ANGELO'S RISTORANTE
575 Boylston St., Boston
(617) 536-4045
(Get directions)

Restaurant reviewed 11/17/97 by Alison Arnett

ANGELO'S RISTORANTE Type: Italian Prices: Antipasti and salads, $5.95-$14.95; pasta, $12.95- $18.95; entrees, $17.95- $27.95; desserts, $6.95. Good choices: Grilled langoustine; grilled sausage with apples and polenta; grilled porcini mushrooms; fusilli with roasted artichokes; pappardelle with tomato, basil; bucatini all'amatriciana; risotto with white truffles; pheasant with pancetta, sage and grappa; torte della Nonna. Hours: Lunch, Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; dinner, Monday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-midnight. Reservations accepted. Small smoking area. Credit cards: American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Diners. Access: Fully accessible.

''When she was good, she was very, very good. But when she was bad, she was horrid.'' The nursery rhyme came floating through my mind when I considered the puzzle of Angelo's pasta. Of seven pasta dishes I tasted here, five were exceptionally good, paradigms of what pasta should taste like. But two, both eaten on a busy Saturday night, were rubbery or flaccid.

On quieter visits, the pasta shone, obviously fresh and cooked to order as the menu promises. Loose spirals of hand-shaped fusilli were just al dente, so that the firm pasta caught the sauce of roasted artichokes, sweet roasted garlic, and Parmesan and held it, giving the eater a small symphony of flavors all at once. The thick long spaghetti shape of bucatini had enough resistance and heft to support a truly spicy amatriciana sauce, all bounce and fire of smoked pancetta, tomatoes, and lots of hot peppers. The first bite was startling and then it became impossible to stop eating it.

Often when one eats linguine with clams, the pasta fades into the background as one endeavors to find all the clams. But not at Angelo's, when the pasta is as fine as the seafood. Or squid ink pasta, almost crunchy in texture and irresistible under New Zealand langoustines. Even the simplest preparation, pappardelle sauced with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella, had enough oomph in the pasta to support the straightforward flavors.

But pappardelle with a bounty of game - smoked partridge, quail, and pheasant with pancetta and chanterelles - had the mouth feel of having been held too long in water; the edges were gummy, the middle of the wide bands stiff. And an expensive dish of ravioli filled with venison and covered in a thick, almost bitter port sauce, was leaden, the state of the pasta actually interfering with the taste of the venison.

Why is this a big deal, one might ask? The original restaurant in Stoneham became known for its pasta when Angelo's won a region-wide pasta contest in '94, beating out more celebrated contestants. A year ago, chef Anthony Caruso and his wife, Angela, decided to branch out into the competitive Back Bay; his parents still run the Stoneham restaurant. Caruso makes all the pasta from a recipe and technique he learned in Bologna. So pasta quality and authenticity are integral to going to the restaurant.

The Italian culinary classics are taken seriously by Caruso. The menu is long and quite formal with a separate sheet of daily specials based on the season. Although the wine list isn't particularly imaginative, the price range is fairly reasonable, especially in the Italian selections. For autumn, fresh porcinis, white truffles, and game are offered, at prices commensurate with those luxuries, and Angelo's obviously has clientele with confidence in the chef to order them.

To be sure, there were many other pleasing dishes. Grilled sausage glazed with honey and served with roasted apples over soft polenta hit all the right notes. Porcini, which our waiter told us had been imported fresh from Italy, were meaty and slightly smoky from the grill, served drizzled with olive oil over toasted bread.

An appetizer of grilled New Zealand langoustine, done simply but with plenty of butter, practically melted on the tongue. A plate of prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, marinated mushrooms, and roasted artichokes was enough for two or three to share. The only awkward note: the Greek olives in a city where Italian varieties are easy to obtain.

Pan-roasted pheasant was plump and moist, delicious in a thin wisp of a sauce laced with grappa. Although farm-raised pheasants hardly have a gamy taste, the liqueur, pancetta, and sage gave the bird an extra dimension of flavor. A zesty sauce of tomatoes, olives, capers, and garlic had a pleasing, lively taste but was laid on so thickly over a swordfish steak that it was difficult to ascertain the quality of the fish, proving that too much of a good thing is just too much.

The pride of the place one evening, described lovingly by the waiter, proved that simplicity is the best method to showcase rare ingredients. A risotto with shavings of white truffles and Parmesan was heady with fragrance, full of warm, earthy flavors. The risotto was perfectly made, almost creamy yet with plenty of texture. There was enough cheese to smooth the rice and to give a depth to the flavor of the dish. And yet the truffles perfumed the dish, musky and exotic, taking a few ingredients to another level.

Star of the dessert list was a delicately flavored torta della Nonna, a thin layer of custard over pastry that was then covered with chopped pignolis. A black forest cake of deep chocolate with a layer of raspberry satisfied the chocolate lovers in our party, and a tangy lemon sorbet in a hollowed-out lemon was a nice, light alternative.

The ambience of Angelo's, in a long rectangle of a room with marble and wood and only a few other decorative touches, matches the food, classical and almost a little old-fashioned, very much like what one finds in restaurants in Italian cities. Most of the wait staff bolster that with soft-spoken attentiveness; the feeling was marred only when a young waiter persisted in correcting any Italian mispronunciations by customers.

There are plenty of reasons to sample Angelo's classics, but the chief remains the pasta. Because when Caruso is on, the pasta is spectacular.