Shining Entrees

Ca’ del Sole is the Valley sister of Locanda Veneto and Ca’ Brea, and our industry crowd loves it. Any time after 6 p.m., this pleasant rustic roadhouse (formerly Maison Robert) is jammed to the rafters.

White brick, ceramic decorations and soft lighting give the room an incredibly welcoming facade, if the noise level does not. The food is inventive, and the reasonable prices can’t hurt either.

After the automatic basket of focaccia and a rather bland olive tapenade, you might start with a Venetian-inspired fritto misto: lightly fried shrimp, calamari, asparagus and--surprise!--vegetable and cheese tortellini. You could follow it with an equally good Piedmontese sort of pumpkin ravioli grandly named mezzelune di zucca baruca.

Chef Antonio Tommasi’s salads are interesting, especially insalata di cuori: artichoke hearts, endive and greens tossed in a lemony dressing with shaved Parmesan. Crescione con palmito is not quite as successful. This salad of watercress, endive, pine nuts and hearts of palm has a nice pungent white wine mustard dressing, but the canned palm hearts clash with the fresh ingredients.

One of Ca’ del Sole’s most popular pastas is bigoli, a thick spaghetti traditional in Venice, mixed here with good shellfish and a nice tomato sauce. Unfortunately, the noodles themselves are pasty. Pappardelle with turkey sausage has the opposite problem: The wide spinach noodles are delicious, but the sausage is bland.

Unlike many of our Italian restaurants, where the primi are the best dishes, Ca’ del Sole shines with the entrees. Schiacciata di pollo is a beautifully grilled boneless chicken served in an iron skillet, flanked by green beans and crisply fried diced potatoes. The bird is moist, its skin laced with lemon zest. It’s a real beauty.

Then there’s stinco di agnello, a nice, tender roasted lamb shank in red wine sauce. One more dish you can’t go wrong with is carre di maiale, a double-thick pork chop coated with garlic.

Beside a list of relatively common California and Italian wines, there’s a Captain’s List of boutique Italian wines. (If the expense account covers it, get the ’83 Sammarco Castello di Rampolla, $145.)

Desserts can be good, as well. Strudel della nonna is a homemade apple, fig and pine nut strudel that strikes the right balance between sweetness and tartness. Budino di pane is a bread pudding chock full of grappa-soaked raisins.

Life may not be perfect at Ca’ del Sole, but it is definitely sweet.

BE THERE

Ca’ del Sole, 4100 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood. Lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5-11:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, 5:30-11:30 p.m. Saturday, 5-9:30 p.m. Sunday. Full bar. Parking in lot. All major cards. Dinner for two, $36-$59. Suggested dishes: fritto misto, $8.75; insalata di cuori, $8.50; schiacciata di pollo, $13.95; strudel della nonna, $5.50. Call (818) 985-4669.