The Gossiping Gourmet: Handmade pizzas and pastas are North Italia’s specialties

North Italia has recently opened in the Park Place Center in Irvine just off Michelson Drive.

The restaurant specializes in handmade pizzas and pastas and has breakfast, lunch and dinner service.

The space is large and airy with floor-to-ceiling windows on three walls, wood floors, high ceilings, lots of plants and several seating options. Dine in the bar area, or another area that has long tall tables or in an open room off to the side. Also, the central area of the restaurant has seating, and a large outdoor patio offers banquets and tables under big red umbrellas. It is a casual, pleasant place to dine.

I was pleased with the black mussels, which were nice and tender and came with spicy, thin slices of salami floating in a tasty broth with butter, garlic and fresh herbs. Slabs of crusty bread were good for soaking up all the juices.

My dining companion was eager to taste the braised meatballs served with the same crusty bread and a really fresh, delicious, house-made tomato sauce with a hint of spice. It was about as good as tomato sauce can get. The meatballs were tender, well seasoned and perfectly cooked.

We decided to each order a different pasta since that is North Italia’s specialty along with pizza. I wanted more of those meatballs, so I chose the pasta Bolognese. The pasta was perfectly cooked, and the Bolognese sauce was made with the same ingredients as the meatballs but ground into meat sauce and served with tagliatelle noodles and grana padano cheese. It’s easy to see why this was a house specialty.

My companion had the strozzapreti pasta with chicken, roasted mushrooms, spinach, toasted pine nuts and Parmesan cream. The rigatoni noodles were al dente. I found the dish a little bland compared with the other things we ate.

From the list of mains, we thought we would try the slow-cooked short ribs. They came with roasted vegetables and creamy mascarpone polenta. I really liked the veggies and the polenta, but even though the glazed short ribs were very tender, they didn’t have much beefy flavor. I wished for some accompanying sauce or seasoning.

Moving on to the pizzas, we ordered the prosciutto pizza, which had wonderful sweet mission figs, goat cheese and arugula. The pizza crust was excellent, with a bit of char from the wood oven. The figs also had some char from the oven, and they lent a lovely background of sweetness with the salty prosciutto and the soft unctuous goat cheese.

I am eager to try some of the other pizzas very soon. The restaurant also serves a classic Margherita; a fungi with roasted mushrooms, a cipollini onion and smoked mozzarella; and one called The Pig, which comes with spicy pepperoni, soppressata and Italian sausage. A bacon and egg version consists of roasted potatoes, garlic confit and basil.

My companion and I also shared an Italian farm salad. It had lots of good stuff in it, including salami, provolone, pepperoncini, olives, campari tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, roasted peppers and Italian dressing — a great salad.

We topped off our meal with the salted caramel budino, which is rich and creamy custard with a soft caramel layer and then a big dollop of crème fresh.

The restaurant was crowded and buzzy. It hasn’t been open very long, but it already seems to be attracting a large and varied crowd. It is probably a good idea to get reservations ahead of time.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at m_markowitz@cox.net.

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NORTH ITALIA

Location: 2957 Michelson Drive, Irvine

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and Sundays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

Prices:

Appetizers: $7 to $18

Entrees: $14 to $38

Desserts: $8 to $10

Wine:

Bottles: $28 to $510

By the glass: $7 to $16; larger glass is $11 to $21

Corkage: $15

Information: (949) 629-7060; northitalia.com