's Cucina Italiana
2901 N. Ashland | 773-244-3026

$$$
DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11

Fiorentino's is truly a family-run restaurant: Signora Fiorentino rushed to greet us when we walked in, stopped by frequently, and saw us to the door as we were leaving, always ready to talk about food. Sicilian, she's dreamed up a menu that tends toward seafood and dishes that show a restrained hand when it comes to sauce and spices. Calamari were fresh though a bit bland, but by Jove the mussels were probably the best I've had in Chicago: done point perfect, bursting with flavor, and served with a creamy pesto capellini. Stuffed gnocchi, not traditional but in every way marvelous, were soft and lush, delicately filled with ricotta and splashed with tomato cream sauce. Spiedini alla griglia, the restaurant's signature dish, is char-grilled filet mignon simply and flavorfully topped off with lemon, garlic, and olive oil. Tiramisu, that old standard, is here extraordinarily light, reflecting the kitchen's gentle touch. Amusingly, the cannoli, Palermo's carnival treat, is here reinterpreted as a mound of slivered cocoa and ricotta studded with pastry triangles. David Hammond

Francesca's Forno
1576 N. Milwaukee | 773-770-0184

F 7.1 | S 7.1 | A 7.1 | $ (7 reports)
LUNCH: MONDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS; SATURDAY & SUNDAY BRUNCH | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL MIDNIGHT, OTHER NIGHTS TILL 11

In a departure from the Francesca chain's reliable if conservative fare, Francesca's Forno offers a seasonal menu of small plates that cost less than $10 and cover virtually the entire Italian culinary landscape: Sicilian tuna, Calabrese-style potatoes, a northern Italian asparagus gratinati. The flavors in an antipasto of roasted beets with Gorgonzola and a scattering of crushed hazelnuts worked beautifully; sausage-style salami and sheep's milk cheese were also excellent. Unable to forgo a large plate, we tried a grilled swordfish special with roasted artichokes and a balsamic reduction. Though a bit dry, the fish was a nice example of the kind of thing Francesca's can do so well -- simple and delicious peasant food. Like all its sister restaurants, this one, in the former Soul Kitchen space, really packs `em in. Chip Dudley

Franco's Ristorante
300 W. 31st | 312-225-9566

$$
LUNCH: TUESDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY

This neighborhood spot within shouting distance of Sox Park serves some interesting renditions of old standards. Minestrone was pumped up with bacon and sausage, and mushroom soup was flavored with fennel. Baked clams had good garlicky flavor under all that breading; tasty grilled octopus was fresh and served on mesclun. Gnocchi were some of the finest I've had in memory: extraordinarily light, not a bit gluey, and served in a marinara that sparkled with freshly snipped basil. Penne, softly turned in a sauce of spicy, mustardy pesto with capers and chunks of prosciutto, was almost as hard to pull away from. Parmesan-latticed slices of lightly herbed veal were sprinkled with the ubiquitous fresh basil and laid over a moist pillow of rapini. The herb-roasted pork chop, served with velvety roasted potatoes, was also nicely done if slightly dry -- that's the problem with an inch-and-a-half-thick slab of meat. On the dessert menu there's tiramisu along with a number of ice creams, though after a meal this rich not many would be in a position to indulge. David Hammond

Gioco
1312 S. Wabash | 312-939-3870

F 8.2 | S 7.2 | A 8.1 | $$$$ (17 reports)
LUNCH: MONDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS; SUNDAY BRUNCH | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL MIDNIGHT, THURSDAY TILL 11

This rustic Italian restaurant from the owners of March and Red Light sits on a gentrified stretch of South Wabash. The room is chic in a weathered way, with exposed brick, high ceilings, velvet curtains, large flower arrangements, and an enormous open kitchen. The menu offers several vegetarian options, including potato ravioli with an arugula pesto, beet carpaccio with frisee and truffle oil, and fried eggplant with buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes. There's also plenty of meat (grilled lamb chops, a 40-ounce porterhouse for two) and seafood (scallops with fava beans); side dishes like roasted brussels sprouts, sauteed rapini, and grilled asparagus can be ordered a la carte. Laura Levy Shatkin

