RESTAURANT REVIEW : A Pleasant Half of the World : * Mezzomondo is casually elegant, serving up tasty common northern Italian dishes and some inventive ones.

Farewell, Pesto; addio , La Perla. Now it’s the turn of Mezzomondo, the third consecutive Italian restaurant at this Ventura Boulevard location. Perhaps the third time will be the charm for this cheerful, daffodil-yellow trattoria.

Elio Cavallari, a lighthearted Milanese whom you’re likely to meet if you dine here, and whom you may have already encountered at the Beverly Hills restaurant Bice, is the chef and padrone . (When I called for a reservation, I asked what the restaurant’s name--which literally means “half the world”--referred to. “The half of the world I’ve been in,” replied Cavallari impatiently. Ho-o-o-o -kay.)

Anyway, this half of the world is a pleasant place. The cloth banquettes have a fruit motif woven into the yellow fabric, and there are fruited wooden wreaths on the walls. The tables’ comfortable spacing on the beige tile floor gives the effect of space as well as lightness. About the only design element I can do without is the butcher paper on top of the white tablecloths, which seems out of place in a stylish, casually elegant room like this one.

The menu includes a lot of the northern Italian dishes with which the Los Angeles Basin is sloshing over at the moment--the pastas, the arugula-based salads, the simply grilled meats. But it doesn’t lack inventiveness, even if not all the inventions are on track. (I wonder about dishes like “tropical” carpaccio with avocado, salads that include pears and zuppa di calamari con piselli , which is tomato broth mixed with squid and peas.)

You could start with the fresh-tasting zuppa di fagioli Veneta con pasta--bean and pasta soup under a fancy name, but a properly thick and hearty version. Take on the minestrone, though, and you run squarely into the dimension of Cavallari’s imagination. This unconventional minestrone is forest green (because of an abundance of chopped basil) and constructed with zucchini, green beans and other summery vegetables, plus a liberal amount of rice and potato. You may not need a main course if you order it.

You’ll encounter starch in a variety of presentations at Mezzomondo. If polenta is your thing, you can get it the simple way--with melted Gorgonzola--or as grilled triangles inundated with sliced garlic sausage and a pile of flavorful white Tuscan beans (polenta grigliata con fagioli e salsiccia ). Crostini (otherwise known as bruschette ) are toasted hunks of country-style bread with various toppings, the most common--and Italian--being fresh tomato and basil. I made the mistake of trying the one with mixed wild mushrooms ( misto funghi ). What I got was a tired melange of ordinary mushrooms and marinara sauce on soggy bread.

The pastas are prepared in the Mediterranean spirit with a chewy bite. Mezzimondi ripieni di carne are a real mouthful: noodle pockets stuffed with a finely chopped meat mixture. (At other Italian restaurants you may have encountered a similar crescent-shaped pasta under the name of agnolotti .) Mezzomondo’s mezzimondi come simply dressed in butter and sage, but they are stiffer and heavier than they need to be.

Rigatoni melanzane mozzarella is another tasty but rather ponderous pasta. The waiter promised that this dish of eggplant, cheese and short tube pasta would be made with scamorza (smoked mozzarella), but I couldn’t detect even a hint of smokiness. The eggplant is nicely browned in this dish, but it has been cooked in so much oil that it leaves a residue on the bottom of the dish. A lighter choice would be the fine fusilli Mediterraneo , in which corkscrew pasta is tossed with basil, black olives, olive oil and both fresh and sun-dried tomatoes.

Main courses are called piatti forti (“strong dishes”) on this menu, and that they are. The pick would have to be galletto al mattone , a skillfully pressed and grilled Cornish game hen that is golden brown on all sides and forgivingly tender. Arrosto di vitello con il sugo , roasted veal served in its own reduced juices, is also tasty, but the meat isn’t particularly tender--a cardinal sin when it comes to veal. The good roasted potatoes and perfectly cooked spinach help speed up the process of absolution, though.

Dessert is nothing fancy, just a choice of a creamy tirami su with lots of mascarpone or a three-flavored spumoni with a grainy texture. I would have liked to end a meal here with biscotti con vin santo , crumbly cookies and rust-colored sweet wine. Unfortunately, although they are on the menu, Cavallari hasn’t had them on hand during my visits. Too bad. Biscotti and wine make a great match for espresso, as half the world knows.

WHERE AND WHEN

Location: Mezzomondo, 12415 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

Suggested Dishes: zuppa di fagioli , $4.25; fusilli Mediterraneo , $8.50; polenta grigliata con fagioli e salsiccia , $5.75; galletto al mattone , $10.75.

Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5-10:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 5-11:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

Price: Dinner for two, $24-$42. Beer and wine only. Valet parking. All major cards.

Call: (818) 508-1301.