Friday, January 8, 1999

Pasta's special at Wiley's Sunday brunch?

By Cleve Twitchell

Wiley's World Pasta shop and Eatery started out some three years ago as a hole-in-the-wall- luncheon spot in Ashland.
It has since added a few table, expanded into dinner hours and instituted beer and wine service.
As before the central theme is fresh organic pasta with a variety of interesting sauces.
The result is a pleasant alternative for dinner out in Ashland - pretty good food and wine serve with informal, modest trappings and for less money than you might expect, with most dinners under $9.
Be prepared to ponder some choices when dining here. Take time to study the menu.
First there's a choice of pasta - angle hair, spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine or the fresh doodle of the day (spinach fettuccine the evening we visited), or a wheatless or eggless variety.
Then you pick a sauce. There are 11 of them, most with more than one option:

• Roasted olive toss, with black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and garlic, by itself or with tofu or chicken.

•Garlic caper sauce, with garlic roasted in olive oil blended with ground capers and served with a side of parmesan, by itself or with bay shrimp or chicken.

• Basil walnut pesto plus parmesan. You can add tofu or chicken.

•Marinara tomato and herb sauce, to which tofu, chicken or Italian sausage may be added.

•Alfredo, by itself or with chicken, bay shrimp or smoked salmon.

•Julie's Toss, a topping of feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic, with or without artichoke hearts (the sauce is named for one of the owners).

Mildly spicy Hunan, with tamari, garlic, ginger, red pepper and veggies, with or without tofu or chicken.

•Spicy Thai peanut sauce, with coconut milk, cilantro, tamari, sesame oil, chilis and veggies. Again, by itself or with tofu or chicken.

•Vegetable primavera, veggies, fresh herbs, garlic, white wine, gorgonzola and sun-dried tomatoes.

•The vegan, with fresh eggless noodles tossed with veggies, roasted olives, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic.

•Smoked salmon with pesto and fresh tomatoes.

To that list, add lasagna and five kinds of ravioli - cheese and spinach, garlic and gorgonzola, Italian sausage and cheese, roasted chicken and pesto, and smoked salmon. The salmon comes with basil cream sauce, the others with marinara.
Also add three or four blackboard specials. Some of the potential sauce variations work better than others, our party found.
I ordered the mildly spicy hunan with chicken, and it was excellent, with a zesty oriental flavor and a mix of carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, red cabbage, broccoli and peanuts, plus the chicken, all atop spinach fettuccine.
My dining partner's selection, garlic caper sauce with bay shrimp atop the same variety of fettuccine, didn't come off as well. It featured good, fresh ingredients but lacked spark. Perhaps the shrimp didn't mix well with the other flavors.
Our dinners cost in the $8.50 to $8.75 range, typical of most menu items, except that sauces without chicken, shrimp or sausage are about $1 less.
The price includes salad and bread, but everything comes on one plate so it is essentially a one-course dinner.
We loved the salad, served with a side of red onion and poppy seed vinaigrette. And the fresh bread was good, but it would have been nice served with more than one slice.
Three entree salads are on the menu. Two feature feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts plus choice of chicken or tofu. The other is a warm spinach variety with walnuts, gorgonzola and sun-dried tomatoes.
The wine list at Wiley's is fairly brief, six selections, but augmented by blackboard specials.
Valley View is on the list, also several California and Italian labels, and all are available by the glass. Bottle prices start at $14, glasses at $3.25.
Wiley's World Pasta Shope and Eatery is at 1606 Ashland St. (Highway 66), Ashland, phone 488-0285. It's open for lunch and dinner daily except Sunday. Credit cards are not accepted but local checks are. The building is wheelchair accessible.
Wiley's also sells its pasta noodle, ravioli and sauces to go. We took home an order of Italian sausage and cheese ravioli, for $5.95 a pound, which serves three and add our own marinara sauce. (You can buy theirs, buts its more money.)
There were no cooking instructions, but a call to the restaurant confirmed that 7 to 8 mins in boiling water would do it.
It did very nice. For best results, go easy on the sauce so you can taste the homemade ravioli fillings.

Cleve Twitchell is a Mail Tribune editor and columnist. He can be reached at 776-4486