Gruppo di Amici
1508 W. Jarvis | 773-508-5565

$$
DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | OPEN LATE: TUESDAY-SATURDAY TILL MIDNIGHT

The menu at Gruppo di Amici is rather daring in its spareness: no scads of pasta dishes here. To begin there are antipasti and insalata -- panzanella, grilled mixed vegetables, mussels, arancini (stuffed rice balls), a caprese. We tried the marinated baby octopus with capers, kalamata olives, and lots of diced celery, then shared mixed greens dotted with high-quality provolone; it was plenty for two. Entrees include lasagne, meatballs, a lamb shank in white-wine sauce, and a Cornish hen baked in the wood-burning Italian oven -- as at so many places these days that's where the real action is meant to be. We went with the Capricciosa pizza: mushrooms, prosciutto, artichoke, hard-boiled eggs, and olives with fresh mozzarella. Quite chewy, it was styled so rustically that we wound up bartering the inequitably distributed ingredients ("Trade you the artichoke for a hard-boiled egg and a bit more prosciutto"). The nicely chosen wine list offers a refreshing prosecco and some affordable South American pours alongside those from Italy, and outdoor seating is pleasant in warm weather. Kate Schmidt

Il Mulino
1150 N. Dearborn | 312-440-8888

$$$$$
LUNCH: MONDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS

Every time a new clone of this Old New York establishment opens, a Darwinian struggle for reservations commences among the species of diner that loves throwing down outrageous amounts of money to make the scene. Granted, for those who prevail there's a lot of free stuff: thin fried zucchini, house-cured salume, mussels and bruschetta, several kinds of garlic bread, and a server whose sole purpose seems to be to haul around a giant wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. And yes, portions are huge. Steak cartoccio, from an epic list of specials, was a formidable brick of cow smothered in sauteed mushrooms and guarded by a circular battlement of fried potatoes. I ate it, but the question remained: what possible justification is there for this $60 steak? I can only guess that the majority of food ordered at Il Mulino is taken home and eaten over a week of lunches, or perhaps presented to the servants in lieu of wages. For dessert we went for fresh mixed berries with zabaglione, impressively prepared by a waiter who whipped the eggs, marsala, and sugar over a burner at the table, then poured it over two glasses filled with about a third of a cup of berries. Nice -- until the check came. Those berries cost $15 per glass; the zabaglione show was an extra $22. Then again, the production values are part of what you're paying for all night, the whole shebang soundtracked by Andrea Bocelli, Carmela Soprano's favorite popera singer. Mike Sula

Leonardo's Ristorante
5657 N. Clark | 773-561-5028

F 8.4 | S 7.1 | A 8.0 | $$ (9 reports)
DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11

This stylish restaurant in north Andersonville offers a contemporary Tuscan menu. Starters include delicately battered and fried calamari, an antipasto plate with capicola, soprassata, goat cheese, huge capers, and roasted vegetables, plus a carpaccio of veal, beef, and tuna. The pasta dishes are skillfully -- sometimes painstakingly -- executed. The veal osso buco ravioli, for instance, involves stuffing delicate homemade pasta with veal shank, bone marrow, and goat cheese, then pouring a veal demi-glace over it all. "That dish takes 18 hours to prepare, start to finish," says general manager Nicholas Lavorato. The tortelloni, stuffed with ricotta and served with a garlic cream sauce, is rich and satisfying. Meat dishes include a bone-in pork chop stuffed with Italian sausage and Gorgonzola and served over truffled polenta with a mushroom ragout and asparagus; there are also steak, veal, and fish options. For dessert there are homemade gelato and tiramisu. Laura Levy Shatkin

Merlo Ristorante
2638 N. Lincoln | 773-529-0747

F 7.2 | S 7.1 | A 7.5 | $$$ (13 reports)
ITALIAN | DINNER: SEVEN DAYS

This subdued Bolognese dining room is run by the Sassi family -- Giampaolo Sassi manages the house while his wife, Silvia Marani, creates the menu. They abide by slow food principles, supporting artisanal producers and using mostly seasonal products. Preparations are straightforward. A starter of tarta di carciofi is a flaky pastry filled with artichoke, mortadella, and Parmesan. The pasta is all homemade, including the green spinach noodles used in the classic lasagne verdi alla Bolognese. There's also tagliatelle al ragu Bolognese and a wonderfully earthy tortelloni with porcinis. A broad array of Italian wines complement the dishes. Marani's desserts are worth the calories: her panna cotta drizzled with homemade caramel is top-notch. A new enoteca in the front of the restaurant offers small plates; the restaurant in back remains unchanged. Laura Levy Shatkin

