Cotechino with lentils is a robust, fresh sausage in a pool of delicious, long-cooked lentils, and Cinque Terre does a wonderful chestnut pasta with broccoli and that verdant pesto, as well as black tagliolini noodles with assorted shellfish. Pansotti is my favorite pasta here plump ravioli stuffed with bitter greens and dressed with a wonderful walnut sauce. For the main course try the roast chicken with a mushroom ragout, or the baby rack of lamb with rosemary and olives. The filet of striped bass is superb, simple, and the soul of Liguria. There is also a judicious selection of Italian cheeses.
Desserts are predictable but tasty.
But ask Messrs. Massa and Rabellino, and they will break out a surprising example of Ligurian wine they keep for those interested. The premises of Cinque Terre are trim, well lighted, and handsomely decorated, without a scintilla of froufrou. Cinque Terra is all about the food and the taste of a region rarely so well represented anywhere but in New York. Read our Privacy Policy .