Thanks to Bottega Bocconi and Le Bec Sucre, in recent years, the bedroom community of Middletown has popped up on European food seekers’ radar. The Italian deli and prepared foods mecca and fine French pasty and crusty bread haven have been a draw, but other than a smattering of spots clustered by First Beach, and a bunch of fast food options, a dining scene has never been emblematic of our neighbor to the north.
Though perhaps some residents have been pleased to keep a nighttime scene there at bay, since Pasta Vino opened in the Polo Plaza in August, it seems clear that the area was starved for a new restaurant.
The place is hopping nightly and the service on both nights I visited was outstanding, friendly, informative and efficient. The small room has an open kitchen at the back with seats at the bar well positioned for spectating. Walls are adorned with large, black-and-white photos of old-time celebrities – Sean Connery, Sophia Loren, Sinatra and the Rat Pack – slurping pasta. Black-and-white films and performances by the iconic, crooning trio stream on the TV over the bar. Cliched but kinda cute. Then there’s the menu: essentially every dish from every Italian mob movie ever made, totally slayed.
There are four options for antipasto and five salads. And as the name suggests, the menu here is all about pasta, made in-house, with three styles of noodles, cheese ravioli and a trio of baked items: two kinds of lasagna and eggplant parm. And though the house claims to regularly run out of the latter, a large stack of thinly sliced eggplant that presents and eats somewhat like a giant square of soft lasagna, I’m here to talk to you about the lefthand side of this menu because every pasta dish, each an Italian American standard cooked to al dente perfection, is more satisfying than the last.
Bottles of EVOO stand at the ready on tables and bar for dunking hunks of herby, chewy focaccia. Crunchy slices of cucumber, slivered red onion, sweet cherry tomato halves and a mound of calamata olives top a pile of fresh and crispy mixed greens dressed to tangy perfection for the Mediterranean-style salad.
Maccheroni Amatriciana is made with crispy strips of Guanciale (pork cheek) in a spicy tomato sauce with a smattering of cherry tomatoes and pecorino cheese served over toothsome, ribbed pasta tubes. The texture and quality of the pork takes this standard recipe to another level.
Similarly, Tonarelli Carbonara, made properly with egg yolks, Pecorino and pepper (and without cream), boasts extra crisp bits of the same pork jowl, both mixed in with the thick spaghetti and as a salty-crispy garnish that balances its richness.
The Ravioli di Formaggio is sublime. A lightly chewy exterior gives way to the creamiest, fluffiest filling of ricotta, parmigiano, and pecorino cheese, the puffy, quilted squares blanketed in a velvety brown butter sauce flecked with earthy black truffles. I loved every bite from this side of the menu, but I’m honestly not sure I will ever be able to tear my inner orderer from these ravs.
Congrats to Middletown on a real Goomba for the neighborhood. It fills quickly; make a reservation.
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