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Calabro

Italian food is comforting. It’s about family. Calabro, a recently established Italian restaurant on Manchester Road just south of Burns Cemetery, adheres strictly to this unofficial cuisine policy. Suitably, I brought my own family hoping for a little comfort food to cap a hectic week.

Rose Mosca and daughter Louise operate the place. Rose is the chef, Louise is the server. Their menu is a food family tree that stretches back to Rose’s birthplace — the sunny, rocky southern Italian region of Calabria. The restaurant’s sunny, black-and-white interior is crisply stylish and, yes, comfortable.

Warm and gregarious, Louise guides my party of four to our table, brings us a basket of fresh, warm bread rolls, then opens a bottle of Folonari Valpolicella ($39).

This is the former location of Gaucho Brazilian Barbecue (since relocated to Macleod Trail and 58th Avenue). A couple wanders in expecting grilled meat. They’re good-naturedly redirected.

We order two antipasti dishes. The first is the bruschetta Calabro ($7). A heaping two-piece dish, it’s a departure from restaurant bruschetta that often consists of crunchy bread slices and loose, diced tomato. Served cold, each soft bread slice has been grilled but is completely moistened by its tomato topping. These heaping, cold tomato scoops are formed like loaves with parsley sprigs on each. They’re big and lovely. This is great bruschetta. The tomato has a meaty tang and a mellow garlic flavour.

The other antipasti dish, polpetine fritte con salsa rosa (mini meatballs with marinara sauce, $9) is really fine. The excellent meatballs arrive smothered in thick sauce. Their outer layer is braised and slightly dark. They’ve spent ample time cooking in their own juices, spices intensifying. My one-year-old daughter is quite taken with Louise but also really loves these meatballs.

I cannot resist ordering that most comforting of Italian dishes, gnocchi. Extra appealing is that Calabro’s gnoccchi della Nonna ($11) is made in-house. This ricotta-and-potato gnocchi comes smothered (there’s that delicious word again) in tomato sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese. Both firm and filling, it’s good, straight-shootin’ gnocchi.

My wife is enjoying the linguini con gamberi ($15). It’s prepared with garlic and white wine and served with a fistful of shrimp in the shell. Pasta is too often taken for granted. When you taste really good pasta, however, you really know it. That’s the case here. The consistency and the garlic balance are perfect. If I were a shrimp, you’d find me here, reclining on this lovely bed of pasta.

Our guest, the baby’s aunt, has ordered the vitello al limone ($16). Veal with a sautéed white wine and lemon sauce, she requested a pasta in place of grilled vegetables. Our server suggested spaghetti aglio e oglio ($4.50), which is prepared with garlic, olive oil and peperonico. Again, these folks know pasta. It was the right choice, making a great combination with the veal. Generally lukewarm on the cut, period, I love this tender, fragrant and lightly seasoned veal.

The baccio bianco ($6) is a white chocolate gelato, and the pera ($6) is a pear-shaped chocolate gelato. Both are made by Amato Gelato. Hard chocolate outsides with gelato interiors, they’re served in large white bowls fringed with chocolate sauce. The baccio has a neat raspberry centre. The polite dessert portions are the right size following such a hearty meal.

The Moscas’ enthusiasm for Italian food is contagious. We chat with Rose and Louise as we enjoy our sweets. The tiramisu ($6.50), Rose explains, is currently the only dessert made in-house. The gelatos are quite good, but I’ll order the tiramisu next time, guaranteed.

Finishing up with cappuccinos ($4), my family is quite impressed and certainly satisfied. Auntie, who’s spent many happy hours in Italy as a flight attendant, has the final word: “I haven’t had a cappuccino like this since Rome.”