Spirito's

At this red-sauce restaurant, the surest indication of housemade ravioli is white as snow.

Of course it's the ricotta ("rih-Got," said my server). In assembly-line frozen pasta, this can be firm even after cooking; in Spirito's ravioli (with meat sauce, $13.95), it was creamy with a trace of granularity. Both ricotta and sauce were mopped up nicely by slices of crusty sesame-seeded bread.

Also shown: the restaurant, whose main entrance, on the side street to the right, leads to a lamplit dining room lined with booths and hung with many framed photos. Another door, on the avenue, opens on a bar room where the full menu is also served.

Spirito's
714 Third Ave. (at South 7th St.), Elizabeth, New Jersey
908-351-5414
Dinnertime only, by and large; closed Monday

Comments

[Meister @ The Nervous Cook]

This was a family favorite when I was growing up. Loved that ravioli.