Red-sauce Italian, the first ethnic cuisine popular in this country, once shared the Las Vegas stage with chuck-wagon buffets and the silver domes of the now-defunct gourmet room. That was then and this is now, yet, despite a multiplicity of ethnic dining and celebrity American chefs, Las Vegans haven't forgotten how to enjoy a nice plate of pasta.
Traditional Italian restaurants abound, from chains like the Olive Garden to throwbacks like Battista's Hole In The Wall. Newcomers like Casa Di Amore can be overlooked, and that's a mistake—the cooking here is solid and consistent. The building has a dark and clubby ambience, notable as much for its quarter slots as its framed photos depicting the Strip circa 1960.
My favorite time to come is lunch, when Tony runs the show. He might be the only waiter during these hours—no mean feat—but he runs a tight ship, presenting special pizzas with bufala mozzarella only available to a coterie of regulars, or getting the rank and file to eat a dish like chicken Angelo: boneless chicken sautéed with mushrooms, artichoke hearts and olives. Do we care that a dish like this is no more Italian than the Pope? Guess not.
That said, Casa Di Amore (Italian for "house of love") prepares several dishes well in the classic Italian-American style. Pizzas are huge, bready and terrific, more like deep-dish pan pizzas than the thin-crust variety. I ordered a 12-inch pepperoni topped with whole-milk mozzarella and tangy marinara, and it turned out to be a monstrosity that easily could have served four.
Casa Di Amore is the only restaurant I know that does chicken pastina soup. When I was 5 years old, the Italian grandmother who waited for me after school always served me a bowl of this, made with little pasta pearls, a rich chicken broth, carrots, celery and chicken. This version is a delight, every bit as good as the homemade soup from my childhood.
Another lunch strategy involves greens, in this case, escarole, deliciously sautéed with garlic, oil and perhaps a hint too much salt. These are wonderful with the crusty, hot Italian house bread, but even better with penne.
One of my favorite appetizers is a real Vegas anachronism—baked clams, basically chopped, whole clams baked in their shells with seasoned bread crumbs. Scungilli salad is really conch served with fresh tomatoes, onions and Italian seasoning. And yes, there is a classic Caesar that can be ordered with or without a portion of grilled chicken.
At dinner, the menu's A Touch Of Italy section is where to look for red-sauce classics. Jumbo stuffed shells, bursting with ricotta cheese and baked, come with traditional marinara or a meat-rich red sauce. Tripe, of all things, comes in a red sauce, and a reasonably fluffy gnocchi, thumbnail-sized potato-flour dumplings, also is optioned by marinara or meat sauce.
The rest of the extensive menu is essentially variations on a theme of chicken, steak or seafood, with a few veal and pork dishes thrown in. Steak Sicilian uses the same bread crumbs that stuff the clams as a crust. Veal osso buco comes with sides of vegetables and pasta. My favorite entrée, pork chops with vinegar and peppers, comes sautéed with wedged potatoes.
Seafood can be red or white. From the red side is cioppino: fresh clams, lobster, mussels, crab, scallops and shrimp stewed in a rich tomato broth. Naturally, there is linguine clams, red or white, and scampi, where the shrimp are bathed in an oil and garlic marinade before being served over al dente linguine.
For dessert, there is spumoni ice cream cake, real cannoli and the inevitable tiramisu. Did Frank, Dean or Sammy know what tiramisu was in 1960? I'd bet against it, but then, maybe I'd lose.