Divine Daily Bread : Far Niente in Glendale is known for its oven-fresh focaccia, but also serves fine soups, risottos and pastas.

Nothing satisfies hunger quicker than a good hot hunk of bread. Far Niente’s focaccia is an extreme example--an amazing oven-fresh bread, puffed up like a volleyball, that comes to the table scant seconds after you sit down. Another arrives just about as soon as the first one has been divvied up. No wonder the restaurant has steadfastly remained one of Glendale’s most popular.

Far Niente is also known for its huge, ambitious menu of risottos, pastas and seafoods, but let me get back to that focaccia , because before you can even think about the appetizers, you’re going to have to deal with it. Far Niente’s focaccia has the texture of the puffer-fish-shaped poori bread that you get in some Indian restaurants, even though it’s baked in a pizza oven (rather than deep-fried, like a poori ). The bottom tends to be flat and crusty like matzo; the top is soft, generously rubbed with olive oil, and sprinkled with plenty of fresh rosemary. The result is unmercifully seductive.

There are two separate dining rooms here, one perfect for a lively lunch, the other more appropriate for a quiet dinner. The right-hand room is a cheery, sun-splashed trattoria dominated by a series of oil paintings depicting close-ups of the Coliseum in Rome. The other half of the restaurant is a dark, elegant, russet-colored room that reminds me of fall in Tuscany.

If this helps, most tables in the autumnal room afford a full view of chickens rotating on a back kitchen spit. But no matter where you sit, the smell of the roasting chickens is never far away.

I profess a weakness for hot soups, especially when they are paired with a great bread. Far Niente’s minestrone is powerful--thick, heavily reduced and full of good peasant vegetables such as beans, celery and carrots--but it’s the fancier soups I really crave. Some days the kitchen puts out a dark, creamless lobster bisque heady with the concentrated essences of the sea and loaded with big chunks of soft lobster meat. Even better is the simple mushroom onion soup, a truly spectacular broth with layer upon layer of subtle flavor.

The rest of the menu is perfectly good, even if nothing on it quite measures up to the soups. The kitchen makes an excellent calamaretti fritti , the crisp pieces of baby squid deftly fried in light batter. It’s a nearly greaseless preparation, and the oil you do taste is light and fresh. Arancini con pesto is a more whimsical dish of deep-fried rice balls with a touch of cheese in them, ready to dip into an intensely green pesto sauce.

If arborio rice appeals to you, there are six different risottos to choose from, from the well-known porcini mushroom version to a drop-dead-fancy model made with Maine lobster and sweet red pepper. Risotto Milanese con sugo di vitello is deliciously simple, nothing more than rice with saffron and a deeply flavorful sauce made from veal pan juices. One note: Many people like risotto to be slightly chewy. I wouldn’t call Far Niente’s style mushy, but they definitely cook the rice beyond the al dente stage here.

Pastas, on the other hand, are resolutely prepared al dente . Penne puttanesca comes in a Neapolitan sauce made with olives, hot peppers, capers and a good dose of anchovies. Many kitchens leave the anchovies out, but this version uses anchovies to subtle perfection.

Fettuccine boscaiola (literally “from the woods”) features lots of meaty porcini mushrooms and a light tomato cream sauce. Spaghetti clams (also known as spaghetti vongole ) gets better as you head toward the bottom of the bowl, where all the clam flavor seems to be concentrated.

If you’ve made it through the appetizers (and the focaccia ), that roasted chicken you’ve been smelling will be hard to resist. Like the focaccia , it has been rubbed with olive oil and rosemary, and like the risottos, it tends to be a touch overcooked. The grilled veal chop with sweet onions and balsamic vinegar sauce, however, is first-rate.

Far Niente takes the dessert course seriously. Unfortunately, there probably won’t be much of a choice at lunch, because that’s when the pastry chef is making the cakes and pies served at dinner. But at dinner, the warm apple tart, the pear-almond tart and the macadamia nut pie all have a flaky short crust and wonderful toppings.

Or hey, you could just ask for one more focaccia for the road.

Where and When Location: Far Niente, 204 1/2 Brand Blvd., Glendale. Suggested Dishes: soup du jour, $4.50; risotto Milanese, $10.50; penne puttanesca , $10; veal chop, $18, pear-almond tart, $4.50. Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; dinner 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Price: Dinner for two, $35 to $60. Full bar. Valet parking in rear. All major credit cards. Call: (818) 242-3835.