RESTAURANT REVIEW : Owner’s Food, Personality Are Trattoria’s Recipe for Success : The Montecito eatery is named after its proprietor, who displays a delicious touch with many of her offerings.

If you’re sitting at a table against a rear wall at Trattoria Mollie, as we were one evening, you’d be convinced that Mollie Ahlstrand, a tiny, Ethiopian-born ball of energy, had been serving these customers for years--not just the four months the restaurant has been open.

By our second visit, we were being treated like old friends--Mollie was even asking if we wanted the same table we’d had before.

This is a sharp cookie. More important, when she isn’t out in front doing a superb job of working the room, she is back in her gleaming stainless-steel kitchen, much of which can be seen by customers and from which emerges some absolutely excellent Italian food, mostly done by Mollie herself.

The open room, its walls shadowed by wall sconces, has white ceilings and seats about 60, with a few linen-covered tables on the outside terrace fronting Coast Village Road, Montecito’s main drag.

On the appetizer list, scampi allo scalogno ($8.95) is a really outstanding dish. The prawns are lightly sauteed, firm and juicy, served in a white wine sauce with shallots, fresh diced tomatoes and a touch of garlic and parsley. The flavors melt together beautifully in your mouth.

A couple of superb teasers: zuppa di spinaci ($6.95), an Italian soup of fresh creamed spinach with pancetta, shallots and mushrooms--quite rich, a little smoky, beautifully tasteful; and mezzelune di melanzanee zucchini al timo ($10.95), is handmade ravioli stuffed with zucchini, ricotta cheese and eggplant, flavored with garlic and thyme and served in Mollie’s basic tomato sauce, made each day with fresh tomatoes (except when local tomatoes are lousy, in which case they come canned from Italy).

But carpaccio al parmigiano ($7.95), which boasts excellent, thinly cut raw beef, has nothing of the required character the dish should have. Ditto carpaccio di salmone ($8.95), whose salmon is fresh and delicate but whose accompanying bell peppers, carrots, celery and dressing are just there.

On the pizza list, Mollie’s crust is very thin and delicate. The savory al quattro formaggi ($7.95), with four Italian cheeses, melts almost before hitting your mouth. This is not for lovers of heavy, deep-dish pizza.

The serving staff can be especially cooperative if you want to try a little more of the menu than normal or try half orders. I was glad I did that because the spaghetti alla carbonara Romana ($10.95 for a full order) is not quite what it should be. The Italian bacon, egg, Parmesan and pecorino cheeses come together just a bit too sweet, almost cloying.

But then there’s gnocchetti di spinaci con ragu di fagoli e cipolle ($9.95), tiny potato dumplings with spinach, white beans and onions served in a sauce of butter and white wine that’s rich, gooey, absolutely wonderful.

One night there was a special of pasta putanesca ($11.95). Mollie’s version is oriented toward anchovies--although some purists hold that anchovies are not properly included in this dish, in which capers and varying kinds of olives mix with garlic and basil. Although this an excellent dish, it is not, I think, truly putanesca .

Standing out on the meat side of the menu are Mollie’s excellent cuts, plus the accompanying vegetables. Pollo al rosmarino e limone ($9.95) is a good dish highlighted by fresh spinach leaves, gently sauteed in olive oil, tomatoes and mushrooms and inserted under the chicken breast. Better yet is agnello al forno ($17.95), beautiful meaty lamb chops baked in the oven, nearly charred on the outside.

For seafood lovers, the key dish is scampi e capesante alla griglia ($16.95). The prawns and scallops are gently, crisply grilled, long slashes of roasted potatoes are on the side and the shellfish is served over a bed of fresh spinach leaves and spears of asparagus just barely sauteed in olive oil.

Mollie, who until about a year and a half ago had a different restaurant on the other side of Santa Barbara, took a sabbatical and went to Padua, Italy, to work in a bakery and learn to make wonderful bread.

She also can concoct some the finest homemade desserts in town. You certainly will not find a better creme brulee ($3.95) on the Central Coast. It really is, as the menu says, custard at its best: creamy rich without being heavy, beautifully crispy on top.

And the torta di cioccolato ($4.95) is a dark, almost damp Italian chocolate cake that does not need to be a la mode to make its own way in this world.

It’s no wonder that Mollie’s food and personality have rapidly inserted Trattoria Mollie into the front ranks of the Santa Barbara area’s quality restaurants, and deservedly so.

Details

* WHAT: Trattoria Mollie.

* WHEN: Open for lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. daily except Monday, for dinner 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.

* WHERE: 1250 Coast Village Road, Montecito.

* HOW MUCH: Lunch for two, food only, $15-29; dinner for two, food only, $20-$65.

* FYI: Reservations and major credit cards accepted; beer and wine.

* CALL: 565-9381.