Southern Soul

In the first century of Italian-American cuisine, nothing north of Naples mattered. The vast majority of the Italian immigrants who migrated to this country in the late 1800s and early 1900s came from their motherland's hot and impoverished south, a land of red sauce made from heat-loving San Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella from the milk of indigenous water buffaloes. So America came to love pizza, capicola, calzones, limoncello and rich, creamy desserts. Only in Alex P. Keaton's America did the more restrained fare of the north start coming into vogue—risotto, prosciutto, panna cotta, fontina, Asiago.

So there's something novel about Portland—which lost its own Little Italy to an Eisenhower-era urban renewal project, leaving it a Stromboli desert ever since—getting a new high-end Southern Italian restaurant. When we think fine dining, we tend to think of Genoa or Florence. 

Bellino Trattoria Siciliana chef and owner Francesco Inguaggiato spent 18 years as a pro basketballer in Italy—a shooting guard in the mold of Manu Ginobili—and runs two spots in Texas. This new Pearl District restaurant is a polished space: the tables and bar are white quartz, banquettes are century-old church pews from a Catholic church in Northeast, and decorations make liberal use of Sicily's flag.

Bellino isn't the best, or even the second-best, new Italian restaurant to open in town this year. But it has some very nice dishes, and for those amateur culinary anthologists among us, it's interesting to see authentic Southern Italian fare and wonder what Grandma Pollifrone was thinking as she tinkered with the old country's wedding soup recipe.

I was also intrigued by the fritto misto ($14), a quartet of deep-fried Sicilian street foods, including arancini, another type of rice ball, a potato croquette and a fried meatball. The crisp-shelled, juice-dripping meatball was the standout—I'd happily get a whole plate of them if I could. 

A meat-and-cheese plate ($18) comes with three of each, plus little bowls of Sicilian Castelvetrano olives and dried oranges—grab for the Parma ham and the buttery pecorino. The plate's major drawback is the lack of contrasting textures and flavors in what's a very dry and salty lineup.

Meanwhile, the anelletti al forno ($16) featured little O-shaped noodles in a muted Bolognese sauce. Between the little O's, the flat, red sauce and the ground beef and pork, it recalls SpaghettiOs to an uncomfortable degree. A plate of breaded and fried mackerel ($25) was starchy and soggy. Sicily's favorite seafood, swordfish ($26), came out like rare tuna steak spritzed with citrus, but the flesh didn't have the same pleasant tautness.

But then there's dessert. Even at the height of the Asiago boom, Southern Italian desserts have always held special sway. Bellino's selection—each listed with a suggested wine pairing, but a shot of Caffe Umbria espresso is recommended—is short but well-executed. We especially liked the torta di cioccolato e menta, a wedge of short, brownie-like chocolate cake with a dusting of powdered sugar and a drizzle of rich cocoa sauce.

Mostly it made me yearn for a real Italian bakery in Portland—a place where you can get cakes with 10 layers and a big box of ricciarelli.  

Order this: Insalata Umberto, busiati alla trapanese.

I'll pass: Anelletti al forno, mackarel, swordfish.

EAT: Bellino Trattoria Siciliana, 1230 NW Hoyt St., 208-2992, bellinoportland.com. 11 am-2 pm and 4-9 pm Tuesday-Thursday, 11 am-2 pm and 4-10 pm Friday-Saturday.

WWeek 2015