Del Piacere

At Del Piacere, the gnocchi, the pizza dough, the sauces, and the gelato come from the same pair of hands. Pietro Amoriello runs the kitchen as head chef on Preston Street, and the menu reads like a record of what one cook is willing to make from scratch rather than buy in. A Tuscan thread runs through all of it — homemade pasta turned several ways, a four-cheese gnocchi finished with Gorgonzola, fried seafood, desserts built down to the cookie inside the tiramisu. It is a broad Italian kitchen that stays personal, anchored in Ottawa's Little Italy and built to be used more than one way.

The pasta lane is where the kitchen shows its hand. Tagliolini Costa Smeralda arrives as fresh ribbons under scallops, shrimp, and clams in a white-wine saffron sauce scattered with flying fish caviar; Spaghetti Allo Scoglio keeps it plainer, with mussels, shrimp, clams, garlic, and cherry tomatoes. The Gnocchi Quatro Formaggi e Gorgonzola is the one regulars tend to name first — soft potato dumplings in an assorted four-cheese sauce that leans on the Gorgonzola for its edge. Pizza runs on fifteen-inch pies: the Genovese with pesto, bocconcini, and cherry tomatoes; the Capricciosa loaded with artichokes, mushrooms, Italian ham, and black olives; the Margherita kept honest with bocconcini, basil, and oregano. The antipasti reach for the fryer with Frittura Mista Di Pesce, squid and shrimp under garlic oil and horseradish, while Crostini Misti Con Polenta stacks fried polenta with mushrooms, bolognese, and broiled mozzarella. The lamb comes as Costoletta di Agnello in a mushroom sauce with roasted potatoes.