Pasta D'Arte [Pictures]

LTH,

Based on BR's Pasta D'Arte post in the House-made Italian Pastas in Chicago thread my wife and I went for dinner Monday night. Everything was pretty much as BR laid out, friendly service, warm crusty bread, tasty giardiniera, of the no heat vinegar type, and quite good house-made gnocchi.

Pasta D'Arte Giardiniera


We got off to a fast start with what proved to be the best dish of the meal, grilled calamari. Tender, with grill marks offering nicely caramelized contrast, the legs achieving a light level of char which I loved.

Grilled Calamari


Margherita pizza has potential, though it was over cheesed for my taste. The crust was a typical, though good rendition, of Chicago style thin crust, nothing to give Spacca Napoli pause.

Margherita Pizza


Entrees come with soup, Ellen's enjoyed her chicken tomato barley, I liked my salad, which contained sliced radish, but thought the $2 salad instead of soup upcharge a bit stiff.

Rigatoni Bolognese was, especially for $10.95, fine, pasta perfectly done, topped with freshly shaved Grana Padano Parmigiano, though the meat sauce lacked a certain depth of flavor I associate with Bolognese.

Rigatoni Bolognese


Gnocchi Della Mamma, a daily special, was a study in contrasts. Really terrific gnocchi, pillow soft, yet offering a hint of toothsomeness, but the small, flavorless shrimp and mushy "spring peas" detracted. Ellen thought the peas might be canned. Personally, I'd love the gnocchi crisped up in a pan served with a simple brown butter, maybe a bit of fresh sage.

Gnocchi Della Mamma


Dessert was fine, though nothing to get excited about. Warm chocolate souffle turned out to be heated outsourced chocolate bomb with a couple of scoops of ok pistachio gelato.

Chocolate Souffle


Overall we really liked Pasta D'Arte, comfortable, friendly well priced, family run restaurant, which happens to be but a scant distance from another family run favorite of mine, SuperDawg. Thanks for the heads up BR, much appreciated.

Enjoy,
Gary

Trattoria Pasta D'Arte
6311 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago
773.763.1181
www.pastadarte.com

G Wiv wrote:We got off to a fast start with what proved to be the best dish of the meal, grilled calamari.

I have been to Pasta D'Arte once, a couple years ago, and my only memory of the meal was the fantastic grilled mixed seafood plate that we started with. Mainly consisting of squid and octopus, it was tender and fresh and had great flavor from the grill.

Two independent eaters rating Pasta D'Arte's seafood the highlight of the meal: I detect a pattern forming.

Best,
Michael

Thanks for the great pictures. The giardiniera looks just as I remember it. The calamari really looks fantastic -- perfectly grilled and a very simple preparation.

When we went, we were also slightly underwhelmed by the desserts. The cannoli was ok, but I've had better fillings. Spumoni was subpar. But I thought that the caramel gelato was very good.

Gary,

Back in April, in the context of musing over the rather peculiar hybrid pizza style I encountered at the restaurant Mangia in Kenosha (link), I wrote the following:

«And that sets me to thinking that maybe most aspects of un-Italian Italian restaurant food in America (discounting, of course, the fodder produced by the major corporate chains or similar stuff produced by non-chain eateries with unskilled labour and bad ingredients), such as the pizza crust at Mangia’s, are not simply or necessarily to be blamed on owners and cooks who don’t know better or can’t get it right, but rather on an important segment of the audience that, from a certain perspective, doesn’t know better and doesn’t like it gotten right. This is not a novel observation, by any means, and I suspect I’ve already expressed roughly the same idea elsewhere on this forum some time back in Year One, but the truth is that in critiquing restaurants we tend to focus on the establishment and the chef but it does well to remember that there is a dialogue through which performer and audience gradually come to define one another.»

I immediately thought back to that statement when I read your comment on the "Bolognese" at Pasta d'Arte.

G Wiv wrote:Rigatoni Bolognese was, especially for $10.95, fine, pasta perfectly done, topped with freshly shaved Grana Padano Parmigiano, though the meat sauce lacked a certain depth of flavor I associate with Bolognese.

You know what ragù alla bolognese is and what you were served wasn't really that -- which, as you correctly and fairly observe doesn't necessarily mean that the plate presented under that name was not in and of itself a tasty plate of pasta. Anyway, this sort of mismatch of name and dish in a restaurant always leaves me wondering whether the folks who run the place don't know the difference or whether they do but have decided to indulge general American expectations born of ignorance and produce something that won't challenge the minds or palates of the general clientele.

