Portofino: The Ligurian Village That Moved Into Yishpro Center

The focaccia comes out of the stone oven at the front of the room and you hear it before you see it, a dry papery crackle as the server sets the board down and the crust settles. It is one o'clock on a Tuesday in Yishpro Center, the western commercial park where most of Modiin comes to run errands, and the dining room is full of people who have clearly decided the errands can wait. Two tables of colleagues are working through the business lunch. A couple by the window has ordered a bottle of Italian red at midday and shows no intention of hurrying. Behind them, a wall of framed posters, fish paintings and black and white photographs from the 1960s does the work that the restaurant's name promises.

Chef Uzi Rosha Gavizon has run this kitchen since Portofino opened, and his training shows in exactly the places where kosher dairy Italian cooking usually falls apart. He lives in Modiin, trained at the Tadmor hotel school, and spent years narrowing his range to a single discipline: Italian food without meat, built on cheese, fish, flour and vegetables. The fettuccine limone is the clearest statement of that discipline. Butter, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, parsley and parmesan, nothing else, emulsified into a sauce that clings to the ribbons without sitting heavy on them. The acidity is pitched high enough that the dish stays bright to the last forkful, which is precisely where lesser versions collapse into a bowl of cream.