The spirit of Italy

Burrata at Campo Fina in Healdsburg. (photo by Jeff Kan Lee/PD)

No chef in the wine country comes closer to capturing the true spirit of Italian cooking than Ari Rosen of Scopa — and now Campo Fina — in Healdsburg. That spirit can be summed up as, “Keep it simple but make it really, really good.”

In this case, it’s understandable that Rosen has opened a second restaurant. Usually, when a chef opens a second place, there’s a danger that it will dilute what made the first place so great. But Scopa is a cozy little spot with not enough room for its hordes of fans, so the opening of Campo Fina, around the corner on Healdsburg Avenue, gives Rosen and his wife Dawnelise, who runs the room at Scopa, more places to serve customers.

The food at Campo Fina is not what you get at Scopa. At Scopa, you get big plates of great pasta with house-made sausage and sugo so thick and rich it makes the hinges of your jaws ache with anticipation. It’s loud, it’s festive, it’s full of fun.

The dishes at Campo Fina combine Rosen’s love of Italian food with executive chef Jamil Peden’s less boisterous but just as crafty skill. If you had to define the collaboration of these two fine chefs at Campo Fina, you might call Rosen’s approach rustic and Peden’s approach refined. Instead of the big plates at Scopa with lots of pastas, it’s small plates at the new venue with no pastas at all. In both places, there’s something fiercely authentic about the Italian food, and an insistence on quality to tie it all together.

Campo Fina

A 117-year-old building houses the new restaurant, and both north and south walls are made of beautiful old brick. When the weather is suitable, you can wander out back to eat al fresco, where there’s a concrete bar, a bocce court and a wood-fired pizza oven (and also the pizza shack, where pizzas are prepared). Inside, the original old, hardwood floors hold a long banquette and freestanding tables.

In Italy, both Scopa and Campo Fina — the name means “fine field,” as in a field of exquisite produce — would be considered trattorias, or small restaurants (although the quality of the food is better than many white-tablecloth ristoranti).

If only Campo’s wine list were available at every Italian restaurant, here or there. It shines with Russian River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley wines, but also indludes 10 Italian whites and 22 Italian reds, categorized by whether they come from the north, middle, or south of Italy, and all nicely priced. You could do worse than Tomasso Bussola’s 2007 Valpolicella ripasso for $45, for example. Corkage is $20, waived if you also buy a bottle.