The un-bolognese character -- oversaucing aside -- of Pasta d'Arte's meat-sauce can be readily seen.

G Wiv wrote:Rigatoni Bolognese

From my second long post on ragù alla bolognese:
«Ragù alla bolognese is not a tomato sauce with meat; it is a meat sauce flavoured with small amounts of several vegetables, one of which is tomato.»

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=46539#46539

One should note too that making a simple tomato sauce with meat is a lot easier and cheaper to do than making a real ragù alla bolognese.

In any event, it sounds as though the food was pretty tasty and I must say that the grilled calamari look awfully good.

Bon pro',
Antonius

Actually that tomato sauce with hamburger in it looks exactly like a dish my mom used to make when I was a kid, except they didn't use elbow macaroni. And you know what time-honored European name she gave to it? Not bolognese...

Goulash.

I still feel like something's off when I order goulash and get chunks of meat in a paprika gravy, rather than something much more like this. (Which proves Mom wasn't the only one using the name that way, incidentally.)

Mike G wrote:Actually that tomato sauce with hamburger in it looks exactly like a dish my mom used to make when I was a kid, except they didn't use elbow macaroni. And you know what time-honored European name she gave to it? Not bolognese...

Goulash.

My Grandma makes this, and she puts canned green beans and corn in hers. I didn't know what the real stuff was until I went to the German fest at Daley plaza last year.

Mike G wrote: (Which proves Mom wasn't the only one using the name that way, incidentally.)

As I recall, school cafeterias also called this dish "goulash".

I'll say it. If those photos do this place any justice (and Gary's lens usually flatters), count me out.

bnowell724 wrote:My Grandma makes this, and she puts canned green beans and corn in hers. I didn't know what the real stuff was until I went to the German fest at Daley plaza last year.

My mom used La Choy canned noodles and called it chop suey.

LAZ wrote:

bnowell724 wrote:My Grandma makes this, and she puts canned green beans and corn in hers. I didn't know what the real stuff was until I went to the German fest at Daley plaza last year.

My mom used La Choy canned noodles and called it chop suey.

I know this probably belongs in the cooking area, but I did a search on Cooks.com for "hamburger goulash". It came up with 174 recipes. Many versions have cheese melted on them. Some are made with rice. Some are made with spaghetti. Some are just bizarre.

One of my favorites is the simplest. It consists of hamburger, a can of baked beans and a can of cream corn heated in a skillet until warm and served on bread, mmmmmmmmmm. I like recipes that require no seasoning. One of the "Mexican" goulash recipes (there are several) calls for cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup and a crushed bag of Doritos. Now I know what to do with the smashed chips at the bottom of the bags. I will save them for "mexican goulash".

Hamburger Goulash search

The discussion of the American hamburger-hilfer dishes is interesting but I would just like to point out that my observation concerning the 'bolognese' was that it is pretty clearly not ragù alla bolognese, at least not in any traditional sense. Whether the meat sauce from Pasta d'Arte pictured above was good or not I don't know -- all Gary says is that "it lacked depth", which is criticism but also specifically criticism relative to his(/my) expectations for the famous dish from Bologna.

Tomato sauces that include ground meat can be good, if the ingredients are good and the technique used is correct, but the sort of meat sauces with ground meat that are typically served in the States and thought of as being Italian are neither very Italian nor very good, at least in my experience. But I have had some nice preparations of that general ilk -- i.e. tomato and finely chopped meat -- in Italy and make them myself now and again. I may have posted on such a thing somewhere...

Antonius

Antonius wrote:The discussion of the American hamburger-hilfer dishes is interesting but I would just like to point out that my observation concerning the 'bolognese' was that it is pretty clearly not ragù alla bolognese, at least not in any traditional sense.

Sorry, I didn't mean to lead us any further off topic. Getting back to the dish in question, I have a friend who's nana is from Naples. She makes a sauce that very closely resembles the one pictured. That picture could have been taken at one of their family dinners. Her sauce is an orange color like that with no garlic or oregano or wine or any of the other ingredients I associate with meat sauce. I was told that is pretty typical of Naples. In fact, I attended some events with the family at the Sons of Napoli hall in Rockford and found the pasta sauce to be identical to nana Josephine's.

d4v3 wrote:Sorry, I didn't mean to lead us any further off topic...

