Stella Mia: Comforting country Italian in Country Village

Amid the ducks, bunnies and strutting roosters at Bothell's way-quaint outdoor shopping complex Country Village, where stores like The Weed Patch and The Red Shed are licking their chops for the Christmas season, Stella Mia offers an admirable and solid take on country Italian food.

I am not the only one who thinks so, judging from the throngs of folks enjoying owner/chef Bruno Girardi's substantial pastas, pizzas and entrees during one recent weekday lunch. If said throngs overtax the waiter and buser, as they did on my visit, leaving me without food for too long and without a water refill for even longer, then you will experience the downside of Stella Mia. The one downside.

Stella Mia Ristorante Italiano

Country Village, 23718 Bothell-Everett Highway, Bothell; 425-488-1486

$$

Italian

Web site: www.chefbruno.net

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 4-9 p.m. Sundays.

Full bar / credit cards: AE, D, MC, V / no smoking / no obstacles to access.

The rest is all uphill, from the menu's good ol' greatest hits — chicken picatta ($13.95), fettuccine scampi ($17.95), four-meat lasagna ($13.95) — to its rarer delights, like rock crab and peas with penne in a creamy tomato sauce ($15.95), or veal scaloppini with Kalamata olives and mushrooms in chianti sauce ($16.95).

If lunch prices feel just a scooch high, dinner's feel just right — especially in view of the monster portions. A $3.95 cup of minestrone would be a bowl in any other establishment, and a starter salad could easily comprise a nice light supper.

It's all enjoyed in a warmly capacious, brick-accented room with a big helping of old-time Italian ristorante nostalgia.

The Web site is currently offering printable coupons for bucks off food and wine, so now might be a swell time to plan a holiday-shopping/Italian-food-noshing/bunny-dodging excursion.

Check please

Minestrone: Vibrantly fresh and loaded with slightly crunchy, straight-out-of-the-garden vegetables, this powerfully fragrant and deeply garlicky brew hit one way out of the park.

Insalata gorgonzola: A high-quality gorgonzola graced this terrific toss, in generous quantity, making this salad a triumph. (It's a rare and revealing thing when mere salads are carefully attended to.) Varied greens and crunchy walnuts made up the rest. A creamy dressing moistened every leaf, and not overly so. A huge serving and thus major deal at $4.95.

Fettuccine di mare: One of several specials-of-the-day, this dish featured quality fettuccine in a leggy pesto-sundried-tomato cream sauce, crowned with a ton of nicely cooked seafood. The herbs were spot-on, the flavors sensational, the presentation — including bay scallops poking up out of the strands in their glorious rosy shells — as lushly beautiful as sunset at the beach.

Pizza salsiccia: This cheese pizza topped with nickels of Italian sausage was the one unexceptional moment of the meal, given the doughy crust and ho-hum toppings.

Itemized bill, meal for two

Minestrone, cup $3.95

Insalata gorgonzola $4.95

Fettuccine di mare $13.95

Pizza salsiccia $9.95

Tax $2.88

Total $35.68

Kathryn Robinson: kathrynrobinson@speakeasy.net