RESTAURANTS : IL PASTAIO, TAKE TWO : For Pasta Lovers, All-Day Eating, and at Moderate Prices, Too

I happen to love pasta. It doesn’t have to be showered with truffles to get my attention. The sauce can be as simple as a well-made marinara accented with fresh basil leaves, or that old Roman standby, aglio a olio. But the pasta itself has to be of good quality and perfectly cooked. That means boiled in a big pot of salted water until it is al dente . And then sauced judiciously. No matter how enticing the sauce, it is the pasta--its quality, its texture--that is the point.

In France and in this country, too, there’s been a remarkable baby-bistro boom, with high-powered chefs opening casual, lower-priced restaurants as an alternative to their more expensive restaurants. Now the Italians are getting into the act, too. Mauro Vincenti, of Downtown’s Rex il Ristorante, owns the casual, inexpensive Alto Palato. And Celestino Drago, of Drago in Santa Monica, and his brother Giacomino have just opened their second Il Pastaio.

At both Il Pastaios, pasta is no longer the prelude to the main course; it takes center stage. At the Beverly Hills locale, you can watch the pasta maker, enshrined in the front window, roll out the yellow sheet of dough and cut it into thick or thin noodles. At this latest Il Pastaio, in Pasadena, the pasta making is relegated to an alcove off the sunny hallway, where you really can’t see much, just a butter-yellow marble counter covered with a token display of pasta-making ingredients that’s meant to signal handmade. Yet some of the food could easily have come from one of the anonymous cafeterias along Italy’s Autostrada.

The basic concept is, I think, a sound one: a casual restaurant that ignores the grilled veal chops, the pollo al mattone , the osso buco and the polenta, and concentrates instead on what everyone loves about Italian cooking: pasta. A couple of soups, a few antipasti and salads, a handful of carpaccio variations round out the offerings. E basta --that’s it.

Instead of eating elbow-to-elbow in the tiny converted storefront that serves as the Beverly Hills locale, diners in Pasadena can choose the terrace out front, the sunny hallway or the dining room. Inside, the room has a clean, industrial look: ceiling ducts disguised with beige cloth, rugged carpeting, bright lamps along the wall, their cords hanging like tails. Whimsical, frosted glass lamps above the bar mimic the shapes of raffia-tied cheeses that hang from the rafters of Italian delis. In the center of the room, a rustic wooden table displays the day’s pastries: ricotta cheesecake, fruit tarts and a deep dish of tiramisu , a pattern of forks stenciled in cocoa on top.

The moderately priced restaurant functions as a kind of neighborhood cafe. When it opens at 11 a.m., you can come in for cappuccino and a pastry. In the neighborhood? The cafe is open all through the afternoon and evening, late enough for supper after a movie or concert.

On a first visit, we tried one of the fancier carpaccio variations to start. Fine slices of raw venison are topped with a refreshing celery salad and a drizzle of overpowering truffle oil. A mundane liver pate, the kind that’s sliced from a roll, adds little to the dish. Zuppa di farro e fagioli borlotti , a rustic soup of beans and farro (an ancient grain also known as spelt), would be delicious with a swirl of deep green olive oil and fresh-ground black pepper--and a more flavorful stock. The wide ribbon noodles called pappardelle , sauced with a slow-simmered duck ragu, are wonderful. And the insalata tricolore of ruby-streaked radicchio, satiny Belgian endive and sharp green arugula is nicely accented with the salty tang of anchovies. We finished off our meal with a buttery pear tart, served warm with caramel sauce. At $40 for two, Il Pastaio seemed like a bargain.

But on subsequent visits, as I explored more of the menu, I began to reconsider. Good bruschetta should be doused with plenty of top-quality olive oil; Il Pastaio’s dry version, topped with tasteless out-of-season tomatoes, skimps on the oil, and at $5.50 it is no bargain. But the dense rice cones, stuffed with beef ragu, peas and cheese and then fried, make a gutsy, filling antipasto, and they are every bit as good as those at Drago.

Drago has turned carpaccio, an austere dish, into more or less a salad, with inventive variations like smoked swordfish topped with a fennel and orange salad or salmon paired with potatoes and green beans tossed with a little pesto. These are quite good. As for his carpaccio originale , this rendition of the now-classic raw beef drizzled with a touch of creamy mustard and lemon-spiked dressing is elegant, with shavings of Reggiano parmesan stacked in the middle and a few wild capers strewn on the plate.

The kitchen takes pains with the presentation--not necessarily a given at these prices. Some of the dishes are quite beautiful, like the black and white trenette (narrow noodles) dressed with clams in the shell and emerald arugula leaves, one of the best dishes here, or the risotto stained a deep fuchsia from beets or a grassy green from spinach and peas.

But the green fettucine, with a depressing brown ragu of ground meat and frozen peas, is a gummy mess. Warm seafood salad is garnished with limp khaki strips of green pepper so vinegary they ruin the balance of the dish. And pale crespelle (crepes) rolled up with wild mushrooms in a fontina cheese sauce taste more like sawdust than anything else.

The cooking at Il Pastaio is still very much hit and miss. You could get lucky and manage to order a meal that’s perfectly respectable for the money. Or you could catch this new Pasadena pasta restaurant on an off-night and end up looking longingly at the windows of Williams-Sonoma across the street, wondering just how much a pasta machine goes for these days.

Il Pastaio, 141 S. Lake Ave., Pasadena; (818) 795-4006. Closed Sundays. Dinner for two, food only, $32-$48.