Cotogna dining review: A great addition to S.F.

Just when we thought the Italian wave had crested - now we're into Japanese - another high-profile Italian restaurant opens. Does San Francisco really need another pizza and pasta place?

Many would say no. But I give it a resounding yes - at least, if it's as good as Cotogna. Even if it weren't quite as good, it would be welcomed.

Located next door to their elegant Quince, and connected by a long back hallway, Michael and Lindsay Tusk have gone back to their roots with more modest offerings and a more casual approach.

When the original Quince opened seven years ago, Michael Tusk proved his mettle in the casual Pacific Heights surroundings that is now home to Baker & Banker. As the years progressed, his rustic food and the pleasant interior went decidedly upscale.

The Tusks then moved Quince into the former Myth space on Jackson Square, which also included a casual corner cafe. It took them about a year to get the cafe open, but now that the original Quince is sailing along, Michael Tusk again has the freedom to go rustic at Cotogna, which means Quince in Italian.

Lindsay Tusk did much of the design work herself, transforming the space into a restaurant where the urban Italian feel echoes the sensibility of the food.

It's a dynamic concept that strips pricing down to the basics. All antipasti dishes are $10; primi, $16; pizza, $15; sides, $6; and desserts, $7. Only the main courses are priced separately and they top out at $24 for what might include the best lamb chops around.

On the wine list, each bottle is $40; wines by the glass or cocktails are $10. It's curated by David Lynch, one of the country's experts on Italian wines. Just looking over this simplified price structure makes you relax and settle in for a fantastic meal.

Michael Tusk, a passionate cook, is in fine form here, and is able to bounce back and forth between the two kitchens.

Skewers of Monterey Bay squid lightly kissed by the fire with bits of seductive char are crisscrossed over a salad with grapefruit and tangy puntarella; it's a masterful blend showing he doesn't need steam ovens and circulators to create food that's intensely satisfying.

What he does have, however, is a spectacular grill and rotisserie from Italy. It burns wood on the bottom and along the back wall, so the heat is intense and even. I can't remember when I've had better pork ($24), roasted on the spit and then carved into thick, juicy slabs, infused with smoke, fennel and hot peppers that seem to seductively prick the tongue. If you're lucky, you'll get one of the salty, crusty bones.

I fell in love with Quince the first time I had the sformato there; now I've developed another love affair with the spinach version at Cotogna, where the texture is as delicate as a poached egg. It doesn't matter if it's a pile of chicories with pomegranates and buratta, or chiccioli, a rough-textured house-made pate served with pickled vegetables and fried ravioli-shaped crackers - the kitchen never misses a step on the antipasti (all $10).

The pastas (all $16) are superb - garganelli, for example, where the fleshy chanterelles seem to melt and take on the same texture as the pasta, fortified in a sauce thick with rabbit meat and the tang of artichoke. Then there's lamb pappardelle cooked in the wood oven, and a lush egg ravioli stuffed with creamy ricotta and bathed in brown butter.

My favorite, however, is the rigatoni with suckling pig ragout perked up with pecorino di fossa cheese, an earthy sheep's milk cheese that adds even more character to the blend.

Main courses are just as satisfying, including a Tai snapper ($20) with a tart sweet sauce with capers, olives and parsley; and boned and rolled roast duck ($20) served with braised endive and orange fruit mustard.

The restaurant also offers three pizzas ($15), but while they're good they're the least interesting category; I've had better crusts at other places.