Academy Award-nominated actor Stanley Tucci and I share a selfsame perspective on eating well: “To me, eating well is not just about what tastes good but about the connections that are made through the food itself. I am hardly saying anything new by stating that our links to what we eat have practically disappeared beneath sheets of plastic wrap. But what are also disappearing are the wonderful, vital human connections we’re able to make when we buy something we love to eat from someone who loves to sell it, who bought it from someone who loves to grow, catch, or raise it. Whether we know it or not, great comfort is found in these relationships, and they are very much a part of what solidifies a community.”
In his highly acclaimed CNN series “Searching For Italy,” viewers rarely (if ever) saw Tucci dining by himself. Tucci understands that sharing a meal is an intimate experience, and those who sit beside us at the table can feel this intimacy: Bonds with loved ones become stronger, and strangers feel like strangers no more. Coming together and sharing a meal is the most communal and binding thing in almost every place in the world. Professor Ayelet Fishbach published a study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology that recently showed colleagues who ate similar foods together experienced higher rates of trust and closeness than those who ate alone. “
Linda Johansen and I were work colleagues at the University of New Mexico (UNM) before she became my boss. We bonded and became friends over many a meal–good and bad. Linda and I share a passion for great food. She may, in fact, be even more passionate about gastronomy than this self-glossed gastronome. As a certified Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) judge, she’s had the privilege of judging at the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, the largest barbecue contest in the world. She’s also used her discernment of culinary excellence as judge at other national and local events (including the world’s largest matanza in Belen).
When Linda’s sister Nancy recently visited from Connecticut, Linda invited us to break bruschetta for lunch. We mulled over our options. Like me, Linda will often eschew “the usual suspects” in favor of “the shiny new object.” It surprised me, however, that she would want to visit Il Localetto Rosatti, an Italian eatery feeding Albuquerque for only about a month. It’s not that Linda doesn’t like Italian food. She does. Linda, Nancy and (to a lesser extent) I cut our teeth with Italian food in the Northeast states. I still content that the best Italian food in the country can be found only in such states as Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Like Mikey from the old Life Cereal commercials, Albuquerque Yelpers don’t like anything, but Il Localetto Rossi (The Little Red Place) has a five-star rating over 22 reviews. That’s not a lot of Yelp reviews, but it’s quite a start (though you can bet some contrarian is going to downgrade it just because…). Il Localetto Rossi is located on Buena Vista across Central Avenue from UNM. It’s housed in the familiar one story building that was home to Thai House for 33 years before the venerable eatery relocated to Carlisle.
Il Localetto Rossi has the pedigree to succeed in a Duke City Italian restaurant market that continues to improve. That pedigree is three local guys who like their anonymity because it’s about the food – not about them. You’ve gotta love the antithesis of the ego-driven celebrity chef personality. When the Cabrona Virus shut down the world, the triumvirate launched Urbano Pasta Kitchen, one of the city’s very first “ghost kitchens.” Urbano specialized in fresh made food, made from scratch to order. As a Virtual Kitchen, the chef’s created a menu of Italian food with New Mexico influences. They made their own pasta, sauces and mozzarella.
While the concept of a ghost kitchen showed promise, the reliance on delivery services meant food may not be warm or fresh by the time it got to its intended destination. Urbano shuttered its doors not long after Anthony Fauci decided it was safe for Americans to interact with one another again. It made sense for the three chefs to launch a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Il Localetto Rossi opened its doors in March, 2024. No vestiges of the Thai House remain. The one room dining room is painted red with seating along the walls.
25 April 2024: Our foursome started our meal with a bread basket (lightly toasted baguette served with Calabrian chili oil). Calabrian chili peppers come from the Calabria region of Southern Italy. Though a number of chili peppers are now grown throughout Europe, specific growing conditions–optimum heat and sunlight, fecund soil, light rain–in the Calabrian region help distinguish Calabrian chile peppers from their counterparts elsewhere. Calabrian peppers are spicy and smoky with just enough heat to be discernible. Linda, Nancy and I had no problems with the heat though it was a bit much for my Kim.