Osteria Via Stato
620 N. State | 312-642-8450

F 7.9 | S 8.0 | A 8.1 | $$ (15 reports)
LUNCH: MONDAY-SATURDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11

The courses at Osteria Via Stato progress in the Italian tradition: from family-style antipasti and pasta to a small selection of entrees and side dishes to an optional cheese course. Ordering is simple: there's a fixed-price menu at $36; diners make only one choice, from a selection of six to ten entrees, and then the cavalcade of courses begins, with appetizers and sides changing nightly. (There's also an a la carte menu.) One night the antipasti included chilled house-cured salmon with radishes, drizzled with fruity olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper; paper-thin roasted fennel topped with melted Parmigiano Reggiano and butter; and a simple but delicious plate of salumi with olives. The first course changes frequently too -- on one visit we got a toothsome pappardelle with a hearty tomato-based duck ragu; another time it was orecchiette with braised bitter greens. On a given evening entrees might include a wonderfully tender four-ounce veal tenderloin or a flaky monkfish osso buco. The well-conceived wine list offers Italian samplers priced at $15, $28, or $50 for three four-ounce glasses. On Friday and Saturday nights the wine bar serves snacks and light meals until midnight. Laura Levy Shatkin

Pizza D.O.C.
2251 W. Lawrence | 773-784-8777

F 7.6 | S 6.9 | A 6.6 | $$ (36 reports)
LUNCH: SATURDAY-SUNDAY; DINNER: SEVEN DAYS

Cesare D'Ortenzi (La Bocca Della Verita) and Lucia Mazzocchetti named their restaurant after the stamp of approval given to Italian wine, cheese, and other culinary products of verifiably high quality, and they hold their own food to the same exacting standards. Pizza crusts are rolled thin with a dowel and topped with combinations of tomato, mozzarella, artichoke, porcini, and even ham and egg, then cooked in a wood-burning oven. For heartier appetites there's a variety of pasta dishes (the gnocchiti al formaggi incorporates mascarpone, Parmesan, and blue cheese), a porcini risotto, and specials that might include Cornish hen or osso buco alla Milanese. Tasteful black-and-white photos of Roman ruins hang on the walls, and a few large feathery plants soften things up. This place blows away the majority of Italian-American restaurants that call themselves authentic. Laura Levy Shatkin

Pizza Rustica
3913 N. Sheridan | 773-404-8955

F 8.0 | S 8.4 | A 6.7 | $ (11 reports)
LUNCH, DINNER: SUNDAY, MONDAY, WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY| CLOSED TUESDAY | OPEN LATE: FRIDAY & SATURDAY TILL 11 | BYO

Every Italian restaurant likes to think that its food is the real thing. Pizza Rustica's just may be. The caprese salad, for instance, is the kind of dish you see everywhere, but rarely does it taste as good as these huge slices of tomato and light, creamy fresh mozzarella finished with a misting of good olive oil. The minestrone, too, seemed made to order, with al dente vegetables in a finely spiced tomato broth. For entrees we ordered half a pizza and a linguine dish, both of which were more than excellent. The pizza is thin crust -- light, crispy, and golden brown, almost like a slightly soft cracker. The toppings -- thinly sliced potatoes, fresh rosemary, olive oil, and cheese -- decorated the surface of the crust without compromising its integrity. The pasta was al dente and tossed with a conservative ladle of tomato cream sauce with none of the cloying sweetness or overspicing that ruins similar dishes. Desserts were great too: the panna cotta, with flecks of vanilla bean and a drizzle of caramel sauce, was subtle, milky, and barely sweet. Pizza Rustica is absurdly cheap: most of the pasta dishes cost around $8, half a pizza costs about $10, and dessert was $3.50. Chip Dudley

