“Seeing more restaurants making more
BOLOGNESE Housemade
pappardelle, beef and
pancetta Bolognese
dishes from scratch is a great thing.”
of seasonal, creative plates of pasta. The cooks dish out the food
themselves, which lets diners put a face to the kitchen creatives
who craft their favorite foods. Try the supple orecchiette with
savory short ribs and broccolini in a creamy, lemony broth, or the
tender tagliatelle tossed with cheese and morsels of ocean-flavor
uni and crab. Other stars include rib-sticking Berkshire pork and
spicy Calabrian peppers with smoked mozzarella on pepper rigatoni
and a perfectly simple spaghetti in red sauce that’s anything
but in your mouth. The aesthetic is clean industrial chic, and
folks are already swarming into this spot, so expect to wait in line
to order. Salads and soups are also available, and the portions are
small. 14560 Big Basin Way, Saratoga; www.pastaarmellino.com
90 South Bay Accent
Centonove
PAPPARDELLE
NADIV GEIGER
• Vina Enoteca
Featuring gorgeous, spacious decor with a soaring ceiling and
wonderful courtyard and patio inside the venerable Stanford
Barn, Vina Enoteca offers divine Italian dishes and luscious
pasta. The spinach tagliatelle’s Bolognese (a measure of a serious
kitchen) is a world-class meat ragu, while the rabbit-filled agnolotti
with wine, castleventrano olives and sun-dried tomatoes will
stop conversation. Not content with ordinary pasta and clams, the
restaurant uses wonderfully sweet Salish blue clams cooked with
wine and garlic and tosses them with tender squid ink spaghetti.
Large tube pasta called paccheri holds abundant amounts of the
accompanying tomato sauce with white anchovies, fennel and
