At Luigi's, it's like your own nona taught the chef

By GAIL CIAMPA
Journal Food Editor

JOHNSTON -- Dining at Luigi's Restaurant feels like eating at your grandmother's house. That is, of course, providing she was a terrific Italian-American cook.

The dishes are familiar family favorites such as macaroni and gravy, now called pasta and sauce. There's also veal parmigiana, chicken cacciatore, and the Friday-night fish fry. You are welcome to a bowl of homemade soup first. There's always bread and butter on the table, and no one waits too long to eat -- the antipasto is ready and waiting in the kitchen.

The portions are huge.

"Eat!" you can hear Grandma say. "You're nothing but skin and bones."

Diners leave Luigi's weighed down with doggie bags reminiscent of the care packages sent home after a Sunday dinner.

There's the accommodating service, ready to indulge everyone's quirky eating habits. Want cocktail sauce, not tartar sauce, with the fried scallops? These servers will make another quick run to the kitchen without a hint of culinary derision. Didn't Grandma crowd that table with everyone's favorites -- including the jar of hot red pepper flakes -- no matter how strange?

Even the surroundings feel like Grandma's. They are a little worn, like the family dining room where so many meals were served for so many years to so many.

Finally, there's the knowledge that family is all around. Luigi Battista, who started the restaurant 35 years ago, is semi-retired, but his children, Lu-Ann, Loreen and Ralph, and their families are in the house to cook and manage things now.

The only obvious difference between eating at Luigi's and Grandma's is that she generally didn't offer all her dishes at one time as they do here. And she often served Grandpa's homemade wine, a fate we needn't fear at Luigi's.

Yes, a visit to Luigi's is sure to conjure up memories of Grandma's cooking and all the flavors enjoyed there. It's not surprising, because most of the dishes are made from family recipes passed down from grandmother or mother to chef Ralph Battista.

"We think about what we like to make and eat ourselves," he said in a telephone interview. "And that's what we serve."

Raised on the line

Battista has no formal culinary education, but he grew up training in the kitchen. His father opened his first pizza place when the youngster was in second grade. By age 14, chef Ralph was cooking on the line, helping his father.

But he learned from his mother and grandmother as well. The recipe for the chicken escarole soup comes from grandmother Anna Mignanelli's kitchen.

His mother, Antonetta Battista, taught him how to bake a good cheesecake as a teenage apprentice chef. While that basic recipe is still the same one he uses today, he has expanded on it to create Oreo (rich and chocolatey with an Oreo cookie crust) white-chocolate truffle, caramelized apple and my favorite, cappuccino cheesecake.

On any given night, these homemade cheesecakes fill up the dessert tray along with his chocolate layer cake. A few desserts, such as the light and refreshing key lime we tried on our visit, are purchased from vendors.

But enough about dessert. It's dishes like the antipasto salad -- salami, prosciutto, provolone, roasted peppers, marinated mushrooms and olives on fresh salad greens -- that jump-start the memory circuits.

Soon the giant dish of pasta -- that's half a pound of uncooked pasta, with the familar tomato sauce that sticks to every line of penne, and would never have so much as a slice of onion in it -- takes you right home to the Sunday kitchen. The big, garlicky meatballs are mostly meat with little bread crumbs, just like a nona would make.

Gnocchi in pink

With some dishes, Battista said he gets more "creatively minded." But always, he keeps his traditional customer in mind.

Gnocchi Gorgonzola features the homemade potato dumplings in a pink vodka sauce tossed with Romano and a mild imported gorgonzola. The pink sauce blends Luigi's marinara with a bechamel sauce, made by thickening milk with a white roux and seasonings, and the vodka. The sauce made a lovely pairing with the gnocchi.

Gnocchi is one of seven pasta choices that can be paired with any of 14 sauces to create your own pasta. The pastas are penne, linguine, fettucine, capellini, cavatelli and farfalle. The sauces are marinara, aglio e olio with or without broccoli, alfredo with or without broccoli, bolognese, pink vodka, red or white tuna sauce, tomato sauce, carbonara, pesto, and red or white clam sauce.

