Roasted monkfish, with cannellini beans, tomato basil and sweet sausage ($14.95), a robust cassoulet-like dish with a pristine, flaky-white, crisply crusted square of fish at its center, was an unqualified success.

That done, the fusilli, laced with strings of fresh crab meat ($17) in a velvety, tomato basil, light cream sauce, and the mildly flavored penne primavera ($16) passed muster.

They included a hot watercress soup swirled with cream, a bland cream of zucchini, a decent tomato basil and a black bean soup that should have been more intense.

Mr. O'Donnell allows as how he is partial to the tomato basil.

Other dishes include sauteed red snapper with a Champagne sauce; spaghetti alla puttanesca with tomato, basil and black olives; and penne with fresh tomato, vodka and a touch of cream.

A chilled tomato basil, a lush cream of carrot and a vegetable-loaded corn chowder all received thumbs up.

Thick slabs of toasted bread come with a range of toppings: from the classic tomato, basil and olive oil to courgette flowers and mozzarella, and, in season, truffles.

Indeed, several pasta dishes were first rate: angel-hair pasta with mussels and garlic, tossed with a tomato basil vinaigrette, and tagliatelle in a flavorful sauce of garlic, plum tomato and fresh basil.

He opened two jars of his pomodoro basilico - tomato basil - sauce and poured them into a pot.

Try the zesty crisp pizza Margherita ($6.50) with its blistered crust, superfresh tomato, mozzarella, basil and olive oil piping hot out of a monster wood-burning brick oven.