Filling the Need for Mid-Priced Italian Cooking Like Mama’s

North County is not exactly overrun by top-class Italian restaurants, although it does have some of the better ones in San Diego County. It also claims its share of informal, very inexpensive pizza and pasta houses.

What is generally lacking are mid-priced eateries that offer more than the basics but don’t take the pocketbook to the cleaners. One of the few is Tomaso’s in the elongated Lumberyard center in Encinitas, a large, cheerful establishment that is both reasonable and reasonably good.

One section of the menu specializes in la cucina della mama , which translates as “mother’s cooking” and implies not only what Americans mean when they mention “home cooking,” but a special kind of coddled, slowly cooked dishes.

Such standards as eggplant parmigiana and veal piccata are included under the della mama heading, which becomes rather more motherly and familial when it applies to such things as the grilled sausage with mixed bell peppers and a more complicated dish of grilled sausages combined with chicken simmered in wine and tomato sauce.

The fancier side of the menu also offers such seafood presentations as shrimp genovese (sauteed with capers and artichokes) and calamari fra diavolo , or diced squid steak cooked with olive oil and tomatoes, as well as a house specialty, the involtini di vitello , which stuffs veal scallops with prosciutto and blended cheeses and finishes the dish with mushrooms and Marsala wine.

The antipasto list includes a few standards, such as Caesar salad and fried mozzarella, and a few unusual dishes, among them a caper-spiked seafood salad that includes the locally unfamiliar shellfish that the Italians call scungilli ; a dish of mussels that sounds very much like a house concoction and is dressed with basil, hollandaise sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Tomaso’s really comes into its own with the pasta list, which does not run to great length but does offer such niceties as rigatoni mixed with sauteed eggplant, slivered mozzarella and diced fresh tomatoes; a classic spaghetti con pomodoro e basilico , a fine and finely simple dish that jumbles the pasta with a sauce of fresh tomatoes cooked quickly with basil and garlic, and the ricotta-stuffed ravioli in creamed tomato sauce garnished with mushrooms and peas.

The cannelloni Rossini stuffs two very large crepes with a fine chicken mince and tops them with a little meat sauce and a great deal of white sauce laced with Parmesan; this is a fine dish. The same comment can be made about the tortelloni principessa , which uses the same white sauce (but no tomato) as a dressing for delicate pasta packages filled with a smooth blend of minced veal and spinach.

TOMASO’S

11967 1st St., Encinitas

632-1901

Lunch and dinner daily.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of house wine each, tax and tip, $30 to $45.