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L'Unita

134 Avenue Rd., Toronto. 416-964-8686 (http://www.lunita.ca). Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip, $150.

I once took a cooking course in Italy with Giuliano Bugialli. One day, while we were stirring crema pasticceria in his kitchen in Florence, I made the mistake of suggesting that this glorious custard was inspired by France's crème pâtissière. Giuiliano flipped out. He began expounding on the origins of French gourmandizing and Italy's hegemony over all things gastronomical.

"Our lady, Caterina de Medici, was married to a French king," he said, "and she was sent off to France to live there. Our lady had to teach them how to cook. Crema pasticceria is, of course, Italian in origin."

Then he upbraided me (kindly) for not stirring it aggressively enough. Sure enough, it was the most silken pastry cream I had ever met.

Why? Because the Italians stir it more. Which, despite my lifelong Francophilia, may be a metaphor for Italy's approach to cooking. They don't just cook food, they adore it. They revere ingredients with deep understanding of what the French call terroir. I once tried to order fish in a restaurant in Tuscany, in the hills just north of Siena, and the waiter, aghast, told me that they did not "import" fish. We were less than two hours' drive from the sea!

The Italian approach is to find the purest, freshest local ingredients and to let them shine. Oddly enough, in Toronto, this most Italian of towns, there is precious little really good Italian cooking - which explains why it's so hard to get a table at L'Unita, which opened recently where Arlequin stood at Ave and Dav for 23 years.

L'Unita's owners call it a neighbourhood restaurant, but les becs fins are flocking there - perhaps precisely because it is so unassuming and yet delectable. They have redone Arlequin splendidly: lots of exposed brick, Arlequin's antique mirrors in gilt frames, with the addition of huge Italian ad posters, naked filament light bulbs and some wannabe-Murano chandeliers.

The menu reads beautifully: It's full of promise of local ingredients (pizza with Thunder Oak Ontario gouda), fealty to the seasons (sardine crostini with shaved fennel) and real Italiana (red-wine risotto with roasted marrow). And it schmecks as good as it reads. A poached egg sits pretty on fresh artichoke quarters with shaved parmigiano in light vinaigrette. Little sardines are placed on thin crostini with a small mountain of shaved fennel marinated in lemon. The acid in the lemon has "cooked" the fennel slightly (à la ceviche), which significantly mellows its flavour.

Ribollita is hearty bean-and-tomato soup with rich flavour. Delicate house-made agnolotti filled with mushroom and sheep's milk cheese have flecks of sweet onion marmalade on top.

That Thunder Oak gouda melts atop roasted autumn squash with sweet walnuts and sage, resulting in pizza that is seasonally appropriate, local, and yet a completely Italian idea. Order it with the whole-wheat crust.

Mains are simple, straightforward and beautifully executed: Brick-pressed grilled chicken is moist, its flavour intensified by the pressing, its red onion relish a sweet/sour delight. But the red wine risotto Venetian style (for a mere 20 bucks!) says the most about L'Unita's kitchen. It's deceptively simple - risotto made with red wine, rosemary and onions. But careful technique has produced rice with al dente grains and sauce full of flavour. On the side is a marrow bone with a tiny spoon for scooping this unctuous forbidden fruit, and atop the marrow bone is pesto of garlic and parsley, to zing together the simple flavours. This is clean cooking and molto Italiano.

There is one exceptional dessert: cannoli. One so rarely meets credible cannoli. Usually they've been filled in advance (often with canned whipped cream) and are thus soggy. These cannoli are thickish but fragile deep-fried crepes that have clearly been filled when we ordered them, with mascarpone and white chocolate lightened with whipped cream and studded with candied oranges. The marriage of uber-crisp crepes with the filling is surely the food of the angels.

Both chefs, Doug Neigel and sous Chad Goudie, cooked at the Park Hyatt Hotel previously. The restaurant's owners, Sam Kalogiros and David Minicucci, worked variously at Ultra, Luce, Milagro, Xacutti and Lux. All of which just goes to show you: Take four young guys who've bounced around a bunch of restos and not necessarily distinguished themselves, give them a place to shine, and watch them sparkle.

RIP: Xacutti on College Street appears to have closed, after a six-year run. Chef Brad Moore left at the end of November and the restaurant closed. Chef Moore (also a partner) cited "shareholder difficulties" in its demise. He is opening a resto called Eleven, at Front and Jarvis Streets, in the new year.

The Laurentian Room in Cabbagetown has also closed. Trevor Berryman (ex Xango), who was the brains behind the cool spot, is moving on.

Chef Normand Laprise from the fabulous Toqué! in Montreal is cooking a seven-course tasting menu with Splendido chef David Lee at Splendido Feb. 4 and 5, for $149 per person. For tickets, call 416-929-7788

jkates@globeandmail.com