Tomaso’s Furthers Italianization of Restaurants in the North County

The North County coast wouldn’t appear to need another major Italian eatery, because with the addition in the past 12 months or so of Scalini, Villa d’Este and Delmario’s, the area seems just about ready to burst with pasta, vitello and cannoli .

(The string of beach towns running north from Del Mar certainly could use a top seafood house, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.)

Even though one senses that the next red tide to stain the sands of Del Mar and Solana Beach will be made of marinara sauce, North County has offered an enthusiastic welcome to yet another large Italian house. This one is called Tomaso’s, and it occupies quarters at the southern end of the increasingly restaurant-oriented Lumberyard center in Encinitas.

The place was mobbed on the two first Fridays of August, with a half-hour wait required on both occasions. The situation owed probably to several factors besides the remarkably resilient popularity of pasta (which at first seemed faddish but now has become a fact of life), such as the newness of the place, and the prices, which generally are lower than at the nearby, deluxe Portofino and other dressy Italian establishments.

Tomaso’s has an easy, friendly style, with service that operates relatively efficiently despite the hubbub, and the animation in any case is pleasant in a county in which restaurants all too often are quiet, dreary and dull. A singer-guitarist of generalized Latin persuasion (he manages spicy Brazilian sambas and smooth Italian pop tunes with equal ease) adds agreeably to the mood.

Perhaps because the place has some genuine personality, it was a surprise to learn that it is the first California outpost of a small chain that operates three restaurants, all called Tomaso’s, in Phoenix. Chains usually exhibit little in the way of personality, except in an artificial, manufactured sense that should be found cloying and annoying by everyone above the age of 8. Be that as it may, Tomaso’s is not the first restaurant to be exported here from Phoenix; La Jolla’s Avanti and Dale Anderson’s in the Golden Triangle also have roots in the Arizona desert.

But Tomaso’s roots fortunately go much farther east, or all the way back to Southern Italy and Sicily, as reflected by a menu that offers many examples of those regions’ home cooking. Such homely dishes as baked ziti and grilled sausage with peppers, neither of which is easy to find on local menus, set a gastronomic tone that should be immediately recognizable to those with connections in the Italian enclaves in and around New York City. Tomaso’s serves what, in the current American culinary idiom, would be called “comfort” food, and a decade ago might have been called Italian soul food.

The appetizer list leads off a touch incongruously with snails in garlic butter; Italians certainly do eat snails, but mint is the more typical seasoning and this offering seems designed mostly to convey a certain snob appeal. The plate of fresh buffalo-milk mozzarella cheese garnished with tomatoes and whole basil leaves is rather more interesting, as is a combination hot antipasto plate that centers on handsomely treated fresh vegetables. This last is a rather fancy affair that can be split between two guests, and it recently included stuffed, cheese-draped lengths of zucchini and eggplant, lightly breaded artichoke hearts and a garlicky stuffed clam or two.

Meals include a simple green salad, a dish that Italian kitchens usually handle with style but one that Tomaso’s fumbles. The soups, although they must be ordered a la carte, make a better choice if one feels inclined to skip the salad altogether.

The stracciatella , which might be thought of as Roman egg drop soup, is a straightforward rendition of the classic blend of beaten egg and Parmesan cheese whisked into simmering chicken broth, in this case done with a deft hand that forms the egg-cheese mixture into tiny, savory dumplings.

Pasta e fagioli , the hearty combo of kidney beans and small macaroni with vegetables in strong broth, also is done exceptionally well. The waiter insisted on milling a fair amount of black pepper into the soup at the table, and this had a startlingly gratifying result.

Pasta is pleasantly inescapable here. All entrees are garnished with the pasta of the day, which is not the Italian way of doing things (a small portion usually appears as a first course), but in most cases makes a good side dish. The menu also lists a dozen or so pasta specialties, including several seafood combinations in which mounds of linguine or fettuccine serve as backgrounds to the main event.

In this category would be the shrimp or clams and mussels fradiavolo (bathed in a relatively spicy and pungent tomato sauce), and most spectacularly, the shrimp and salmon Tomaso, a mixed saute of seafoods, scallions, garlic and mushrooms.

The list even runs to spaghetti and meatballs, which lately has been shunned by new restaurants on the grounds that it is not classy enough, and not a particularly authentic dish. More interesting choices include the lasagna, plumply stuffed with a rich variety of cheeses and baked under a topping of good meat sauce; the baked ziti vesuviane , or pasta tubes layered with sauteed eggplant, tomato sauce and mozzarella, and the gnocchi alla bolognese .

At their most basic, gnocchi are simply dumplings made from pasta dough, but Tomaso’s constructs them from a potato mixture enriched with ricotta cheese, and coats the resulting silken pillows with tomato meat sauce leavened with cream and sparked with nutmeg. This is a very fine dish.

The entree list is notable for a selection of veal dishes that are priced under $10 (they’re $9.95, to be exact) but come off quite well. That old standby, veal parmigiana, was the genuine article, a robust marriage of slightly oily breaded veal with plenty of cheese and a strong, garlicky tomato sauce; there are much more refined versions of parmigiana, but this one was done exactly the same as at thousands of East Coast restaurants, and was memorable for that reason.

The veal scaloppine con funghi di Bosco ignored the breading and finished the sauteed meat with a simple deglazing sauce of marsala, mushrooms and butter. There was nothing new here, but it was nicely done. The kitchen applies the same mushroom treatment to sauteed chicken breasts, either plain or stuffed with cheese and prosciutto ham, and also offers chicken with peppers, mushrooms and tomato sauce.

The restaurant prepares several elaborate chocolate desserts on the premises, and can sometimes be persuaded to arrange a sampler plate that offers tastes of each. An extremely moist, rich cake might be fine after a simple veal saute, if not after a creamy pasta; the same would be true of the endearing chocolate mousse sheathed in a coating of semisweet chocolate.

TOMASO’S

967 1st St., Encinitas

632-1901

Dinner served nightly.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, with a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $30 to $60.