When this family-run trattoria opened in 1993, it was roughly an eighth of its current size. But it’s still run in a very hands-on way by the Cea family, and pastas, breads, and desserts are still house-made. While prices have risen and some old favorites are no longer on the menu, regulars return for signature dishes such as farfalle con polpette (fresh bowtie pasta with Mama Carla’s meatballs), crabmeat-filled ravioletti in creamy lobster sauce, and vittello piccata, sautéed with lemon, white wine, and capers.
There might be no better evidence that there is such a thing as "the good life" than Cafe Prima Pasta. Accounting for price, and accounting for presentation, and, of course, accounting for taste, this is the best budget Italian eatery we've found in Dade County.
It is a tiny place, with but a dozen tables and a small bar, the walls decorated with black and white photos of celebrities, some of whom, such as Madonna, are purported to have visited the eatery. There are ambient lighting and comfortable chairs, and seemingly a personal server for each table. You get attention befitting a fine restaurant, not a place where only two menu items cost more than $10.
Begin with homemade rolls swabbed with melted butter, but ignore at your peril the handful of appetizers. Absolutely splendid is the carpaccio di manzo ($4.95), a huge plate decoratively arrayed with paper-thin slices of raw filet mignon, drizzled with lemon and olive oil and garnished with capers and a furious flurry of fresh-grated Parmesan. The beef is lean and full-bodied; the cheese sharp; the oil extra virgin. This is a don't-miss.
But so is the bruschetta ($2.95), two squares of toasted Italian bread, thick atop with chopped fresh plum tomato and basil, thick on bottom with virgin oil. Cut it up like the finest cake.
And so is the pepperoni arrostiti ($4.25), a pool of virgin oil supporting red, yellow and green roasted peppers, mixed with anchovy and coarsely cracked black pepper. So the solution is to get all three.
To eliminate the risk of an embarrassing gusher of unfettered praise, we will rate the pasta e fagioli merely a "good." But the soup of the day ($2.95), served in a large bowl, brims with white beans and short ziti, flavored with tomato and onion but primarily celery. The celery dominated the soup, not unpleasantly, though it made for less of a rich- tasting pasta e fagioli than is typical. Our beans were a trifle al dente, which is more a point of information than a complaint.
And that is all we can find to complain about. Each entree we tried was superlative. Our linguine puttanesca rosso, laughably cheap at $6.95, involved a large serving of pasta obviously homemade, properly cooked, and dressed with many black olives and capers, chopped plum tomato, a bit of garlic and oil, and Parmesan grated fresh at the table. Simple Italian cooking, absolutely the best kind.
Our agnolotti pesto ($7.95) was a thing of beauty, though you had better be a devoted fan of cream sauces, because this was creamy. We got about 10 homemade pillows stuffed with spinach and ricotta, aswim in cream strongly infused with basil.
Our vitello Milanese (breaded veal, $9.95) obscured the broad, thin filet under a salad garnish of Romaine and chopped tomato, with lemon slices on top. Tender filets bore no unnecessary oil, cut with a fork and responded beautifully to squeezed lemon. Extra added bonus was a bowl of homemade mostaccioli with marinara sauce, nearly a meal in itself. All the meat dishes here come with pasta sides -- there is a handful of chicken dishes, plus more veal and a fish of the day.
The most stylish platter in a beautiful procession might be the tiramisu ($3.50), one of two desserts on the menu (the other is an apple tart with caramel sauce). The tiramisu is a square of nirvana in the center of a giant plate swirled with melted chocolate and dusted with cocoa. The confection itself is first-rate, with ladyfingers springy to the touch and coffee and sugar balancing well.
What balances best here, though, is the quality and price. You won't be able to beat it.
