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That exceptional state

Colorful new neighborhood spot does pasta the right way
Restaurant Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
July 4th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
La Torretta draws crowds thanks to tireless service and decent work in the kitchen.
La Torretta

Moskevská 56
Prague 10–Vršovice
Tel. 739 057 672
Open daily 11 a.m.–11 p.m.

Food **
Service ***
Atmosphere *
Overall **

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
The staff is proud of their pies, but other dishes shine.
FROM THE MENU

Gratinated eggplant 99 Kč
Greek salad 72 Kč
Salmon tartare 127 Kč
Pizza spinaci 117 Kč
Pappardelle with pesto 127 Kč
Ravioli with chicken 154 Kč
Globe (ice cream) 76 Kč
Stella Artois 35 Kč

The pasta’s the thing.
Even though La Torretta bills itself as a pizzeria, the pasta is what stands out: rolled flat and cranked into shape by hand, boiled to that exceptional state where the dough begins to falter, but not without a stubborn show of resistance — al dente. Another minute in hot water and its spirit would collapse.
Most of the midrange restaurants in Prague serve pasta, but few manage to find al dente. Instead, kitchens cook the stuff relentlessly, melting strands of spaghetti or twisted fusilli into slobbery, weeping filler. Happily, the approach is different at this Vršovice corner spot.
Pappardelle supports a coating of pesto with an unmistakably confident, supple texture. Ravioli, stuffed with a ricotta-
spinach mixture and pressed by hand into quaint, irregular squares, provides the same for a course stacked with chicken and mushrooms. The sensation that you are biting into something, that ever-so-brief moment of resilience, is critical, particularly in simple constructions.
Simplest of all are those dishes tossed with butter or a basic sauce. Pappardelle highlights a puree of sweet basil, its bright, herbal flavor wavering above the salty, piquant body. As the gush of blended leaves, olive oil and cheese dissipates, something vaguely bitter and faintly tart slips in, only to be washed away by the clean, malty taste of fresh pasta.
The kitchen pits ravioli against chicken seared golden brown, yet still tender — a more cumbersome arrangement, certainly, but one that doesn’t bury pasta under heavy flavors. Olive oil serves as the dressing. Mushrooms, sautéed quite gently, contribute a hollow, musty background to the sweet tinge of caramelized meat. Shredded basil adds bright spots. And the ravioli casing is perfect.
Oh, the filling is on the dry side and monotonous to boot. But why quibble? La Torretta is an unheralded, moderately priced neighborhood restaurant, not a fine-dining establishment. Plastic-coated fold-out menus, like something from a Midwestern family diner, greet guests. The obvious paint scheme of red and old gold and the phony stone facades are sophomoric paeans to popular imagination — all those Tuscan villages washed in faded autumn colors.
And other items on the menu can be disappointing.
Although pizza spinaci features nicely balanced toppings — spinach, onions, bacon, a feathery spread of tangy sauce and equally thin cheese — the crust on one visit emerged white and stiff, resembling posterboard in both texture and flavor. Only scattered burn marks and a dusting of flour gave evidence that baked dough rather than compressed cardboard held the toppings. And the kitchen’s interpretation of Greek salad is prosaic, relying on two or three olives and a brazenly sour dressing to convey Mediterranean lineage.
But these are countered by several welcome surprises.
Gratinated eggplant — hulls scooped almost clean, then filled with roasted scrapings, tomatoes and oregano — has a deep, earthy, almost meaty richness. Another starter, salmon tartare, corrals several strident elements into a small mound, restraining them somehow. Chopped onions and herbs appear coy. The fish is mild with a comforting, fatty mouthfeel. Roe, sprinkled on top and around the plate, pop cleanly, allowing an almost languid sensation of fishiness and salt to flow across the palate.
Then there’s a dessert known as “globe:” strands of crystallized caramel woven into an amber ball encircling hazelnut ice cream. As the Crash Davis character said in Bull Durham, “Isn’t this a little excessive for the Carolina League?”
That’s the point, really. La Torretta is not just another neighborhood restaurant.
Granted, the décor is a bit tacky. And the patio, like so many others, sits on a busy sidewalk with trams clattering past.
Aside from the gaudy ice-cream concoction, the food is nothing fancy and priced accordingly. But give the kitchen credit for trying to get everything right.
And that’s the rub.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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