Simply Splendid Italian

This may be Orange, but Allegro’s cooking would be equally at home in the big city. Some big foreign city, that is. Tokyo, maybe, or possibly Naples. Which happen to be where owners Mario Petillo and Judy Masaki Petillo hail from.

Contrary to what you might think, there are Italian restaurants in Japan. True, the extravagant, abbondanza style of Italian restaurant we’re familiar with is pretty much the reverse of the entire Japanese food aesthetic, but that over-the-top style is not entirely characteristic of Italian restaurants in Italy, either. Needless to say, diners in Japan go for a more subtle sort of Italian food.

So don’t look for huge portions here: Allegro combines the Italian zest for life with the elegant culinary sensibility of Japan. The delicious pastas are rarely overindulged with sauces. Most dishes have clear, unmuddled flavors, which is radical territory for suburban Italian cookery.

Petillo’s style is somewhat familiar around here; he used to work down the street at the stylish Rafaello. His menu offers a combination of rustic and sophisticated dishes, and Petillo brings most of them off with panache.

Take zuppa di riso, which is just Arborio rice, potatoes and tomatoes simmered in a fresh chicken stock. Most American restaurateurs would be afraid to serve so simple a dish--they’d think it too plain--but it’s one you’d come back to eat again and again. Meanwhile, insalata del contadino, a salad of green apples, Gorgonzola cheese and curly endive in a light mustard vinaigrette, is complicated enough to be exotic but at the same time disarmingly simple.

This is not a slick, grand sort of place. Yes, there are murals of Naples and Siena on the walls and white cloths draped on the tables, but the black vinyl chairs look as if they were designed for office temps. And the entrance, halfway between the back parking lot and Tustin Avenue, is hard to locate and poorly marked.

But the food will provide comfort enough. Allegro serves one of the best carpaccios I’ve ever tasted, the flavorful shaved beef topped with sliced mushrooms and shaved Parmesan, dressed with a little olive oil and lemon juice. Peperoni arrostiti are also terrific: roasted bell peppers seasoned with olive oil, garlic and parsley.

In fact, the only cold appetizer I wouldn’t give high marks to is trio di bruschetta. The flaw doesn’t lie in the toppings on the toast slices--checca (tomato, garlic and oil), chopped mushrooms and roasted peppers, respectively. It’s the toast itself, which is positively sodden with olive oil.

Happily, that kind of excess doesn’t occur in the pastas. Just as in Italy, where the point of pasta is to taste the noodle itself, Allegro serves just enough sauce to complement the pasta, not enough to obscure it.

Farfalle alla balanzone, made with the bow-tie-shaped noodle whose name means butterfly in English, is a prime example. Served in a colorful ceramic bowl, like most of the pastas, it’s tossed with the perfect amount of pancetta sauteed with fresh peas, mushrooms and onions. It goes without saying that it’s cooked perfectly al dente.

Spaghetti alla Siciliana is a nice choice if you feel like something in the southern Italian style. There are oil-packed Italian tuna, capers, pieces of sauteed eggplant, tomatoes and imported black olives scattered throughout the bowl. What really astonished me was that the olives were whole and unpitted, which is exactly the way a Sicilian grandmother would do it.

Canneloni gastronomica is a bit of a letdown, but only because this is one dish that is in the familiar over-the-top Italian style, topped with melted cheese and too much Bechamel sauce. But the canneloni themselves are fine, long cylinders filled with a nice veal forcemeat. The restaurant does an unexceptional job on classics such as spaghetti Bolognese, lasagna and potato gnocchi.

From the specials menu, try spaghetti caccio e pepe, a real Roman dish made with crumbled pecorino cheese, cracked pepper, olive oil and a little garlic. It is simple and good.

Among the large selection of meat dishes, two of the best are griglia mista di pesce and agnello alla Rugantino. The first is whitefish, salmon, calamari, clams and mussels, all cooked on a griddle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The other is a trim, tender grilled rack of lamb cooked in essentially the same way. With the lamb, you get the bonus of roasted potatoes and grilled vegetables.

Allegro has a big dessert list too. The cappuccino souffle, which has to be ordered in advance, seems out of place in an unpretentious sort of restaurant like this one, but this charming, well-made souffle is hard to resist.

The delicious torta della nonna has a shortcake crust and a filling of pastry cream laced with lemon. One evening there were homemade cannoli stuffed with sweetened ricotta. On another occasion there was panna cotta, a sort of cream flan they list on the menu but rarely seem to make. If it’s available, go for it.

Allegro has a nice wine list, with good choices at reasonable prices. An Oregon pinot noir from Panther Creek ($35) puts many a comparably priced wine from Burgundy to shame. There are also several good Chiantis for less than $30.

So what are you waiting for? Make tracks to this place, at tempo allegro.

Allegro is expensive. Antipasti are $4.75 to $7.50. Pastas are $8.95 to $11.95. Main dishes are $13.95 to $19.95. Desserts are $4.95 to $6.95.

BE THERE

Allegro, 1160 N. Tustin Ave., Orange. (714) 639-7921. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5:30-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. All major cards.