It may be off the beaten track, but Spiga D'Oro in the Providence Square shopping center in Primos is a superb Italian restaurant.
Opened in October, the Delaware County dining place boasts an attractive setting, exceptionally friendly service and moderate prices - quite a find.
Chef Elio Sgambati, a native of Naples who formerly worked at La Collina in Bala Cynwyd and Il Gallo Nero in Center City Philadelphia, offers an exciting
menu filled with dishes notable for their fresh ingredients and marvelous sauces.
Sgambati's homemade pasta, worth a visit all in itself, included pasta misto ($6.50), little taste treats of three appetizers, each perfectly al dente and rich in flavor. They included ravioli plump with lobster and salmon in a light tomato-cream sauce; penne puttanesca compellingly assertive with cured olives, and agnolotti, a ravioli-like pasta stuffed with ricotta and spinach and sauced with heavy cream and both romano and parmesan cheeses.
Seldom-found carpaccio ($4.50) was paper-thin slices of uncooked filet of beef, moistened with virgin olive oil and lemon and sprinkled with capers and shavings of sharp parmesan; the dish was garnished with shredded red cabbage draped with strips of mozzarella.
Homemade minestrone ($2.50) was hearty chicken broth filled with escarole and rough-chopped zucchini, carrots and cabbage, dusted with grated parmesan and cracked peppercorns. Caesar salad ($3.50 for one) made at tableside was crisp romaine leaves and store-bought croutons in a rich, eggy dressing redolent of garlic, anchovies and parmesan.
A complimentary appetizer of freshly made caponata was chunks of eggplant, celery, onions and tomatoes dressed with sweetened vinegar. Crusty Italian bread was fresh.
Saltimbocca alla Romana ($12.95) was an excellent main dish of three thin scallops of veal, each topped with prosciutto and bathed in a rich, velvety white wine sauce. Sogliola mugnaia ($12.50) was an enormous filet of batter- dipped sole, carefully sauteed in one piece in white wine and served with capers in a rich lemon sauce.
Fluffy-light spinach souffle and roasted potatoes, their skins brushed with olive oil, came with both entrees. A generous portion of fresh broccoli di rabe ($5.50) sauteed with chunks of garlic in good olive oil was a special treat.
