RESTAURANT REVIEW : Addictive Rolls and Argentine Pizza Served Above the Smog Line

Sunsets are gorgeous in Bouquet Canyon. Down below and far away, the smog layer over the Los Angeles Basin looks like an ad for “The Color Purple,” mingled with a beautiful array of scarlet and orange tints.

This canyon itself is pretty, spattered with sagebrush and desert plants, and we couldn’t resist sitting outside even in the stifling heat, but there are all these distracting aromas. Five of us are dining on the patio of a restaurant called L’Italiano, shielded from a large parking lot by a screen-like contraption, and all we can smell is the alluring scent of garlic and fresh herbs. It’s wonderful.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to lose patience driving all the way to Saugus, even before you reach the Valencia Boulevard exit. The Golden State Freeway usually turns into a parking lot on hot evenings with everybody rubbernecking at the spectacular sunsets. But now that we’re all here, we know that the drive has been worth it. Argentine-born chef Fernando Grassi has fashioned an interesting menu, sprinkled with dishes that we haven’t seen elsewhere, and everyone can sense a good dinner on the way.

In fact, the minute we are seated, a waitress brings a steaming basket of what have to be the Santa Clarita Valley’s best rolls, yeasty puffs of pizza dough brushed with butter, garlic and sweet basil. I could make an entire meal of these rolls and a plate of Grassi’s antipasto salad (good greens, an inspired selection of imported cold cuts and cheeses).

This antipasto, by the way, is brightened considerably by the chef’s own pickled artichoke hearts, olives and cauliflower. The cauliflower is particularly sensational. We scrap over it like alley cats.

We consider sharing an Argentine pizza (ham, sweet peppers and green olives) before deciding on the fugazzetta , and the choice proves to be propitious one. Grassi’s fugazzetta consists of a flurry of thinly sliced onions coated with a mixture of green herbs on a thin, crisp pizza crust, and it’s just great. If this sauceless pizza ever comes over the hill into the San Fernando Valley, watch out. It’s going to have lots of imitators.

One of our group, who shoes horses for a living, works hard enough to justify adding a hearty bowl of pasta e fagioli soup to his first courses. What he gets is something of a letdown: L’Italiano’s good minestrone, to which lima beans (an odd choice of bean for pasta e fagioli ) and strips of fettuccine have been added.

It’s a good, wholesome soup, but the taste of the beans hasn’t been cooked into the broth and the additions seem gratuitous. So our friend takes it out on the rest of us, hoarding a plate of delicious crab- and spinach-stuffed mushrooms that everyone wants more of.

The main courses here are pastas in a variety of good sauces. Grassi makes these pastas himself, and most of them are highly recommendable. The green and white fettuccine paglia e fieno come in the form of what I would describe as a rich pudding, a thick cream sauce mixed with sweet Italian sausage and lots of fresh mushrooms. The ravioli alla Romanoff are rich too, thanks to a rose-pink tomato cream sauce. They are, shall we say, doughy but tasty, with an unusual minced chicken filling.

The menu lists a number of meatless dishes, marked with the outline of a bell pepper. Manicotti Toscana and ravioli alla Reggio Emilia , for instance, have delicate ricotta cheese filling and vegetable fillings. Grassi’s lasagna is loaded with ricotta, minced beef and mozzarella cheese. And spaghetti con polpette , the traditional spaghetti and meat balls, is a trencherman’s delight. It’s a huge portion with three enormous, aromatically spiced meatballs astride it.

The desserts are sparked with originality too--although, I suspect, more Argentine than Italian. Everyone at my table likes the crema de limone , a dense caramel custard strongly flavored with essence of lemon. I find the fluffy ricotta and peach pie somewhat bland, but the crepes alla Argentina more than make up for that. How can anyone resist a crepe rolled in dark caramel sauce with whipped cream and nuts?

Saugus may never be the same.

Suggested dishes: antipasto salad, $4.95 to $6.95; pizza fugazzetta , $6.50, $8.75, $11; stuffed mushrooms, $4.75; fettuccine paglia e fieno , $8.25.

L’Italiano, 28200 Bouquet Canyon Road, Saugus, (805) 296-1200. Lunch and dinner 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays, noon to 9 p.m. Sundays. Beer and wine only. Parking lot. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, $30-$50.