Riccardo Trattoria
2119 N. Clark | 773-549-0038

$$
DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY

I can't recommend a better introduction to innards than chef Riccardo Michi's tripe Florentine, thin clouds of silky veal honeycomb extraordinary on his rosemary-flecked focaccia (say per favore and you can get the dish in an appetizer portion). We ordered a daily risotto of asparagus, and when we asked for some added scallops the chef complied with two thick, perfectly grilled divers along with a bunch of bays buried in the luxuriant rice. House-made veal-stuffed ravioli was served with a tomato cream sauce studded with earthy mushrooms; mushrooms also complement the signature veal meat loaf and savory short ribs with polenta. As a side you might try some spinach or rapini with garlic, and to end your meal continental style there are some gorgeous salads: we had diced beets on endive with a mustard vinaigrette. As for sweet stuff, panna cotta ringed with passion fruit coulis was lush and creamy to the tenth power, and tangerine sorbet twanged with tart fruitiness. Wines by the glass are limited (two whites, three reds), but there are some decent-looking midprice bottles, which might be the way to go. David Hammond

Ristorante Agostino
2817 N. Harlem | 773-745-6464

$$$
DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY

At an Italian festival a few months ago I asked several old-school Italian gentlemen about their favorite restaurants, and they each gave a thumbs-up to Ristorante Agostino, a neighborhood favorite for more than 20 years. An appetizer special of porchetta was two sumptuous slices of slow-roasted, fork-tender suckling pig, served cold and delicately flavored with fresh rosemary. We also had a serving of thinly sliced eggplant, wrapped around a blend of three cheeses and veal and gently blanketed with a light, flavorful tomato sauce that popped with onion and basil. The vitello Agostino -- generous slices of milk-fed calf, lightly floured and panfried and served in a tomato-mushroom sauce with fresh artichokes -- is the best veal dish I believe I've ever had. The Agostino family is Calabrese, so it's not surprising that they offer an extensive seafood selection. Grigliata mista di pesce is a mixed platter of grilled octopus, shrimp, calamari, and cuttlefish, the last a surprising and pleasant addition. A side of rapini was done up simply with a few red chiles, a perfectly spicy and slightly bitter counterpoint to the rich entrees. After dinner we received a platter of fresh melon, peaches, plums, and apple, along with a large slice of homemade tiramisu, an excellent rendition. You could come here often, eat something different every time, and be very happy. David Hammond

Terragusto Cafe & Local Market
1851 W. Addison | 773-248-2777

F 8.6 | S 8.0 | A 6.4 | $$$ (5 reports)
DINNER: SUNDAY, WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY, TUESDAY | BYO

Terragusto is a casual neighborhood cafe that happens to serve house-made pasta as good as -- what the hell -- any in Chicago. Owner and chef Theo Gilbert, who's worked at Spiaggia and Trattoria No. 10 and hawked his pasta at the Green City Market, works off a tiny but pristine menu: a handful of antipasti, a half-dozen fresh pastas, and family-style plates of meat and fish, all seared and roasted. The bywords are local, organic, and seasonal -- at the front market counter, alongside the fresh pasta, there are multihued local eggs for sale. A deboned half chicken was glisteningly moist, and if I could I'd order the deeply flavored accompanying spinach as an entree. Baked polenta with sausage and rapini was texturally perfect, simultaneously yielding and firm, with a transcendently simple stock-butter-cheese sauce. If the thin Swiss chard pasta with Bolognese sauce was underwhelming, the Bolognese missing the fatty sensuality of the best versions, that's in part because the cinnamon-dotted squash ravioli were good enough to silence the loudest conversation. Nicholas Day

Tufano's Vernon Park Tap
1073 W. Vernon Park | 312-733-3393

$
LUNCH: TUESDAY-FRIDAY; DINNER: SUNDAY, TUESDAY-SATURDAY | CLOSED MONDAY | OPEN LATE: SATURDAY TILL 11 | RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED FOR LARGE GROUPS ONLY | CASH ONLY

Serving the neighborhood since 1930, this bright and bustling landmark is one of the last morsels of the original Little Italy that UIC hasn't swallowed, spitting up a parking lot in its place. Many of the cliches of Italian-American red sauce joints are in evidence -- autographed celeb head shots, wine in water glasses -- but long-standing customer loyalties give the place a genuine feeling that the weary meatballerias on Taylor Street can't muster. Meals and wine can be ordered family style off blackboards on the walls, and though it'll never be mistaken for a Roman trattoria, if you prefer to pretend, a mound of lightly fried calamari makes a sapid antipasti, and huge pasta plates can be halved to accommodate meatier secondi like crispy lemon chicken, roasted and buried in a mountain of fried potatoes. The place can pack them in on busy nights, but warhorse waitresses keep them moving, and if you break the ice at the bar it can be one of the more convivial places around to wait for a table. Mike Sula

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