Pick of the Week: Bratalian Neapolitan Cantina

PICK OF THE WEEK:

BRATALIAN NEAPOLITAN CANTINA

10740 S. Eastern Ave., 454-0104

When two sisters get together to cook Italian, you know it's going to be a wonderful meal. Chefs Carla Pellegrino and Alessandra Madeira are preparing Italian dishes that remind you of your most recent trip to Naples. Appetizers begin with baked clams, Parma prosciutto with melon and fresh calamari stewed with tomato, white wine, capers and Gaeta olives. There are soups and large salads, including one called fagioli, cipolle and tono, where lima beans, red onions and albacore tuna are tossed in a lemon juice and olive oil sauce. Featured dishes are risotto with porcini mushrooms, lasagna, sweet Italian sausage over creamy Italian polenta, veal piccata, cappellini with shrimp, butter and lemon sauce, pollo alla Milanese (thinly pounded, fried chicken breast topped with arugula, tomato, and red onion salad), oven-roasted half chicken, salmon over sautéed spinach, shrimp Diavola, spinach and ricotta ravioli and bistecca alla pizzaiola, a pan-seared, 16-ounce rib-eye topped with sautéed tomatoes and fresh oregano. Among the desserts are tiramisu, apple pie, ricotta cheesecake and assorted Italian biscotti and gelato. Entrees begin at $10 to $14. Bratalian Neopolitan Cantina is open from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

-- Jack Bulavsky