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Friday, November 10, 2000
By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
Il Pizzaiolo -- the pizza maker -- makes pastas now, too.
In fact, pasta and salad have become almost half the business at Il Pizzaiolo, the popular (check the line waiting to get in) pizza shop in Mt. Lebanon.
The man across the table from me finds that hard to believe. "I don't know how they can see which pasta to order," His Honor complains, moving the menu around to catch more of the dim light in the restaurant.
He's got a point. The list of pastas is printed on a brown background and is difficult to read. The ceiling fixtures don't provide much light. On top of that, H.H. forgot his pocket flashlight. Fortunately, the smiling young waitress comes to our rescue and suggests some of her favorites.
Looking around the room, I see that almost half the customers are, indeed, eating pasta. The pretty penne alla vodka is the big seller here, by far, according to co-owner Ron Molinaro. "But there are other things I do better," he says. He especially likes the rigatoni alla Siciliana, which has eggplant, tomato sauce, basil and fresh mozzarella di bufalo and the spaghetti alla Bolognese, made with fresh spaghetti, meat ragu and parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Molinaro is a bit of a perfectionist. Before he opened this pizza parlor, he built a brick pizza oven in his dad's back yard and practiced for many weeks until he got the slow-fermenting dough the way he wanted it. It has just a quarter-ounce of yeast to 25 pounds of flour. The pizzas are baked in the back of the wood-fired brick oven in the restaurant now, where the temperature reaches 750 degrees. The idea is to bake the pizzas quickly so the toppings don't dry out.
In the spring of 1997, he went to Italy and picked up new ideas for pastas. "That's what made the restaurant what it is today," he says.
He has the ravioli and gnocchi flown in from New York. The buffalo mozzarella and ricotta cheese come from Naples, Italy, arriving every Wednesday. Bread is by Breadworks. The biscotti comes from Enrico's in the Strip, the frozen ripieni (with sorbet inside a peach, orange or lemon) come from Italy, and his mom, Mazie Molinaro, makes the wonderful carrot cake, cannoli, Oreo cheesecake and tiramisu. Molinaro's dad, also Ron, is co-owner.
Molinaro, the son, is doing the cooking at Il Pizzaiolo himself these days, since former chef Jennifer Hagar went off to open her own successful little restaurant, Girasole, in Shadyside, with her boyfriend, Gino Girasole, and his father, James Girasole. They're all still good friends, though. Someday, Molinaro says, they might open a pizza and wine bar, preferably in the Cultural District.
But back to the present. Soup is not on the printed menu at Il Pizzaiolo, but there is always a special soup. Tonight it's chicken with cheese tortellini, a soup thick as a stew, with pieces of chicken and very little liquid, served in a large cup.
The house salad served before the pasta course has greens, roasted red pepper, a cherry tomato, black olives and gorgonzola cheese, but it has been ruined by too much balsamic vinaigrette.
Several other salads are available, including the Roma, a big bowl of vine-ripened plum tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, herbs (basil) and lettuce. That's what the menu says; tonight the tomatoes are not the plum variety, but at least they are bright red. I hope the salad is taken off the menu when vine-ripened tomatoes are not available.
H.H.'s rigatoni alla Campagnola is pink and creamy from the tomato sauce with fresh ricotta di bufala and tiny meatballs; my spaghettini al Mediterraneo has a garlic and oil dressing, with halved cherry tomatoes, rapini and pecorino romano cheese. I wish the rapini (or broccoli raab) had been cut into smaller pieces so it would be easier to eat.
One of the other pasta dishes we've enjoyed is a surprisingly spicy linguini al Vesuvio, which has pieces of grilled chicken, zucchini, hot peppers (there's the villain!) and tomato sauce.
Interesting tidbit: Il Pizzaiolo sells more pasta on Saturday night, and more pizza on Friday night. Go figure.
Margherita is the best-selling pizza. It has the usual fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce, basil, olive oil and pecorino romano. On another night we tried one of the newer pizzas, the lasagna. Sounds strange, but it's pretty. Fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce, slices of meatballs and fresh ricotta are attractively arranged on the 12-inch pizza shell. Our lasagna pizza, however, was both burned on the bottom and soggy in the center.
"I think the second team is in the kitchen tonight," H.H. said.
Il Pizzaiolo has some other problems. When busy, and that's most of the time, it can be very noisy. If you sit along the wall, where we usually have been seated, you can get hit by cold blasts of air. But hey! It's a pizza place.
Besides, dessert is on the way. And Mama Mazie Molinaro's three-layer carrot cake with butter-cream icing is the best.
Il Pizzaiolo
Dan Downs and Carly Cioffi, both of Mt. Lebanon, have lunch by the window at Il Pizzaiolo. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette) 
703 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon
412-344-4123
Hours: Noon to 9 p.m., Sunday; noon to 10 p.m., Monday-Thursday; Friday and Saturday, noon to 11 p.m.The basics: Pizza, pasta and salads, plus soup, sandwiches and dessert, with specialty pizzas from $7.95 to $9.95, pasta and salad, $12.95 and $13.95; lower pasta prices until 4 p.m.; seats 50 inside, and another 50 outside in warm weather; parking at street meters or in parking garage across street; wheelchair accessible; BYOB; no smoking; Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards; no reservations.The last word: 
