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.

Marisa Cuomo’s 2010 Falanghina “Ravello” at $39 would be the wine to pair with Campo’s perfect Burrata ($12.50 ****), a selection from the all-day menu. Burrata is a pouch of fresh mozzarella filled with scraps of mozzarella and cream, then tied up. When you cut into the pouch, the creamy, dissolved mozzarella inside spills out invitingly. Here it’s dazzled with crystals of sea salt, served with crusty, toasted, rustic Italian bread; an eggplant and fig ragu; Calabrian chili; and a touch of smoked olive oil. And if breaking the burrata open didn’t elicit oohs and aahs, spreading some on the bread with a little ragu and chili and taking a bite should do the trick.

Honey Roasted Carrots

The impulse to keep it simple but really good shows in the Honey Roasted Carrots ($8.50 ***½). Each of the eight or nine carrots in the oval dish is about seven inches long, from the cut stem to the tapered root end. These are splashed with honey and roasted, then given a light dusting of ground coriander and bits of panko.

If you’ve never had octopus, try the Charred Octopus ($13.50 ***½) and become a believer. Tender morsels of sweet octopus consort with rounds of fingerling potato, black olives and broccoli raab in a dish so seaside Italian you can almost see the Mediterranean if you close your eyes.

Pizza Salsiccia

Perfection in a pizza is in the mouth of the muncher. Some like deep dish, others like floppy and sloppy. My idea of a perfect pizza is the Pizza Salsiccia ($13.50 ****) at Campo Fina. The house-made sausage is limited but delicious; the cheese (you can specify buffalo mozzarella for $3 extra), broccoli raab, and tomato sauce are all used judiciously, and this restraint with the toppings allows the perfect, thin, exquisite crust to shine through.

Among the little bites on the all-day menu is one not to be missed. Roasted Cauliflower, Pine Nuts, Currants, and Anchovies ($6 ****) is an adventure into the heart and soul of Italian food. The anchovies are not salty filets or filets rolled around a caper — they’re fresh-pickled, their silvery skin glinting in the light. They taste of fish, not salt. The dish is intense, odd and ultimately delicious.

Buttermilk Panna Cotta ($8 ***½) shimmered on its plate and on the palate.

To sum up: Campo Fina is so serious about its Italian food that it’s great fun to eat there.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.

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CAMPO FINA
Where: 330 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg
When: Lunch menu 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner menu 5:30 to 10 p.m. All-day menu 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
Reservations: Call 395-4640
Price range: Moderate, with small plates between $8.50 and $14.50 and pizzas to $15.50
Website: NA

Wine list: ***
Ambiance: **½
Service: **½
Food: ***½
Overall: ***

**** Extraordinary
*** Very good
** Good
* Not very good
0 Terrible