25 April 2024: A second bread-based starter not to be missed is the mushroom bruscetta (Italian herbs, wild mushrooms, tomatoes, caramelized onions, Boursin cheese). It’s second only to the incomparable bruscetta at Joe’s Pasta House in Rio Rancho though better exemplifying the versatility of bread as a canvas. Interesting was the choice of Boursin, a French cheese with a soft, creamy texture. It’s a good choice because it spreads easily and melts well. The wild mushrooms and caramelized onions provide plenty of umami deliciousness.
Enjoying two appetizers gave us an opportunity to study the menu at length. It’s a unique menu featuring some items not available at other Duke City Italian restaurants. The menu is broken down into four distinct sections: Appetizers (four items), Salads and Soups (five items), Pasta (seven items) and Main Courses (eight items). Within the Main Courses section, you’ll find such surprises as a New York strip, pork chops and grilled salmon. Sides include mashed potatoes, broccolini, meatballs, sauteed shrimp and more.
25 April 2024: Pasta Bolo, where have you been all my life? Google “Pasta Bolo” and the results returned will likely be for “Pasta Bolognese,” a dish with which I’m intimately familiar though there are many variations. Il Locatello’s Pasta Bolo combines pork and beef in a red wine ragú alla Bolognese over rigatoni pasta and Parmesan cheese. Interestingly the Bolognese is only one of three sauces which give this dish an interesting twist. It’s also made with marinara and Alfredo sauces. This is a rich, luxurious, absolutely mouth-watering sauce combination that clings to the rigatoni (my favorite pasta) seductively. With any type of Bolognese, a pasta with a hole is best so you can maximize the capture of that sauce. Already this is one of my favorite Italian dishes in Albuquerque. 13 August 2024: Our friend John Martin, a bona fide volcano-eater “adulterated” his Pasta Bolo dish with Calabrian chili oil and chili flakes. His penchant for piquancy is prodigious. He just can’t get enough heat for his asbestos-lined mouth.
25 April 2024: In recent years, few Italian dishes have made such inroads into America’s culinary landscape as cacio e pepe, a a traditional Roman pasta dish with only four ingredients: spaghetti, black pepper, Pecorino and Parmesan. Cacio e Pepe which translates from Italian to “cheese and pepper” is widely considered one of Rome’s most significant culinary creations (along with pasta carbonara). Most restaurants serve cacio e pepe with a spaghetti-like pasta. Il Locatello’s serves a unique gnocchi cacio e pepe (pan-seared homemade potato dumplings, black pepper, Parmesan, Pecorino cheese and truffle oil). Texturally, it’s quite unlike the mushy mashed potato-like dumplings typically called gnocchi. The truffle oil and pepper combination give this dish a bit of assertiveness and punch.
25 April 2024: When it comes to naming dishes, Italians have no equal. Bizarrely named Italian dishes are replete with sexual innuendo, insults and even homicidal instincts. More innocuous is the term “saltimbocca” which literally means to “jump in the mouth” (hmm, that could be construed as sexual innuendo). This is likely in reference to the flavor that hits your palate on first bite. Saltimbocca dishes can be made with veal, pork, beef and chicken. A classic Italian dish originating from Rome, Saltimbocca is traditionally made with thin cutlets wrapped or topped with prosciutto, and a whole sage leaf often pressed or pinned on top with a toothpick.
Chicken saltimbocca (lightly breaded chicken breast, prosciutto, sage, capers, marinated tomatoes, feta, Dijon lemon butter) was Nancy’s entree of choice. It’s a beautiful dish with three thin chicken cutlets on top of creamy, buttery mashed potatoes. The combination of flavors in concordant competition for the rapt attention of your taste buds is a wonderful thing to experience. Capers are an unsung, underappreciated ingredient. Pair capers with Dijon lemon butter and you’ve got a flavor profile that combines a lemony, briny tang with salty, savory and acidic notes. These flavors work exceptionally well on chicken cutlets.
