Dining Out: Dyker’s Annabelle’s offers new takes on old favorites

BY HELEN KLEIN & ANNA SPIVAK

A laid-back vibe plus top-notch food is a recipe for success at the newly opened Annabelle’s, a Dyker Heights eatery that specializes in pizza and pasta, and has a penchant for making pretty much everything from scratch.

And when we say pretty much everything, we mean exactly that. Annabelle’s – a new entry from the owners of Bella Luna, which closed to make way for it, as well as a burger restaurant now under construction next door — makes its own pasta, its own mozzarella, its own cheesecake and tiramisu, and Nicholas DiLeo, who owns the restaurant with brother John, even talks about starting a garden out back, in order to grow fresh herbs.

This uninhibited approach to the culinary arts reflects both DiLeo’s love of real Italian food, as it is eaten in Italy, and his non-traditional path to restaurant ownership. “I never went to culinary school so it’s all been trial and error,” DiLeo told this paper. “A few years ago, I went to Italy and that changed my whole attitude toward eating Italian food.”

The result is a cuisine that is both sumptuous and pared-down, with a focus on the purity of ingredients, that are all top of the line. “You don’t have to play around,” DiLeo stressed. “Less is better.”

We sampled an array of the eatery’s specialties, beginning with the Antipasto of imported cheese and assorted cured meats ($22), a cutting board piled high with salume, cheeses, grapes, walnuts and olives, as well as a small cup of honey to hit a symphony of flavor notes, from spicy to salty to sweet.

The Strawberry Salad ($11) featured berry wedges, chunks of goat cheese, almonds and red onions on a bed of mesclun, again offering a counterpoint of flavors that contrasted as they complemented each other.

The Caprese ($10) featured Annabelle’s creamy, house-made, absolutely stunning mozzarella, basil sprigs and grape tomato halves, lightly dressed.

Annabelle’s classic Meatballs with Ricotta ($9), which DiLeo says he makes himself using his own special recipe are melt-in-your-mouth good. With a perfectly soft and slightly dense texture, those flavorful little spheres pack a multitude of flavors into each bite. The sauce they swim in has just the right amount of sweet, tangy and salty to lift this appetizer to the top of anyone’s meatball dreams.

And, oh, the pizza! We split a personal-sized Toscana ($16, small; $26, large) which featured thin slices of Prosciutto di Parma, fresh arugula and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano atop a thin, crispy crust – definitely addictive!

We also sampled several of the restaurant’s pasta dishes. The Bucatini with Pesto ($14) featured an elegant nest of house-made pasta, well coated in pesto which sang with the flavors of garlic and basil, getting substance from the ground pine nuts in the puree. We also tried the Mushroom Lasagna ($17), bathed in a silken cream sauce infused with the haunting flavor and fragrance of truffles, and the Casarecce with Sausage & Broccoli Rabe ($16), which balanced the taste of the meaty, earthy sausage with the piquancy of bitter greens.

The icing on the cake for all of these dishes was the homemade pasta, whose texture is as completely different from the manufactured variety as it is compelling.

Annabelle’s Eggplant Parmigiana ($15) is as symbolic of its approach to Italian cuisine as anything on the menu. Melt-in-the-mouth sweet and saucy, the dish is non-traditional particularly in that Annabelle’s version is not breaded. This saves calories, and gives a different texture and weight to the finished entrée.

Finally, we tasted Annabelle’s selection of three desserts (each, $7). The Cheesecake, which has no bottom crust, is creamy and light; the Strawberry Tiramisu is a variation on a classic, spiked with cinnamon for a special grace note; and the Cannoli were rich and dense, the perfect finishing touch for a fabulous meal.

ANNABELLE’S
717 86^th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11228
718-836-9444
Annabellespastaria.com
Monday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, noon-11 p.m.; Sunday, 1-10 p.m.
Delivery: Monday-Thursday, noon-9:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, noon-10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1-9:30 p.m.