One test of a
restaurant is whether you can do better at home without killing yourself. In
regard to pasta and sauce, my answer is usually an emphatic “yes.” Making a
slow-cooked sauce isn’t hard. A fresher sauce — what some might call a
“marinara” — is even simpler. There are good brands of pasta in the stores,
and we cook them exactly how we like them. It’s fast, good, and cheap. And we
make far better salads than do most Italian restaurants.
But Italian cuisine
is much richer than pasta, sauce, and iceberg salads with poor dressings. Portobello,
Verona, and Mario’s Via Abruzzi all strive to show this, with decent results.
My recent experiences at Lucano, though, were the best I’ve had at any local
Italian restaurant.
Set your expectations
properly: no huge, family-style portions of pasta and sauce. If you’re a fan of
that, you will find Lucano expensive. But if you’re looking for subtlety and
top-notch food from appetizer through salad and dessert, you need to go.
Husband and wife
Chuck and Joann Formoso, along with Chuck’s chef-sister Sylvia Formoso, started
Lucano four years ago so they’d have a place where they would want to eat.
Chuck works at Olindo’s, providing him with a conduit for the best ingredients,
largely imported. But Sylvia is the treasure. “Ever since I was little, 5 or 6,
I would sit and watch Julia Child,” she says. “I couldn’t even read English,
but it was my favorite show.”
Sylvia Formoso
learned cooking by immersing herself in it, watching anyone and everyone cook,
taking in bits and pieces that she has fused into her own style. The family is
from the Lucania region in Southern Italy, and while Lucano’s food is largely
Southern Italian, it’s not strictly regional. As the weather gets cold, for
example, you’ll see risotto popping up.
Fava e verdure,
Lucano’s greens and beans, is the best dish of that stripe I’ve ever had, and
quite unusual ($8). Sylvia slowly cooks dried fava beans until they break down
into a hearty mash. She mixes that with fresh garlic and olive oil and serves
it over escarole cooked at the last minute. Earthy, balanced, a tad sweet, and
without a hint of bitterness, it’s a wonder.
Palermo’s makes
Lucano’s Sicilian sausage, served with strips of roasted red pepper ($7). If
you like sausage, it’s a must. My favorite starter was a stuffed, baked
zucchini ($8). Small, delicate zucchini are hollowed out and filled with
caramelized vegetables, shrimp, and calamari that Sylvia somehow imbues with a
magical texture, present and yet delicate.
I didn’t try a soup,
but sources rave. The creamed cauliflower, with garlic and truffle but no
butter or cheese, is particularly hyped. Salads are pricy but excellent. I
loved both field greens with fennel and orange in an orange vinaigrette ($5),
and fresh beets tossed with pecorino cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette over
mesclun ($6).
The menu includes primi piatti (first courses) and secondi piatti (second courses), though
you won’t need both. The first courses are pastas with a variety of
fresh-cooked sauces. My wife, Anne, liked the lasagna with meat sauce so well,
she forgot to let me try it ($14). Buscatini is a thick, hollow spaghetti than comes all
‘amatriciana, meaning with a fresh tomato sauce featuring pancetta,
caramelized onion, and hot pepper ($17). The sweetness of the onion, with the
slight cured flavor and a hint of heat, is outstanding.
Lucano’s pastas are
mostly imported, including their gnocchi (with lamb sauce, $16). The
tortellini, though, is made for Olindo’s in Schenectady. Your pasta will come al dente every time, so if that’s not to
your taste, be sure to say so. All pastas are cooked to order.
Second courses are
meat and fish. The seafood of the day features three types, pan seared then
baked with olives and tomatoes ($27). I had salmon, a wonderful piece of
grouper, and shrimp, all cooked to maintain their distinctive textures. Veal
sautéed in a cognac sauce with mushrooms was almost too subtle, but the flavor
deepened as you worked through the dish ($18). The simply grilled rack of New
Zealand lamb, rubbed with garlic and olive oil, is aromatic and succulent
($20).
The desserts held to
the standard, particularly a pear tart with strong almond flavor and various
ice creams inside light, crisp shells. The regular coffee was acceptable, but
the espresso was excellent, strong without being bitter.
Compared to that of
similarly priced restaurants, the service is less professional, but more
friendly. Chuck and Joann hover, and you do feel, to borrow a phrase, like
their “special guests.” All things considered, Lucano stands a head above its
Italian competition, and belongs on the short list of our finest restaurants,
regardless of type.
Ristorante Lucano,
1815 East Avenue, 244-3460. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.
Food tip
The independent
steakhouse returns to Rochester! Tony Gullace, chef-owner at Max of Eastman
Place, has just opened Max Chophouse in the former Dish location, 1456 Monroe
Avenue (271-3510). It’s open for dinner every night. Mark Cupolo, who had
fantastic steaks at Victor Grilling Company, will be the chef.
— Michael Warren
Thomas
Michael Warren Thomas
can be heard on WYSL 1040 AM. Tune in on Saturdays for gardening, restaurants,
and travel from 9 to noon, and on Sundays for Toronto restaurants and wine from
10 to noon. Listen live on the web at www.SavorLife.com.
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2004.
