Rosinella Doino is a mamma and a magnate, a diminutive, white-haired doll whose family has parlayed her kitchen wizardry into three of Miami's most popular casual Italian restaurants. She's most often behind the stove or at the table nearest the door outside the Lincoln Road Rosinella's keeping an eye on the proceedings, but her tangy red sauce warms many a heart, too, at the flagship Sport Cafe and at today's topic, Rosinella's in downtown Miami.

Three restaurants, three distinct dining experiences. At Lincoln Road, you get the daily show; at Sport Cafe, you might be gathered to watch a soccer game; downtown, the early-dinner crowd is loosening the necktie on the way home. Food is nearly identical -- a basic menu of homemade pastas, salads and pizzas plus a sheet of daily specials.

You should order mostly from that special list, but do not overlook Miami's best $9 pasta, penne arrabiata, from the main menu. Gorgonzola sauce, available on various noodles, is lush. Pizzas are thin-crust, crisp, fresh-tasting.

Soups are always cream-free vegetable purées. Spinach is particularly good, a vitamin infusion in a bowl; potato and leek a hearty winner. Organic salad with delicately grilled calamari is a must-get. Risottos tend to be heavy.

Special entrees include a new addition, gorgeous ruby tuna speckled with sesame and seared, served with organic salad. A quintet of grilled lamb chops, seductively salty, flavored with rosemary, excels as well. Ravioli in pink sauce with asparagus and crabmeat needed a half-minute more cooking.

Soupy, indulgent tiramisu finishes the bill. This is rock-steady, high-quality Italian, at all three spots. It has to be: Rosinella is watching.