Profile

Literally and stylistically, the loud and bustling Puttanesca really gets around. The interior design represents a geographic hodgepodge: Rustic exposed brick, slate floors, and a hanging bust of Buddha. Veteran chef Roberto Passon presents a mixed bag of fairly predictable tricks, with eclectic and multi-ingredient pan-Italian dishes, including dried and fresh pastas in a variety of rich sauces, and roasted, braised, and sautéed meat and fish. Passon gives us the greatest hits of the traditional Italian-American trattoria as well: fried calamari, chicken Parmesan, and spaghetti and meatballs. The fresh homemade pastas are the main attraction; eight of the largest tortellini you'll ever see, stuffed with wonderfully pungent, almost gamey ground veal, lounge in a thick, garnet-colored Barolo sauce. And the addition of proscuitto gives the Paglia e Fieno—green and white fettucini with peas and mushrooms in a rich cream sauce—an agreeably smoky edge. Named after the pasta sauce that's derived from the Italian word for whore, the restaurant aims to seduce. For most, it does the trick. — Andrew Sessa

Paglia e Fieno, $14; tortellini di vitello, $14