I don’t spend much time in Italian restaurants in Buenos Aires, despite their ubiquity. Mostly it’s that Italian cooking is what I first trained professionally in, and what I still cook for myself more than anything else. It’s also what most of the cooking classes I teach are based around. So I usually want something different when I go out.

There’s also too much overcooked pasta in this city, although looking at my map, I really haven’t been to that many dedicated Italian spots – quite a few of those limp noodles have been at Argentine spots that just offer up pasta as an afterthought to parrilla. I mean, prior to this post, I only have 36 Italian restaurants on my map for local places to eat (versus well over 100 Peruvian, for example)!

 

But I do love good Italian food, so why not get out there and see what’s on the plates, right?

 

This one arrived gift-wrapped, from one of our Roving Ravenous Horde members, who swears by it as his favorite Italian spot in the city. He made it sound all mysterious, hidden away, sort of like a closed door restaurant, with a three-letter abbreviation (SDS) as a moniker and needing to be in the know, and only being open a few hours, here and there. I’m not sure where that all came from, as Cucina de Santo, while not easy to find if you’re just walking down the street (Talcahuano 475, 1st floor, ring the bell and go on up), is open to all, noon to three, Monday to Friday. Why such strange, lunch-only hours? Because it’s the employee cafeteria in the Asociación Judicial Argentina. And the SDS is just the chef’s initials (Salvatore de Santo), on his business card and Facebook page as a logo for his catering company, outside of the lunchroom business hours.

Little Italy style decor – right down to the red and white checked table drapings. No other real decor – there are a couple of caricatures on a wall in an alcove, there’s the sign from the association over the kitchen pass, and there’s a TV mounted in the dining room, that the day I was there was tuned to the Disney Channel for part of the time, and Cartoon Network the rest, blaring at high volume. I assume it was the owner’s young son who sat at a table nearby, in control of the remote, so the watching fare may vary day to day. When I arrived at about 12:30, the place was basically empty, a few folk trickled in here and there, and then at 1:00, presumably when lunch hour began for employees and nearby law offices, the place filled up instantly.

The menu is short – there’s a pre-printed part that other than handwritten in grease pencil prices, presumably doesn’t change – it’s mostly Argentine fare – milanesas, a few meats off the grill, a couple of basic pastas, salads. Two appetizers are available…

…one of them, a personal favorite, olivas ascolanos. The only other place I’ve seen them here is Il Matterello which I re-wrote up recently, whingeing a bit about the price tag of 190 pesos for 8 olives. Santo offers a plate of 15 of them, possibly even better ones, and accompanied by a little salad and some lemon wedges, for a mere 150 pesos (a shade over $5).

At the top of a menu is a handwritten section, once again in grease pencil, of six daily specials, heavily Italian influenced. Given my recent flirtation with carbonara sauces, I was tempted by the bife de chorizo en crema carbonara, but I have to admit, a tenderloin steak smothered in bacon, egg yolk, and cheese cream sauce sounded a bit over the top. Plus, we’re back to that whole cream in carbonara thing.

I decided on the handmade cavatelli in bolognese sauce. Not exactly a classic combo of pasta shape and sauce (cavatelli are a Sardinian pasta, and bolognese is a classic ragú of Emilia Romagna), but I figured it was a great way to see the chef’s hand at making pasta, and at a solid, classic sauce. Huge portion, extraordinarily generous for 170 pesos ($6) – I know how much work cavatelli are to make – that quantity on one plate, by itself is a solid 10+ minutes of work to form. They were a little thicker than they ought to be, but not so much as to be an issue, and they were cooked to a perfect al dente. The bolognese was pretty basic – it was tasty, no question, but it was also little more than well seasoned ground beef and tomato sauce. For me, a real bolognese, even a simple one, needs some more vegetable, some more stuff, in it, but hey, everyone’s Italian grandmother has her own recipe, and all that, right? And, I finished every bit of what was on the plate, so not really complaining.

All in all, I think this place is a nice, relatively inexpensive option for a mix of Argentine and Italian fare, if you’re hanging out down by the Supreme Court and are really hungry. It’s not wow Italian food, it’s good, nonna’s house on a Sunday afternoon Italian food. Definitely recommended.