No, no problem. I just wanted to make it clear that, while I was struck by the obvious non-bolognese character of the sauce bearing the name at Pasta d'Arte, I can't judge how well made or tasty it was from the picture.

Getting back to the dish in question, I have a friend who's nana is from Naples. She makes a sauce that very closely resembles the one pictured. That picture could have been taken at one of their family dinners. Her sauce is an orange color like that with no garlic or oregano or wine or any of the other ingredients I associate with meat sauce. I was told that is pretty typical of Naples. In fact, I attended some events with the family at the Sons of Napoli hall in Rockford and found the pasta sauce to be identical to nana Josephine's.

In my experience, garlic wouldn't be strange but it can be and often is not used in favour of onion. Oregano is not used widely in the making of tomato sauces in Naples or elsewhere in Italy, though it is an essential ingredient in a few specific and popular dishes with tomato. And, of course, meat sauce with beef in it is not something that's made very often in Campania. Is the sauce of your friend's grandmother made with beef or pork or a mixture with some pork? Pork fat lends an orange hue to tomato sauces more than beef and is far more widely used in Southern Italian cooking than beef (and the Pasta d'Arte looks more red than orange to me, though the lighting in the photo may be a factor too).

Are there lots of Neapolitans in Rockford?

Antonius

The discussion of the American hamburger-hilfer dishes is interesting but I would just like to point out that my observation concerning the 'bolognese' was that it is pretty clearly not ragù alla bolognese, at least not in any traditional sense.

Yeah, that was my point in calling it "tomato sauce with hamburger in it," that what they're calling bolognese clearly doesn't look to have involved the additional ingredients or the hours of simmering one associates with the dish (and which are doubtless the source of its "depth of flavor"), and is just hamburger quickly stewed in tomato sauce-- which ironically I grew up calling by a different, equally inapt, foreign name.

(I make the one in Saveur Cooks Italian, which includes prosciutto and chicken liver among the meats, and probably four hours elapsed time start to finish, and remarkably, no cans of Campbell's tomato soup at all. But I do not doubt that there are as many variations as Gimbel's got undergarments.)

Yeah, that was my point in calling it "tomato sauce with hamburger in it," that what they're calling bolognese clearly doesn't look to have involved the additional ingredients or the hours of simmering one associates with the dish (and which are doubtless the source of its "depth of flavor"), and is just hamburger quickly stewed in tomato sauce-- which ironically I grew up calling by a different, equally inapt, foreign name.

Well, that's not what I meant. I meant it's not ragù alla bolognese. Perhaps it is hamburger stewed in tomato sauce all' Americana but maybe it's a little more artfully made, like the nice simple sughi that lots of Italians -- this writer included -- make with minced veal or pork and white wine. I wouldn't use so much tomato as they did in the dish from Pasta d'Arte, whatever it may be, but not having eaten the dish, I'm not sure whether it's Hamburger-Hilfer Italiano or sughetto di carne tritata al vino bianco. I assumed it was something a bit above the former in light of the absence of strong criticism on the part of the original poster.

Antonius

I would be the wrong person to ask if you wanted to know whether the food served at D'Arte is authentic Italian or not. All that I can recall from my very brief travel through Italy was that I enjoyed amazing food -- including the gelato in Florence, and even simple sandwiches from gas stations along the Autostrada. And while I've enjoyed many Italian restaurants in Chicago, I just don't know if what I'm eating is truly Italian, Italian-American, or something altogether different. But I will say that I thought the food at D'Arte was pretty solid in comparison to other Italian restaurants that I have eaten at in Chicago (and better than Il Mulino in NY, although that's not saying much), and the service was very efficient and friendly.

The italicized portion below is my original review from the "House-made Italian Pastas in Chicago" thread:


I had some particularly good house-made pastas for a friend's birthday the other night at Trattoria Pasta D'Arte in Jefferson Park. The most memorable of the pastas I tried were

1) cavatelli served with a very nicely flavored Italian Sausage, rosemary, garlic and tomatoes;

2) gnocchi served in a Gorgonzola and walnut sauce (personally I would have preferred a little more Gorgonzola, but the toasted walnuts really made the dish); and finally,

3) rotolo, which is pasta rolled with vegetables and ricotta and served in a tomato vodka sauce.

Appetizers of polenta (with Italian sausage, porcini mushrooms, onion and red wine) and artichokes with prosciutto and Parmesan were also very good.

