Embrace the pasta-bilities

It's easy being green: Insieme's lasagna verde

To locate an Italian restaurant serving pasta, you need only spin around three times and wobble in any direction. But more often than not, you'll discover starchy, red-sauce slop instead of pillow-soft, handmade ravioli crammed with creamy ricotta cheese.

To save you from a pasta-dining disaster, we've selected five distinct styles—lasagna, gnocchi, spaghetti, ravioli and gnudi, oh my!—and provided spot-on restaurant options, from the Bronx to Brooklyn, that are ideal for carbo-holics of every kind.


Lasagna

Cooked incorrectly, lasagna can be a shirt-staining disaster; done properly, it's a transcendent delight, the likes of which are found at Flatiron's home-style trattoria Via Emilia (47 East 21st St., 212-505-3072). The beef-and-pork-ragu lasagna with traditional béchamel is made with freshly fashioned pasta and is baked to perfection—not too gloppy, not too saucy.

Take that culinary confidence to the Lower East Side's clandestine Apizz (217 Eldridge St., 212-253-9199). Though folks flock for the softball-size meatballs, equally outstanding is the lasagna made with a ragu of wild, wooly boar. For a dish that grandma might have made, make way to Midtown's Insieme (777 Seventh Ave., 212-582-1310), where chef Marco Canora dusts off his family recipe for lasagne verde: Seven layers of spinach pasta are filled with oozing, nutmeg-spiked béchamel, beef Bolognese and oodles of minced pancetta you'll be rooting around for like magnificent, meaty treasure.


Gnocchi

Despite a name that translates to "lump," gnocci (pronounced nyo-key) are itty bits of Italian dumpling deliciousness. Trek to Carroll Gardens to find these sumptuous specimens at Frankies 457 Spuntino (457 Court St., 718-403-0033), where they're coated in savory marinara and topped with fresh, creamy ricotta. Back in Manhattan, Broadway's bustle disappears inside stylish Bar Stuzzichini (928 Broadway, 212-780-5100), where you'll snack on cured meats, sip wine and savor gnocchi tossed with pungent guanciale, tomatoes and onions and zippy chilies.

A milder, meatier alternative is found at urban-rustic Market Table (54 Carmine St., 212-255-2100). Sit at a butcher's-block table beneath a wood-beam ceiling and sample the flavorful gnocchi made with braised lamb and pecorino.


Spaghetti

If you can boil water, you can cook this quintessential kitchen staple. But why bother when you can head to the East Village's Cacio e Pepe (182 Second Ave., 212-505-5931), where you'll devour a hefty bowl of handcrafted tonnarelli (essentially square, not rounded spaghetti) spun in a wheel of cow's-milk cacio cheese mixed with peppercorns and luscious cream. Care for a far more traditional "Lady and Tramp" feast? Head down the road to ever-popular Frank (88 Second Ave., 212-420-0202) and grab an overflowing plate of rigatoni slicked with "Grandma Carmela's" slow-cooked, meaty ragu.

For an even more old-school treat, Long Island City long-timer Manducatis (13-27 Jackson Ave., 718-729-4602) serves weighty plates of spaghetti and fragrant meatballs a stone's throw from the 7 train. And if you make a pilgrimage to the Bronx, your best bet is Dominick's (2335 Arthur Ave., 718-733-2807). The eatery's so old school, there's no menu: Act like a regular by nabbing a weighty plate of tender linguini loaded with garlic, shrimp and calamari, or spaghetti slicked with savory red sauce and studded with spongy meatballs.


MORE PASTA: RAVIOLI, GNUDI —>


Photo by Jori Klein