25 April 2024: Even when enjoying lunch Linda showed the forward-thinking that has made her the doyenne of Information Technology at UNM. She not only ordered a lunch entree (chicken carbonara), she ordered Il Localetto’s lasagna (housemade meat and Alfredo sauce with roasted marinara, herb ricotta and Mozzarella cheese). While the notion of ordering dinner was brilliant, her kind-heartedness may have been dinner’s outdoing. She decided we should all sample the lasagna. My Kim will tell you my “sample size” can be rather generous. Sorry, Linda. Not sorry, however, about trying that lasagna. It’s a good one.
25 April 2024: Linda’s lunch entree was chicken carbonara (bacon, red onion, peas, carbonara sauce, spaghetti pasta and crispy Romano chicken). Chicken Romano, a dish consisting of chicken breast fillets crusted with Romano cheese was a highlight. All the national chicken finger restaurants opening franchises in the metropolitan area could take a lesson or ten from Il Localetto whose Chicken Romano is fabulous. So is the carbonara, a rich and delicious Roman pasta dish. Red onions were a surprising addition and certainly not traditional, but we enjoyed them nonetheless.
25 April 2024: Il Localetto’s desserts are quite good, too. My Kim had her usual two scoops of gelato–vanilla and salted caramel. Indicative of how much she liked them, she didn’t offer me a single bite. Of course, her retort is that she didn’t have a bite of the tiramisu. In my defense, my Kim hates tiramisu. Nancy and I both had (and both loved) tiramisu. She made sure my photographs captured the layers of espresso-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone cream Dusted with cocoa, the tiramisu is a wonderful adult dessert.
Il Localetto offers a number of vegetarian and gluten-free menu items. It does not currently have a beer and wine license, so if you crave adult beverages with your Italian food, you’re out of luck. San Pellegrino (limonata, aranciata, aranciata rossa) are nice alternatives. Future visit considerations include a charcuterie board (Genoa salami, Italian prosciutto, prosciutto cotto, fresh Mozzarella, triple cream Brie, grana padano Paremesan cheese, seasonal jams, Italian olives, marinated tomatoes, cornicione pickles, crostini, seasonal fruit, stuffed peppadew peppers with Boursin cheese).
13 August 2024: According to various sources, pesto sauce is the world’s second most popular pasta sauce (behind marinara sauce). Pesto is pure green gloriousness, a preternaturally delicious sauce which blends in harmony, the peppery freshness of basil, the pungency of raw garlic, the luxuriousness of olive oil, the rich earthiness of Parmesan and the resinous pine-like flavor of pine nuts. The term “pesto” has its genesis in the Genovese word “pesto,” meaning “to pound or to crush,” referring to the traditional method of preparing the sauce using a mortar and pestle. This translation, however, might be somewhat misleading, as the preparation involves more grinding than pounding. This method is crucial for releasing the full aroma of the basil leaves without crushing them.
Though it’s got a lot going on, the pesto tortellini (sauté wild mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, red onions, basil, creamy pesto sauce, gorgonzola cheese) at Il Localetto Rossi still manages to showcase the aforementioned qualities of pesto. Available with your choice of protein (I highly recommend the shrimp), this is a dish as well-prepared as any pesto dish we’ve had. Sun-dried tomatoes will remind you why that ingredient was so popular about twenty years ago while the gorgonzola cheese shows why it’s the blue cheese people love who don’t otherwise blue cheese. The tortellini is redolent with herbaceous freshness and a creamy richness diners will love.
13 August 2024: Il Localetto Rossi’s menu lists four salads and one soup, Pomodoro Zuppa (creamy tomato bisque with crispy croutons and Parmesan cheese). My Kim is on a Caprese salad (marinated tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and Balsamic reduction) kick of late. Caprese salads, she tells me, are not only delicious, but very healthy and low in calories (about 250 calories per serving). Traditionally made with tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil, and Balsamic dressing, a good Caprese salad bespeaks of summer.