They start you off with some very good and very hot, crusty bread, served with a bowl of a house-made giardiniera. The giardiniera was not really spicy, but still had a great flavor and was a perfect accompaniment to the bread.

Service was excellent -- very friendly. Judging by the packed house on Thursday, I'm guessing others are equally impressed. The pastas are $10-15, but pretty good sized . . . and come with a bowl of soup.

Trattoria Pasta D'Arte
6311 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago
773.763.1181
www.pastadarte.com

Antonius wrote:You know what ragù alla bolognese is and what you were served wasn't really that -- which, as you correctly and fairly observe doesn't necessarily mean that the plate presented under that name was not in and of itself a tasty plate of pasta.

Antonius,

I almost titled my Pasta D'Arte post [Italian Purists Need Not Read], similar to my Romano's Pizza post. Seems I should have.

Pasta D'Arte is a nice little neighborhood Italian/American restaurant on the far Northwest side of Chicago, whether they know strict doctrine on various preparations, I have no way of knowing, but I'm guessing not one out of one hundred, if that, of the happy patrons who cross their threshold are able to differentiate between Bolognese and simple tomato sauce with meat.

Did I like the dish, sure, it was fine, nothing I couldn't whip up at home in fairly short order, but, context wise, 15-minutes from my house, $10.95 including soup, with good bread, friendly service, decent Chianti Classico by the glass, I will be back. Though will likely try another dish, possibly grilled seafood, as Michael mentioned.

I have one small admission, I removed about half of the cheese topping the Bolognese before taking the picture as I did not wish to be responsible for sudden outbreaks of high blood pressure in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood of Chicago. (Though I would happily treat A, A and L to dinner at Pasta D'Arte if Antonius promised to order Bucatini All'Amatriciana. )

Enjoy,
Gary

Mike G wrote:hamburger quickly stewed in tomato sauce-- which ironically I grew up calling by a different, equally inapt, foreign name.

I'm intrigued by how many different "exotic" dishes Americans of the 1950s and '60s believed they could make from two quintessentially American ingredients, hamburger and tomatoes: bolognese sauce, goulash, chop suey ... and doubtless others. (It seems to me that I've been served something called "barbecue" made from essentially those ingredients, too.")

I did a search for "hamburger" and "tomato" and came up with something called "American chop suey" -- as if chop suey weren't already American!

That calamari looks awesome! With fresh lemon that must have been good...

G Wiv wrote:I almost titled my Pasta D'Arte post [Italian Purists Need Not Read], similar to my Romano's Pizza post. Seems I should have.

Pasta D'Arte is a nice little neighborhood Italian/American restaurant on the far Northwest side of Chicago, whether they know strict doctrine on various preparations, I have no way of knowing, but I'm guessing not one out of one hundred, if that, of the happy patrons who cross their threshold are able to differentiate between Bolognese and simple tomato sauce with meat...

Gary,

I hope I made it absolutely clear above that I have nothing negative to say about the quality of the food at Pasta d'Arte, having not eaten there. Other people have said they've enjoyed things there and I have no reason to doubt what they say; that's why I was inclined to assume that the 'Bolognese' was actually a decent tomato and meat sauce. And there is no doubt that the calamari look fabulous...

My complaint is just about the strange misapplication of names to recipes... I'm sure there are people who have ordered 'Bolognese' at a number of different restaurants in the States and ended up thinking "what's up with that? -- it's just tomato and meat sauce" when the actual dish is in fact something really different and quite special and uncommonly delicious when made well and in a traditional way.

Now, what's this all'amatriciana?



Antonius

LAZ wrote:

Mike G wrote:hamburger quickly stewed in tomato sauce-- which ironically I grew up calling by a different, equally inapt, foreign name.

I'm intrigued by how many different "exotic" dishes Americans of the 1950s and '60s believed they could make from two quintessentially American ingredients, hamburger and tomatoes: bolognese sauce, goulash, chop suey ... and doubtless others. (It seems to me that I've been served something called "barbecue" made from essentially those ingredients, too.")

I did a search for "hamburger" and "tomato" and came up with something called "American chop suey" -- as if chop suey weren't already American!

OK, a chop suey tangent... The chop suey I grew up eating was something close to this. I will admit that it was one of my favorite meals my grandmother used to make. She served it on instant rice with La Choy chow mein noodles on top. However, it was only after I married a New Englander that I learned about this "chop suey", which I've come to call Yankee chop suey. It's more like the "goulash" I grew up with. Anyway, only embarassing myself to make the point that the "American" tag is likely a way to distinguish the tomatoes and ground beef version from the stew meat and soy sauce version.

