Is Scott Conant the chef of record at the Ponte? Then the pasta al pomodoro is the elephant in the room, a plate of spaghetti in tomato sauce with which the chef has always been identified. The spaghetti has been praised on television by Anthony Bourdain and Ted Allen, among others; its recipe has been discussed in almost every publication and website that includes recipes; its cost — $22 at the Ponte, although it has been $24 at his other restaurants — tends to inspire shock and awe.

When Conant’s first Scarpetta opened in New York in 2008, New York Times critic Frank Bruni called the pasta “pure Mediterranean bliss.’’ When it appeared on the menu at the late Beverly Hills location of Scarpetta, former L.A. Times critic S. Irene Virbila praised its elegance. I thought I’d described it as “Botticelli on a plate’’ when I reviewed his New York restaurant L’Impero for Gourmet in 2002, but I turned out to have been talking about his mushrooms with polenta instead.