Enjoy Traditional Italian at Enoteca Italia

The $4 fennel sausage addition is insider knowledge (the bartender recommended it). Aaren Prody

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We discovered we had been living under a rock when our own Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics ordered chef Alban Besiri's scratch-made pasta for their NBA finals pregame meals.

His restaurant, Enoteca Italia, is Turtle Creek's favorite eatery for authentic, homemade Italian food.

A reservation was made expeditiously.

Inside, the restaurant is upscale without being overly fancy: easily a casual neighborhood spot by day, but with a romantic touch at night. It's very spacious with a large skylight spread over the dining room, with plenty of tables and a full-service bar.

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A lively and beautiful atmosphere for some homemade Napolitano pizza and scratch pasta.

Aaren Prody

Lunch and dinner share pretty much the same menu, except the prices during lunch are a touch cheaper should that interest you. A $10 tiramisu versus $13 tiramisu is a big deal, as are the rest of the $3–5 discounts on other dishes.

The menu is divided up into neat sections: small plates, salads, for the table, pasta, mains, from the sea, pizza and dolce. So just enough to ponder but not so much that you can't decide. They won us over with the details; everything is made in-house from scratch.

We kept our order simple with two traditional choices: Caesar salad and the wild mushroom pizza (add fennel sausage).

The salad was strategic on our end because it was the gateway to how the rest of the dinner would be. An Italian restaurant is only as strong as its Caesar salad, we think, or something like that.

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I came. I saw. I ate.

Aaren Prody

The salad could have used a spare handful of croutons, but the dressing-to-salad ratio was perfect and you could taste that the dressing is housemade. The stack of crunchy romaine, quality parmesan, crisp croutons and zesty dressing was nothing short of idyllic. We enjoyed it so much that we almost forgot we planned to order a pizza too.

Emerging from the salad-induced trance, the wild mushroom pizza made with the obvious mushrooms, leeks and generous amounts of taleggio cheese, parmesan and fontina came out of the kitchen.

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The $4 fennel sausage addition is insider knowledge (the bartender recommended it).

Aaren Prody

There's no sauce, but the heavy-handed sprinkle of cheese plays both roles on top of the soft and pillowy crust. The combination of savory fennel sausage, mushroom and leek should hit the spot.

Enoteca recently announced a new happy hour, Tuesday through Friday, 2–5 p.m., with deals on wines by the bottle and glass, antipasti and signature cocktails. Get in there and grab that raw honeycomb focaccia.

Oh, and there's a parking garage next door and the restaurant will validate your ticket for free parking.

Enoteca Italia, 3102 Oak Lawn Ave., Tuesday – Thursday, noon – 9 p.m.; Friday, noon – 10 p.m.; Saturday, 4–10 p.m.; Sunday, 4–9 p.m.; closed Monday.