Basil’s
900 W. Tenth, 477-5576
Hours:6-10pm, Sun.-Thu.
6-10:30pm, Fri.-Sat.
Long vulgarized to please North American tastes, Italian cooking has recently gone haute.
Many Parisian chefs now betray their beloved butter and serve high-priced
Tuscan olive oil with bread. Here in the States, trendy restaurants toss
Italian staples like polenta and arborio rice into the culinary blender,
treating them in the same cavalier fashion as they do, say, lemongrass or ancho
chiles. But these new contexts may strip Italian cuisine of its soul, in the
same way as the old spaghetti-and-meatballs-with-cheap-Chianti treatment ruined
its divergent flavors.
Anyone who has spent time in Italy will assure you that the true genius of the
country’s food must be sought not in complicated restaurant preparations, but
rather in home fare. For this reason, Austin diners should not forget Basil’s,
which specializes in homestyle Italian. Its menu will not dazzle you with
innovation — no seared duck breast over sundried tomato-alfredo sauced cracked
peppercorn linguine here. Instead, the menu reads a little bit like the index
of Marcella Hazan’s masterwork, The Essentials of Classic Italian
Cooking. This is a virtue, for the Hazan manner, homey as it is, demands of
its disciples rigorous care. Basil’s delivers.
For my taste, the kitchen performs most strongly with pasta, poultry, and red
meat. The Paglia e Fieno ($9.75) places house-made spinach and egg pasta
under a cream sauce of prosciutto, mushrooms, and peas. The combination may
sound simple, but the light sweetness of cream and peas, offset by salty
prosciutto and earthy mushrooms, gives the dish elegance and verve. Even
simpler and just as elegant is the Fettucine Allo’uovo ($8.25), which
dares dress fresh egg pasta with only a garlicky butter sauce. All of the
pastas are offered as half orders; these two make particularly excellent
appetizers.
I often find chicken dull in restaurants, but under the tutelage of these
cooks, the humble bird soars. The Pollo Saltimbocca ($14.95) places a
perfectly cooked, flattened chicken breast under a saut� of prosciutto
and mushrooms. What makes it fly is a sublime Chianti-sage butter sauce. Here
we find elemental Italian ingredients combined without pretension, and to fine
effect. Equally well-prepared are the veal scallopini dishes. I loved the
Vitello alla Vertucci ($14.95), tender veal in a tomato-based marsala
sauce. Next time, I should like to try the Picatta di Vitello ($13.95),
in which veal scallopini is saut�ed with garlic, lemon, capers, and
white wine.
In addition to its menu, the place also offers an array of nightly specials
that allow the cooks to stretch themselves out a bit. They all sounded
wonderful, and the one I opted for, Beef Tenderloin in a Port Reduction with
Gorgonzola and Portabellas, fulfilled its promise. The beef, a fine cut cooked
to a rosy medium rare and perfectly charred on the outside, could almost stand
on its own. But the savory sauce underscored without overwhelming its flavor,
and the cheese added Italian flair.
This plate, and indeed all the ones described above, practically cry out for
wine. Happily, Basil’s carries one of the most extensive and informative wine
lists in town. Its Italian section is the most impressive, but France, Spain,
and California also get proper respect. For a meal that included crab, redfish
in gorgonzola sauce, plus the beef tenderloin and pasta dishes described above,
our table followed the waitress’ advice and ordered Le Volte 1992
($21), a Tuscan red. This supple wine wrapped itself around all the myriad
flavors, clashed with none and mingled beautifully with the gorgonzola.
If there is an objection to be raised with Basil’s, it lies in the steamed
vegetables that accompany each entr�e. These are perfectly
well-prepared, but don’t render justice to every dish. For example, they work
fine as a respite from the rich beef tenderloin, but the chicken and veal
preparations call for something more racy and imaginative. The Italian
vegetable repertoire brims with ingenious creations; Hazan’s aforementioned
book devotes nearly 100 loving pages to the topic. Geared to specific
entr�es, varied vegetable sides could push the Basil’s dining experience
to an even higher level. Also mildly disappointing are the seafood choices. The
special blue crab appetizer tasted fine, but deep frying that fine specimen in
corn meal seemed a somewhat coarse treatment. The redfish in gorgonzola sauce,
too, finds itself crusted in cornmeal, when a more delicate technique would
seem appropriate.
But in view of the entire Basil’s experience, these complaints reduce to
trifles. Desserts, such as chocolate torte with espresso buttercream on creme
anglaise, taste as decadent as they sound. The old-house setting provides a
relaxed feel, so different from the high-powered and edgy atmosphere for which
too many of our fine-dining establishments strive. And the service is just
right for the food. On both of my trips to Basil’s I drew the same waitress,
who behaved like a calm hostess determined to take care of her guests. She
displayed easy knowledge of wine and food alike, and guided us through the menu
in expert fashion. For those of us too unlucky to ever dine at the table of
some superb Tuscan matron, Basil’s surely provides a respectable substitute. n
This article appears in July 26 • 1996 and July 26 • 1996 (Cover).