Mama Said There’d Be Menus Like This

Antonello has a longstanding and unimpeachable reputation at the very top rung of local Italian restaurants. Now owner Antonio Cagnolo has gone himself, and his restaurant, one better.

Antonio’s mother, Pina, visited from Piemonte (Italy’s northwesternmost province) a while back, bringing some of her best recipes. This gave Cagnolo an unbeatable idea. Why not serve a few of these dishes in a private setting? Homey, rustic dishes to be enjoyed on special occasions.

So Cagnolo designed a special dining room adjacent to the restaurant’s kitchen: a stucco-walled, burnt sienna inner sanctum dominated by a large banquet table of polished wood. The room is called, aptly, Mama Pina, and can be reserved for parties of four to 12. It’s an experience not to be missed.

If you are not familiar with Piemontese-style cooking, you are bound to double your pleasure. Piedmont, as it is known in English, is a foggy, game-rich province noted for red wines, cream sauces and polenta, the leached cornmeal staple that replaces pasta at meals there. Most Italians consider this province a foreign land. Blame that on the impossible dialect, a relative of old French, that natives still speak.

Cagnolo and chef Carlito Jocson will plan a special menu for you, at a price between $30 and $50 per person, wines extra. This is a typical meal you might encounter:

Appetizers might consist of bagna cauda, carne Albese, prosciutto-wrapped balls of grilled mozzarella, potato croquettes with truffles and a platter of roasted peppers, to go along with a huge basket of homemade breads. Bagna cauda is a Piemontese essential, cooked vegetables with a savory anchovy sauce. Think of carne Albese as delicious steak tartare. It picks up where carpaccio leaves off, seasoned by olive oil, fresh lemon juice and chopped garlic.

And that’s only the beginning. Expect a giant bowl of cheese polenta, platters of chicken cacciatore, homemade sausage with porcini mushrooms and mashed potatoes and practically anything else that the chef feels like putting out. Of course, if you’d prefer a few dishes from other regions of Italy, say, pasta puttanesca from Napoli, or a savory osso buco Roman style, no problem. Just tell the chef, or Cagnolo.

The meal will finish with salad and dessert. Cagnolo is apt to whip up a frothy zabaglione--egg yolk, Marsala wine and sugar--then spoon it over fresh berries, or trot out tiramisu or Mama’s cannoli.

Sommelier Steve Ebol is ever expanding his wine list as well. Consult him for wines to round out what surely will be one of Orange County’s most engagingly personal restaurant evenings.

MAMA PINA AT ANTONELLO

3800 South Plaza Drive in the South Coast Plaza Village, Santa Ana.

(714) 751-7153.

Open for lunch Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m, dinner Monday through Saturday, 5:45 p.m. to 10 p.m.

All major cards accepted.