By David Nelson
SDUN Restaurant Critic

When there’s an Italian in the kitchen, plan on spending a couple of hours at the table – and loving every minute.

At Charisma, one of several recently opened restaurants in Hillcrest, Dario Dentamaro rules the kitchen and cooks Italian fare the way he learned back home on the boot, where you won’t find spaghetti and meatballs but will encounter specialties like spaghetti neri ai frutti di mare ($15.50). The pasta, dyed ebony through the murky magic of squid ink, is tossed with an assortment of shellfish simmered in a light but generously seasoned tomato broth, and the simple but bright flavors are extremely satisfying.

The accents are thick throughout Charisma, a tiny cube of an eatery that extends to a few sidewalk tables that share the energy of the neighboring Fiesta Cantina (never a dull moment) while enjoying Dentamaro’s superior cooking. Proprietor Gaetano Miranda sometimes is on hand to supervise the proceedings, while his son, Marco, and nephew Gennaro Miranda serve the tables with confidence and good humor. The family has considerable restaurant experience in New York, where Gennaro’s parents own two restaurants, including the highly regarded Il Corso a few yards from Fifth Avenue in a choice Midtown Manhattan location. Dentamaro is not related to any of the Mirandas by blood, but otherwise is part of the family.

The menu is big for the place, and runs the Italian gamut of antipasti, salads, pastas and “secondi,” as entrees are known in a culture that expects multi-course meals on a daily basis. Servings are generous and most diners won’t want three courses, but a way to maximize the pleasures is to share a starter, pasta and entrée with a fellow guest. This results in a nicely sized, deliciously varied meal, and works out cost-wise, as well.

Like the French, the Italians are adept at distilling exquisite flavors from every kind of ingredient, but they do so with a simplicity that boggles the minds of those whose first kitchen experiences consisted of following the precise but lengthy instructions in Julia Child’s cookbooks. Dentamaro prepares several specials daily, usually including a risotto and perhaps a fish of the day, as well as a pasta or two. If Marco or Gennaro tells you that fusilli with a pasato of tomatoes, some fresh basil and a scoop of ricotta is on that night’s list, say, “Yes, please” and kill the short wait by indulging in light conversation with a partner who likely will be just as eager to taste this exceptional dish.

Why exceptional? Because it’s absurdly easy to make, and yet so delicious you can work your way through a big serving with no effort at all. In Italian, “pasato” means “passed,” which signifies having been put through a strainer. Thus the pasta simply is tossed with a hot mixture of strained tomatoes and torn basil, into which a little ricotta is stirred to enrich the texture and flavor. A drizzle of olive oil finishes the presentation. Nothing could be simpler – or tastier. Gennaro suggests avoiding Parmesan cheese with this one, and his advice is sound.

The meal opens with a dish of warm lentils soaked in a blend of garlic, rosemary and olive oil. It makes an unusual bruschetta, or topping, for the accompanying basket of Italian bread. The menu also lists bruschetta of grilled ciabatta bread topped with the familiar blend of chopped fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic and oil ($6). Another starter that shares quite well is the tagliere. This rectangular platter presents high-quality cured meats (prosciutto, wonderfully flavorful mortadella, thickly sliced salami), slices of Gorgonzola and Brie, meaty olives, and marinated grilled rounds of eggplant and zucchini topped with Parmesan shavings ($11). Real Parma prosciutto, sweet, tender and sliced just so, also appears arranged over juicy fresh cantaloupe and is a bit extravagant at $11.50 but worth every penny. The antipasti are just lovely and so Italian, including house-cured sardines with fire-roasted peppers ($9) and a piled-high fritto misto (“mixed fry”) that includes not merely flour-coated baby squid, shrimp, zucchini, eggplant and artichoke hearts, but lemon wedges and dates, too ($10). You can search for this same dish throughout San Diego, but you won’t find it anywhere but Charisma.

Polenta croutons work a subtle change on the otherwise typical, well-made Caesar salad ($6), which kicks off a list of greenery that extends wild arugula tumbled with strawberries, goat cheese, pine nuts and truffle oil (different and interesting: $8), and a luxurious caprese of burrata cheese (the creamy heart of fresh mozzarella) with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes and a sprightly pesto dressing ($11).

Dentamaro hand-stirs risotto nightly, and occasionally makes a simple saffron-scented rice dish, perhaps garnished with shrimp and flavored with grated Parmesan. Besides the night’s pasta, there is a good, long list highlighted by items like the unusually-shaped trofie with pesto, red pepper and pine nuts ($11.50), ridged fusilli pasta with assorted vegetables and a fresh tomato sauce ($11.50), and the paccheri Charisma, in which enormous pasta tubes (the word translates as “packages”; $12.50) are tossed with crumbled sausage, tiny peas, minced forest mushrooms and a light cream sauce. This is wonderful, as is the bucatini (a hollow spaghetti, quite toothsome in texture; $12) finished amatriciana-style with long-cooked minced onions, diced pancetta bacon and tomato sauce. The lasagna emiliana ($14), layered with sauce Bolognese and creamy salsa besciamella, is as rich and satisfying as any lasagna hound could desire.

There’s a lengthy entrée list, too, with familiar features like well-made veal scaloppini with a choice of lemon or mushroom-Marsala sauces ($16), and chicken breasts cooked alla cacciatore and parmigiana ($15). A touch more exotic are the stinco d’agnello ($23), a braised lamb shank served with goat cheese-enriched polenta, and a grilled rib-eye steak with wild arugula salad and roasted cherry tomatoes ($26). Here, the seared ahi is crusted in fennel seeds and served with gnocchi in a tangy sauce ($23). If Dentamaro bakes an apple-apricot tart that evening, by all means plan on finishing a fine Italian meal on the sweetest of notes.

Charisma
142 University Ave., Hillcrest
209-3636
www.charismacucinaitaliana.com