PizzaLand's has a crisp, chewy crust, a subtle sauce and is cooked long enough so the cheese is a little brown in spots.
He has restraint, too, giving meat and fish a subtle saucing or, instead, a purée of some kind, below or to the side.
Baby lamb chops in a lemon-spice mint sauce, served alongside saffron couscous and spinach, were first rate, as was the crisp-skinned duckling breast in a subtle raspberry sauce, served with al dente haricots verts.
Marsilio's opened amid the red-brick row houses of Roebling Avenue in Chambersburg in 1951, and for the next 35 years served chicken cacciatore — in a subtle white sauce, not the more familiar red — and steaks at long tables covered with pink tablecloths.
Corn fritters are mildly spicy, terrific dipped in a subtle cucumber sauce.
Then, a real winner -- tender, meaty monkfish in a subtle cider-based sauce, served with slices of caramelized apple.
Spigola alla Siciliana - filet of Chilean sea bass - was sautéed with capers, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts and Gaeta black olives in a subtle Chardonnay wine sauce; it was a congenial combination of textures and flavors.
A thick glossy piece of sweet fleshed Chilean sea bass met a perfect match in a subtle saffron cream sauce; and as terrific, Atlantic salmon arrived on a bed of thinly sliced potatoes and the luscious sautéed spinach that seemed to accompany most entrees.
Eleven golden-crusted, medium-size sea scallops ($18), encircling julienne vegetables in a subtle orange-ginger sauce, are rewarding, as was the thin-sliced, medium-rare, boneless loin of lamb on a bed of tangy tarragon-mint sauce and escorted by airy, though rich mashed potatoes and gently cooked crisp green beans and carrots.