Forgive my cynicism, but I do have one thing against Caprese salads. Most restaurants don’t use naturally ripened tomatoes. Though Caprese calls for thick tomatoes, if they’re artificially ripened, thick tomatoes just don’t taste fresh. With tomatoes as with many vegetables, naturally ripened vegetables have a short life. When a restaurant is dependent on suppliers to provide those vegetables, they’re not always assured of optimal freshness during that short lifespan. Il Localetto Rossi’s Caprese salad is otherwise very good.
Il Localetto Rossi is the type of restaurant Stanley Tucci would enjoy with his community of friends. In two visits, we’ve been blessed to enjoy our visits with friends and it made our meal oh, so much better.
Il Localetto Rossi Italian Cuisine
106 Buena Vista Drive, S.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
505 355 5953
Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 13 August 2024
1st VISIT: 25 April 2024
# OF VISITS: 2
RATED: 23
COST: $$ – $$$
BEST BET: Bread Basket With Calabrian Chili Oil, Mushroom Bruschetta, Pasta Bolo, Gnocchi Cacio E Pepe, Chicken Carbonara, Lasagna, Chicken Saltimboca, Pesto Tortellini,
REVIEW 1393
First visit to Il Localetto Rossi last night, and it delivered on some great food! Had bowl of the Fantastic pomodoro zuppa, which had a great flavor, but arrived barely lukewarm, which was disappointing on a cold night. Ordered the mushroom bruschetta sans tomato, which arrived hot. Bruschetta came home in a doggie bag, since the soup and bread (with great garlic olive oil) were quite filling, but it was delicious for lunch, heated up next day. Owners need to install a heat lamp (or open the heating vents) in the ladies room, which was freezing by 8pm. Otherwise, a wonderful evening.
Am not much of a lunch diner, but wanted to keep up with readers of recent write-ups of the place.
Alas, as most places did, they missed out on getting some of the rare Swiss Spaghetti this season. As such, I ordered a 1/2 Caesar Salad per having missed some in months. Is nicely, lightly dressed in the dressing, tho IMHO, most places could add a bit more anchovy for the older crowd…LOL
Also ordered a cup of Pomodora Zuppa which was a mistake as the larger serving would hopefully sate the taste for this most flavorful of most creamier of tomato soups…obviously not straight out of Campbell’s or Warhol’s can.
For newbies to Gil’s site who may not have run across it yet, here’s the scoop on spaghetti from Switzerland: https://tinyurl.com/2k3ww6je
“Calabrian chili peppers” Or ‘chile’? 😊
Lucho siempre con la dilema de como deletrear “chile” en Ingles. Tambien en Italiano. Parece que el mundo entero tambien lucha con la pregunta de cuál es correcto y adecuado: chili o chile. Tristemente el internet usa los dos términos. En este caso, uso la palabra que usa el restaurante.
Pedro, asta aqui in Nuevo Mexico, mucha gente deletrean la palabra “chili.” Quisiera mandarlos todos a Colorado, pero no es legal.
En Ingles: I struggle with the dilemma of “chili” versus “chile.” It seems the entire world struggles with which term is correct. The internet uses both terms. Though I’m adamant that the spelling of the pepper and its byproducts is “chile,” I tend to use the spelling the grievous offender (the restaurant or website) uses. Typically Asian restaurants use the spelling “chili” while New Mexicans (who know better) use “chile.”
You’re trying to lecture us on the spelling of Chile””’? You can’t even spell it right
Another wonderful culinary escape, Gil. It’s great to hear the Italian cuisine scene is growing stronger and more diverse here in the Duke City, and I’m excited to check out this new spot. It sounds like they truly transformed the Thai House, and it’s cool to know they were the folks behind Urbano!
It’s always great to hear from the future governor of New Mexico. I’m happy to see you’re not entirely monogamous about Italian food and that you continue to explore its horizons. I believe you’ll like Il Locatello–perhaps not as much as you love M’Tucci’s.