Kristen

Pasta d'Arte is one of those places that every time we drove by it we said "we should check that place out sometime," and then never remembered it when planning a dinner out. Well, we finally got around to a visit a few weeks ago and enjoyed ourselves so much that we invited a couple of friends to meet us there this past Friday. Both times that we've dined there we've found the service to be friendly and knowlegable and the food very good - fresh, cooked properly (no rubbery calamari, pasta served al dente, rare tuna served RARE....) and very flavorful. We did not visit the bar on our first trip (it's in the back of the restaurant,) but met our friends there on Friday. Great bartender - lots of personality and very friendly. We were made to feel welcome right away by both him and one of the owners. The bartender made some great food recommendations and even came to our table later to check on us and see that we were enjoying everything. Authentic Italian or not - I think it's just a good little neighborhood spot.
The only pic I managed to take shows 2 of the three appetizers we shared - the house salad (which has some very tasty candied walnuts,) and a special on Friday - melon w/ proscuitto. We also had the still wonderful grilled calamari pictured above thread. I had a special entree - Pesto-Crusted Rare Tuna which was excellent and husband really enjoyed the lobster ravioli. The chunks of lobster were large and the ravioli toothsome. Overall, a very pleasant evening.

We drove by about a month ago and were scared off by the two dressed female mannequins posed as if enjoying wine and dining al fresco right outside their restaurant - it was the most bizarre thing I'd ever seen.

We found them to be quite friendly.

It's been about a year since my last post regaring Pasta d' Arte, and we've been a few times since. It had been about three months since our last visit until this past Friday night. I don't think we'll wait so long to go back again. This place does a lot of things right. We always start by sharing the wonderful grilled calamari. It is consistently excellent - we've never been disappointed in either the texture or flavor of the dish. When something is that reliably good, I just can't NOT order it, even though there was a tuna carpaccio special app that sounded good. Husband and I then split their house salad that has a nice well-balanced dressing. We both opted for pasta entrees from the "specials" menu. Husband had the Penne in a Tomato-Goat Cheese Sauce w/ Italian Sausage and Basil. He enjoyed this a lot. I had the Homemade Portobello and Ricotta Stuffed Ravioli w/ Sauteed Spinach. It was supposed to come w/ Itailian Sausage as well, but I don't eat meat and the server assured me it would be easy enough to omit. The ravioli were really good and obviously homemade (not from frozen and not using wonton wrappers.) The sauce was a simple blend of olive oil, butter, and toasted garlic slivers that didn't weigh down the ravioli. Very nice for summer. Portions were generous - I took half mine home for lunch on Saturday. I didn't have my camera with me on Friday, but here's a shot of the leftover ravioli. Obviously, the presentation was a bit nicer at the restaurant.



A couple of other things that make me like this place -

- The hostess was seating another couple when we arrived, but the Chef/owner was cooking on the line (visable from the host stand,) and he welcomed us and informed us she'd be right back.

- There were only two empty tables in the dining room as we were being seated. One was a 4-top against the wall, and the other was a small 2-top kind-of in the middle of the room. The hostess gave us the bigger table, even though we were only a party of two and didn't even try to seat us at the smaller one.

- As I mentioned, we hadn't been in at least 3 months, but our server recognized us, acknowledged that she had waited on us before, and warmly welcomed us back.

- You can get a decent bottle of Super Tuscan for $30.

- On our way out, both another server and the Chef thanked us for coming in and wished us a good night.

While I wouldn't necessarily say this is a destination restaurant, if you find yourself in the area or live nearby, give it a go. I think it's a great neighboorhood gem. Don't let the mannequins scare you away! Lynn

Digging up a pretty old, inactive thread, but I recently watched Pasta D'Arte being profiled on Check Please. I had been a few years ago for my birthday and seeing it on television reminded me that it was still there. We had a great time with the food and the drinks the one and only time we went. I remembered having the gnocchi with the gorgonzola sauce which was very good. Glad Check Please reminded me this place was still around because we never quite ventured back. I usually like to try different places around birthday time but this year I may find an old haunt I have not been to in awhile. Pasta D'Arte makes my list simply because the pasta with braised short ribs looked heavenly on the TV screen.