In Santa Monica, there is a little Italian restaurant called Fritto Misto. It’s way to small to handle the people that want to eat there and there are always people wanting to eat there. Why? First off, they only charge 2 bucks corkage fee if you bring your own wine. But more important than that is their actual food.
They have a ton of delicious-looking Italian dishes, but they all seem to have a catch. One will throw in sun-dried tomatoes, while another tosses in some peppers. It’s terrible, but they have a built-in solution in their menu. It’s called Create Your Own Pasta and it’s beautiful. The only downfall of it is the price. While every other dish is pretty low-priced, the Create Your Own can get up there. But if you order like I do, it’s just enough.
I started out with their Pillow pasta. This is kind of like ravioli, but with a different texture. It’s filled with ricotta and basil and it starts the dish out at 7 bucks. On top of that, ordered some basil cream sauce for 2.75. To top it all off, I got some pancetta to get some meat in my dinner. This tacked on an additional 3 bucks, but pancetta is probably worth 3 souls.
When it came out, it looked nothing sort of amazing. The pillows were perfectly cooked and had about an even balance of casing to filling. The insides are a little bit more dry than your average ravioli or tortellini, but not in a bad way. Plus, the creamy basil sauce added enough creaminess to to make the Sahara taste wet. The sauce was just so delicious with the pillows that I could have just stopped there, but the pancetta took it to another level. This sophisticated cousin of bacon added a salty and meaty flavor to the pasta that just brought out the flavor of everything else rather than distract. It was a perfect balance of meat, cheese and pasta.
I also got the chance to taste their gnocchi, which was actually more pillowy than my pillows, but also amazing. It tasted like it had been stuffed with something, and whatever it was, it was amazing.
So to sum it all up, Fritto Misto was amazing My custom pasta was free of vegetables, and full of tastiness. Next time I’m in need of Italian in Santa Monica, I know Fritto Misto will not let me down.
