Farina 00 opens in Franklin Square with standout pizza and pasta

Ever since he moved from Florence to New York 25 years ago, chef Pierluigi "Gigi" Sacchetti has been on a mission to share his love of Italian pasta with American diners. Now, at Farina 00, he is putting pasta on an equal footing with the pizza that has made this Franklin Square location one of Long Island’s top pizzerias since 2016.

"Pasta," he said, "is the umbilical cord that connects me to Italy."

Sacchetti joined Naples Street Food founder Gianluca Chiarolanza here in 2020. A year later, Chiarolanza decamped to Oceanside and Sacchetti renamed the shop Chef Gigi’s Place. But after a dining room renovation and the acquisition of a liquor license, the spot can now be considered a proper trattoria. Excellent Neapolitan pizza, supervised by partner Michele Russo, is still available to eat in or take out. "Farina," Italian for "wheat flour," honors the ingredient that underlies both men’s specialties.

Sacchetti prepares regional pastas rarely seen on Long Island. From Campania comes zitoni (spaghetti-length ziti) with the long-cooked beef-onion sauce called Genovese; from Sicily, maccheroni alla Norma (named for the Bellini opera) with eggplant and ricotta salata; from Emilia Romagna, tagliatelle with Bolognese ragù and 40-month-old Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; from Umbria, strozzapreti ("strangle-the-priest" pasta) smothered with cream and sausages.

You may well forgo all of these once you see what’s on the specials board. Right now, fresh porcini mushrooms are being briefly sautéed and roasted in the wood-burning pizza oven before being tossed with "paglia e fieno," white (straw) and green (hay) tagliatelle. Through the end of the year, Sacchetti is shaving fresh white truffles from Alba over tagliolini or risotto. And there’s always one or two true oddities on the menu, perhaps a big ball of burrata figliata (filled, as in some sci-fi movie, with tiny balls of burrata) or culatello (prosciutto's suaver cousin) made from wild boar.

All of Farina 00’s pasta is either homemade fresh or artisanal Granoro dried pasta imported from Puglia. Prices here are a bit "pazzo" (crazy) with most dishes less than $25 and even the truffle dishes less than $40. Salads and starters, comparably refined, are mostly less than $20 and, Fridays through Saturdays, the bargains include a 42-ounce "Fiorentina" porterhouse for $75 and 44-ounce tomahawk rib-eye for $79.

The renovated dining room seats fewer than 25 diners. Its modesty belies the finesse of the food and also the wine. The selections here, all Italian, include a strong-but-mellow Ripasso Valpolicella from the Veneto ($54) and Poggio ai Mandorli Chianti Classico RIserva ($46).

On weekends, the dining room is the domain of the restaurant’s third partner, Gianni Lascala, a former carabiniere (Italian national police member), who was working security for the Italian ambassador to the U.N. when Sacchetti was his private chef. That was 25 years ago, when Sacchetti just embarking on a Manhattan career that earned him accolades at Covo dell’Est, La Cantina Toscana and Cipolla Rossa. In 2017, after moving to Long Island, he headlined at Da Gigi, the short-lived, high-end Lynbrook spot, before landing in Franklin Square.

Farina 00, 970 Hempstead Tpke., Franklin Square, 516-673-4630, farina00cgp.com. Open Monday 4 to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 to midnight, Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.