Dining Essentials: Le Calandre

Bruce Schoenfeld in Padova, Italy

What: Le Calandre, one of only five Michelin three-star restaurants in Italy.

Where: Via Liguria 1, Sarmeola di Rubano, Padova, Italy;
011-39-049-630303; www.alajmo.it.

Why Go: Few Italian chefs are turning heads like Massimiliano Alajmo, who brings a restless creativity to a stratified and rigid cuisine. And he offers nearly 200 of the 700 wines on his list by the glass.

The Ambience: Off a hotel lobby on a busy street, it’s comfortably sleek, and almost under-decorated for a restaurant of its caliber.

The Cost: $300 for two, including bottled water but not wine: a typical three-star tariff.

What I Ate: Balls of carne cruda, stuffed with pine nuts, eggs-and-truffle, or balsamic vinegar and lettuce; deliriously good spaghetti and cuttlefish with a dense sauce made from cuttlefish liver; caramelized leg of goose with creamed potatoes; wild cherry and anise sorbettos.

What I Drank: A lithe and fragrant Vincent Girardin Beaune 1er Cru Clos Des Vignes Franches 2002, and then a Fratelli Alessandria Barolo Gramolere 2001, which was suprisingly open and accessible for an old-style Barolo — and as elegant as the Burgundy.

Next Time I’d … Bring CDs for the crawl through the dense traffic on the surrounding roads.