Pasta and pizza are elemental, basically flour and eggs in the former, with yeast and olive oil added for the latter. That simplicity is deceptive, with success or failure resting on the skill of execution and deftness of embellishment — and there North Italia excels.

The restaurant boasts that all of its pasta is made in-house and that’s an important point, since fresh pasta possesses a distinctive clean, nutty flavor and delicate, supple texture. Its blank-canvas quality is enhanced through the saucing and tossing of quality ingredients, as in the house-specialty Bolognese ($18), in which tagliatelle — long ribbons not quite as wide as fettucine — are cloaked in a stout sauce that seems more meat than tomato, with Italian sausage adding richness to the customary beef.