Mark Anthony's Paisano's: Everything Under the Tuscan Sun

In the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" (based on the book of the same name), the main character Frances copes with divorce by moving to Tuscany. As expected there is an encounter with a sexy Italian man, lots of wine and late nights of conversation with close girlfriends.

My favorite scenes in the movie involve the wonderful food of Italy. Frances is a fantastic cook and finds inspiration from the wonderful simple ingredients by her rustic villa. She cooks simple comfort food of the peasants rather than the elevated fare of Rome. Paisano means Italian peasant and is the namesake of . While the food here is more Italian-American than Italian-Italian, it is good nevertheless.

Mark Anthony's Paisano's has one of the most extensive menus I have ever seen. In fact it's the only pizza and pasta place in the area that I know of that has breakfast pizzas.

A big deal pizza shop opened near the Bowery in New York a couple years back and people were freaking out over the breakfast pizzas there. I kind of smiled to myself thinking about the fact that in this neighborhood pizza shop in Havertown, we have breakfast pizzas as well. It's not an item you see all that often but I think it's such a great idea. Isn't pizza crust just a big round piece of extra delicious doughy toast? 

We were long past breakfast time so we opted for the spinach calzone and spaghetti marinara. The spinach calzone was the biggest one I have ever seen. It took up most of the space in the pizza box and came with an extra large container of marinara sauce. The crust was crisp and the interior warm and chewy.

The filling was brimming with spinach, mozzarella and plenty of ricotta cheeses. It was well seasoned and when I was able to get a bite of dough, spinach and cheese and dip it into the marinara sauce (which I spiked with chili flakes) I was in heaven.

This calzone is delicious because each of the elements is tasty on its own. The dough is exemplary, the marinara sauce bright and rich with tomato flavor and the filling delightful. The calzone is meant to be enjoyed among a few people. Even with my monstrous appetite, I could only finish half.

The spaghetti marinara featured the delicious marinara sauce and al dente noodles. I have to warn you that if you are ordering pasta at an off time (late afternoon) it takes a very long time.

They had to wait for the water to come to a boil and then other things were going on. If you are in this situation I would suggest placing a phone order and giving them plenty of time to cook it and then picking it up later. The filled pastas take less time because they only need to be heated in the oven. Despite the lengthy amount of time, the spaghetti was quite good. As mentioned earlier, it was cooked al dente and I loved the marinara sauce.

This dish also came with an enormous garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette and garlic bread. The garden salad was filled with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, croutons, black olives, roasted peppers and green peppers. Since my pasta took so long they made my salad extra large which I thought was very nice customer service. The garlic bread was decent. I wished for more actual garlic and maybe some more fat (olive oil or butter).

The staff is quite friendly and on the younger side. They were patient with me as I pored over the crazy long menu with tiny font (there are so many things the font needs to be extremely small to fit in all the items) and answered any questions that we had.

The decor is typical of a pizza and pasta shop with plenty of seating and large TVS that are always on. Sometimes there are sports games being broadcast but they may surprise you with an episode of Oprah (well, not anymore I guess, you will be missed Ms. Winfrey) as well. The space is clean and well lit. It's quite a large dining area for what appears to be a small store front. There is ample parking and a better than average kids' menu (although I would argue that most of the regular menu is also kid-friendly).

Mark Anthony's Paisano's has whatever your little heart may desire. Keep an eye out for weekday specials and it's a BYOB so you can bring some vino to go with your meal. Maybe if Frances had lived near here, she wouldn't have had to go all the way to Italy to try so many different things.