By Frank Sabatini Jr. | SDUN Food Critic
Paesano in North Park was around before man walked on the moon. Founded in 1967 by an Italian couple from Ponza Island off the coast of Naples, the kitchen is an icon to its time, run largely now by son, Joe Romano.
“My father still comes in to eat a couple nights a week, and most of the recipes are his,” Romano says while pointing to a dated color photograph of his parents that bows to the restaurant’s late-60s, early-70s décor.
Booths and tables run deep throughout the clean layout, which features a semi-open kitchen in the front and a room for large parties in the back. A sidewall of windows draws sufficient natural light while that intoxicating smell of an Italian grandmother’s kitchen permeates throughout.
What’s cooking escapes the modern permutations of Italian cuisine. The food is instead casual; sticking to saucy Neapolitan dishes like a comforting appetizer of baked bell peppers stuffed with rice and sausage or lightly battered eggplant with copious mozzarella that exceeds in richness its parmesan-style cousin (though listed as such). The eggplant is served in full or half-size entrées and sliced just thick enough as to not become upstaged by the other components.
From the specials list, which changes every month or so, we started out with a cucumber salad mingling juicy tomatoes, red onions and basil. Dressed simply in balsamic vinaigrette, it’s a refreshing end-of-summer medley that cleans the palate before you start sucking up the red sauce.
Both the marinara and meat sauces balance acidity with sweetness. The marinara was particularly bright as it energized a half-order of cheese ravioli that would have otherwise tasted humdrum. For the other half of my meal, I chose penne pasta with house-made Alfredo. The silky sauce is made with Gorgonzola, a departure from the standard parmesan-Romano recipes. This version is mellower, however, with cream grabbing the spotlight over the anticipated sharpness of the cheese.
My companion also took advantage of the menu’s half-n-half options, choosing the aforementioned eggplant coupled with an impressive portion of meat lasagna draped in meat sauce. The ricotta filling revealed polite hints of basil and the mozzarella was applied generously. With even more food on its way, including a pizza, I could take only one bite.
A meatball and link sausage that we ordered ala Carte was overkill, but I can’t pass through these cherished mom-and-pop Italian joints without trying both. The meatball carried all the goodness of those I remember from my grandmother’s Sunday pasta dinners, except that it sported a slightly coarser grind of beef. The sausage link boasted discernible notes of fennel, just the way I like it, although the casing was a little chewy for my taste.
The pizza possibilities are vast. Options extend to provolone and ricotta cheeses, Canadian bacon, zucchini, chicken breast, artichokes and more. We kept it simple with pepperoni and onions. Needless to say, what didn’t get eaten at the table got devoured the ollowing day, sans the effervescent Peroni beer I kept parked alongside during our dinner. What I especially liked about the pie were the toasted pockmarks on the mozzarella cheese, a tasty indication that the cheese is made from whole milk and that the pizza is baked at an appropriate high heat.
Eating way beyond stomach capacity, we skipped dessert – tiramisu, cannoli and New York cheesecake, all outsourced from local bakers. Hard-to-find spumoni ice cream is also on the list – and it’s at the top of mine for a subsequent visit.
