The Humble Gourmand

“Any pasta you get will be amazing,” a friend said as a group of us sat down inside the sleek yet cozy and inviting Stella, in Boston’s South End. We were starved and a tad impatient, since a gaggle of lingering diners kept us standing at the bar a good 30 minutes past our 9:30 reservation.

No sooner than we had settled down at the candlelit table—and much to our delight—we saw two margherita pizzas making their way to us in the hands of a no-nonsense waitress. “From the manager,” she said.

The rectangular flatbreads were attacked with gusto by our hungry crew. Covered with an assertive blend of pecorino and muenster cheese and sprinkled with tomatoes and fresh basil, the grilled pizzas were gone in a flash, their crusts paired with the olives and hummus that had also materialized on our table.

Spicy mussels with saffron cream and roasted red peppers were the next delight to pass our lips, with a garlicky sauce too good to be left behind. Crusty white bread served as an appropriate mop. A four-mushroom grilled pizza came our way next, and proved wonderfully earthy yet crisp and light.

On to the pastas, which did not fail to meet my friend’s lofty pronouncement. Homemade gnocchi were long and quite light, with a simple basil-and-tomato dressing and a sprinkling of Reggiano cheese. A dish of orechiette (“little ears” in Italian) with sausage was punched up with chile flakes, but needed a bit more sauce. But the undisputed champion was the tagliatelle a la bolognese. Oh, that bolognese! I’ve been dreaming of it ever since. The sauce—flush with pancetta, pork, beef, veal, and chicken liver—clung to long, flat pasta that was perfectly chewy and flavorful. It was a stunner.

We wrapped up with tiramisu, the ubiquitous Italian dessert, again on the advice of my wise Beantown friend. Stella’s sublime version erased all memory of prior, mediocre incarnations with its creamy mascarpone, heavily-doused ladyfingers, and a dusting of bittersweet cocoa powder that set off the sweetness perfectly. Yet another high note.

We drank a nice ripasso that was one of quite a few reasonably priced (under $45) Italian reds. The service was well-paced and straightforward, just the way I like it. I’ll certainly return.