Does Westchester need another Italian restaurant recommendation? My answer is decidedly yes, because Café Alaia in Scarsdale, which opened about a year ago, puts a new and interesting twist on many classic Italian dishes that is well worth a try.

Café Alaia is owned by Vincenzo Alaia, who is from Naples, and have made his restaurant into an inviting and cozy destination, complete with a small bar, large wooden beams overhead, and wooden tables and chairs with dimly lit lighting throughout.

Our dining experience here started with sesame-crusted Italian bread served with a wonderful tomato sauce for dipping. Our antipasti and salads included gamberi e fagioli, seasoned grilled shrimp over sautéed cannellini beans; barbabietole, a very fresh salad of beets, arugula, and almonds; a Caesar salad; and the pièce de résistance, sformatino di melanzane, slow-cooked eggplant soufflé topped with burrata fondue and a light tomato sauce.

From primi, we ordered tagliatelle alla bolognese, homemade tagliatelle with beef ragu and grana; tortellini al formaggio e proscuitto, homemade grana tortellini with fontina and taleggio sauce, parmacotto ham, and peas; and a special dish of the evening from secondi, vitello scallopine, veal in a brown sauce reduction. Everything was very, very good, but the portion sizes on the pasta dishes were larger than they needed to be. We would have preferred half portions, but they were not available.