Battista said that while the two dining rooms that seat 140 haven't noticeably changed in the 18 years they've been at the Hartford Avenue strip mall (the first Luigi's was in Smithfield), the kitchen is a continuous work in progress. That's the only way to keep up with serving a menu that goes from all that pasta, to prime rib, to seafood, chicken and veal and a variety of salads, from snail to Caesar.

The menu gets even larger when Battista adds seasonal specials like the recent Lenten fish selections.

Battista makes another commitment, to fresh ingredients. He said he only buys fresh, untreated sea scallops, which have not been soaked with phosphates to retain water, as those you see plumped up in the grocery store cases have been. This no doubt has something to do with the tenderness of the fried scallops we enjoyed.

While traditional New England-style seafood is not as much part of family history, it's his nod to customer demand. In addition to his grandma's escarole soup, he regularly offers two chowders, a white and the Manhattan red chowder we sampled. This chowder was full of beautifully blended ingredients -- no surprises of big, unwieldy potatoes, but plenty of nicely diced clams.

Too easy to get stuffed

We were trying a lot of dishes, but one of the beauties of Luigi's is that most diners would find all they need in an entree or pasta. They all come with soup or salad. The meat entrees also come with a vegetable.

Less may be more if you truly want to enjoy the veal saltimbocca, with its tender medallions of meat adorned with provolone, lean prosciutto and a nicely sweet marsala sauce. Maybe we didn't need to first eat a whole serving of fried calamari, lightly battered and tossed with hot pepper rings and garlic butter.

About that garlic butter, which gets an extra spike of flavor from chopped roasted peppers: It's the flavor behind Battista's steak alla mama and the secret of his chicken capri, a boneless breast sauteed in the garlic butter before pairing with artichoke hearts, roasted peppers and mushrooms. He also likes it on grilled seafood.

Battista noted that with his style of Italian saute cooking, he can do a lot with the same 12 to 15 ingredients and five or six sauces. That's how he can offer so many selections.

The wine list offers 10 selections by the glass, from Italy, California and Australia. They include familiar, less expensive wines such as Cavit Pinot Grigio, Blackstone Merlot and Yellow Tail Chardonnay. The list of bottles is limited, recently pared down to keep consistent with the value expected by Luigi customers.

Those customers, by the way, are willing to wait for their dinners, given that reservations are accepted only for parties of six or more. But the lounge area can easily accommodate many of those waiting. And from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, those ordering drinks in that lounge are served free hors d'oeuvres.

Those who want to enjoy the homestyle dishes at home instead can stop at the adjoining Luigi's Gourmet Express by day and pick up many menu items and more, from soup to dessert. Even Grandma could probably pass those dishes off as her own.

Details, Details

Luigi's Restaurant, 1357 Hartford Ave., Johnston, (401) 861-3850. Casual. Reservations accepted for six or more. Wheelchair accessible. High chairs and boosters available. Open for lunch Tues.-Fri. 11 to 4 p.m.; for dinner Tues.-Thur. 4 to 9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 4 to 10; Sun. noon to 8 p.m. V, MC, AM, DIS. Ample parking.

Appetizers cost $6.95 to $8.95. Entrees are $6.95 to $22.95. Desserts cost $4.95 to $5.95. There is a children's menu with items starting at $4.95. The wine list: $4.50 to $5.95 by the glass; $14 to $28 for a bottle.

If you like The Venus DeMilo in Swansea, Caffe Itri in Cranston and Casa Christine's in Providence, you'll like Luigi's.

Bill of fare

The bill for two at Luigi's Restaurant might look something like this:

Fried calamari $7.95

Antipasto salad $6.95

Veal saltimbocca $15.95

Gnocchi gorgonzola $10.95

Oreo cheesecake $4.95

Key lime pie $4.95

Yellow Tail Chardonnay $4.50

Conte Di Penazano Chianti $4.50

Tax $4.85

Tip $12.00

Total $77.55

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Luigi's Restaurant (Johnston-Hartford Ave)