Simple, Fresh Italian Cooking at La Nonna

I returned from an Italian vacation several months ago refreshed and depressed. Refreshed because over there, good food is considered close to godliness, and serving a bad meal is tantamount to committing a mortal sin.

Fresh basil. Traces of garlic. Crunchy, crusty bread. Sauces smooth as a baby’s cheek.

But back home in south Orange County, when I ventured out in search of good Italian food, I got depressed. Too often the tomato sauces seemed to come from a can. Pasta was stale, tasteless. Judging by the scarcity of basil even in pesto dishes, you would think it was an evil weed. I began to believe that I lived in a culinary cul-de-sac.

Then one day, while in search of fresh vegetables, I stumbled across La Nonna, a modest eatery and delicatessen tucked inside Picker’s Ranch Market in San Juan Capistrano, situated next to the Price Club. One bite of its alio e olio-- a raw garlic pasta sauce of fresh tomatoes, basil, cheese and extra-virgin olive oil drizzled generously on a plate of fresh, homemade linguine--and I was transported back to a neighborhood trattoria in Rome. A simple potato sandwich--filled with thinly sliced spuds, red and green peppers sauteed in olive oil, then topped with basil leaves--reminded me of picnics in the Tuscan countryside.

The essence of good Italian cooking lies in simple but fresh ingredients, a concept not lost on Josephine Cuffaro and Maria Cuffaro Schimmer, a mother-daughter team, respectively, of Sicilian heritage who cook the food and run the delicatessen. The eatery is named after Maria’s grandmother (la nonna means grandmother), who taught both her daughter and granddaughter an appreciation for good food.

Schimmer says that one of her strongest childhood memories is of watching her grandmother eat a plate of pasta. “When you saw my grandmother eat, you wanted to eat--she was enjoying it so much.”

Last spring Schimmer and her mother took over the existing deli and began devising recipes they liked, some of which were handed down by Schimmer’s grandmother. Since then, Schimmer has become a partner in the market and now also offers catering services.

And she knows most of her regulars by their first names. Expect to spend a few minutes chatting with Schimmer while choosing something to eat, because she runs the operation as if it were her home kitchen.

The lunch and dinner menu includes, for $4.75 a plate, pasta dishes with a choice of fresh sauces: marinara and string beans; herbs and capers, and raw garlic. Sandwiches--tuna, eggplant, potato and turkey--go for $4.75.

The entrees can be rounded out with various pasta or rice salads, broiled eggplant or a dessert of homemade cannoli filled with fresh cream, or a cappuccino or cafe latte.

The delicatessen offers about 60 varieties of cheeses and meats, fresh pasta and packaged pasta imported from Italy. And there’s a new section designed to cater to the large Latino population in the area. (Schimmer and her mother lived for several years in Argentina and Mexico, where they discovered that Latinos, like Italians, like to cook their food fresh daily, with fresh ingredients.)

La Nonna, 33951-B Doheny Park Road, San Juan Capistrano. Open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday. (714) 661-1896.