Primi--Pasta to Go for Last-Minute Packers

So here we are again. Frankincense, myrrh and traffic jams: the perfect season for curling up at home and taking out. How nice to find that Primi, that little dream of a restaurant designed by Pierro Selvaggio, also owner of Valentino, now has meals to-go.

Primi’s menu, as you might know, is heavily weighted towards primi piatti --salads, soups, antipasti, succulent first-course things. There are pastas, risotti and a handful of piatti grandi , serious proteins, as well.

The odds of experiencing high pleasure are very good here. Primi comes through most consistently--all the way from the delicate rice potato and spinach soup to a smashing gossamer-berried creme brulee-- with subtlety.

Now, I’m not going to say everything is perfect. The corn, barley and white Tuscan bean soup ($6) is neutral. And the best thing about the snails, polenta and fried parsley with a Cabernet sauce, which I found non-existent, is the parsley (the dish is $10). Another quibble: the very fresh soft pneumatic white rolls tucked in for dinner were absent at lunch. Still, this is a menu I’d happily work my way through anytime.

To begin, piatto rustico ($8), is a fine assemblage of plump red and yellow peppers; stout-hearted marinated Tuscan white beans; really meaty, diamond-dense anchovies; moist Calamata olives; hunks of fine Parmigiano. One caveat: the little mound of caponata laced with mint, parsley and pine nuts is so honey-sweet it might have been doused with mead.

Orange-cured salmon ($8) looks like an exotic sea flower, something you’d see during station breaks on KCET. Parchment-thin slices of roasted eggplant and zucchini are wrapped around generous curls of orange peel-flecked fish. Unfortunately, the salmon was so fat-streaked it resembled a piece of seersucker.

Caesar salad ($7 for a large individual portion, $12 for the grand size) comes pungently dressed. If you’re planning not to eat right away, ask for the dressing in a separate container. The house salad ($7) is an affable upscale mix of radicchio, arugula, romaine and endive, which once came overloaded with an overly oily dressing.

The dishes one step up on the hearty scale are all wonderfully done. Sonoma lamb, Parmigiano and walnut salad ($11) is a fine mix of clear, strong tastes punctuated with a good vinaigrette. Bracioline of veal ($16)--three skewers of lemony tender veal threaded with pancetta--is beautifully executed. Its moist whole sage leaves and cubes of polenta soak up the reduced veal juices--it’s as earthy and delicious as anything I’ve had all year.

Chicken and artichokes ($16) is a savory pleasure, with small morsels of peppery chicken and a slip of a woodsy rosemary vinegar. Ragout of calamari ($14) is more ferocious and peppery, its soft tender rings strewn with capers and Calamata olives (not for the salt-shy).

Among the pastas, there’s a delicious linguine with clams ($11), all garlic- and sea-infused. I found the vegetable ravioli ($10) less pleasing. Gnocchi ($10), which I don’t think travels too well, is sweet and very plain. The dish is supposed to be made with a sausage infusion, though I found no sign of it--in fact there wasn’t much sauce at all. There were, however, good slivers of porcini mushrooms.

The best of the desserts is the aforementioned creme brulee with raspberries. Others don’t hold up so well as take-out fare. The “chocolate chocolate” pastry purse, for example, turned soggy on the drive home. But the fruit and cheese plate ($7)--the first I’ve encountered in my take-out rounds--is a rich array of succulent goat and Italian cheeses and the ripest fruit. It’s the perfect way to end your feast.

Primi, 10543 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles.; (213) 475-9235. Take-out available seven days. Street parking. All major credit cards accepted.