Chef Marc Ritz still hits the speed bag a few times a week. He’s a former boxer turned Italian chef, a street smart native of Utica, N.Y, who loves to talk boxing nearly as much as Italian cooking.

But cooking is clearly his first love.

I met him around ten years ago, when he had a restaurant called Marc’s World Cuisine. Now, he’s married to an attractive Thai woman named Nadia, who helps him run his newest venture, Parma Pastaria, along with her sister, DaDa. It’s a pure expression of the chef’s talent, passion and commitment. Finally, he would tell you, he’s doing exactly what he wants.

At first glance, the concept seems a bit schitzy. But as you relax into one of the sofas placed in the middle of the dining room, things start to make sense.

Inside the front door is a small market featuring peeled tomatoes, premium olive oils and various dry goods. The kitchen sits behind a large display case, stocked with the salami, cheese and even a few of the pastas you’ll be eating here.

Ritz makes all his own pastas, as well as incredible hot sausage, that he spices up with fennel he crushes in a coffee grinder, and wonderful meatballs, enriched with an impossible amount of Romano cheese. He is proud of the fact that he makes practically everything from scratch. “The last time I worked the San Gennaro Festival”, he lamented, “I saw the other restaurants serving canned peppers and frozen sausages.”

Of course, you don’t have to sit on the sofas. There are proper tables in here as well, and the place doubles as a deli and sandwich shop at lunch. I come in for dinner, with my wife and nephew, and later, when two more friends join our group, we move to one of the tables.

Ritz likes to serve his $50 per person Chef’s Tasting menus to people seated on the sofas, because it is easier for him to sit with them and discuss the menus there. But if you eat a la carte, the prices are not nearly in that range. Most of the fresh pasta preparations hover in the $15-$20 range, ridiculously huge bowls that easily feed two. And there are nightly chalkboard specials, anything from crab cakes to a rib eye a la Fiorentina with Gorgonzola cream sauce and goat cheese polenta.

We start on the sofa, with a raft of appetizers and glasses of Blanc de Roses from Schiapetto, one of the leading wine producers in Italy. My wife asks me to save some of the pasta e fagioli soup, a delicate white bean puree with cheese and olive oil, for our friends. No such luck.

Slices of San Daniele prosciutto with grapes that the chef slices himself on a jazzy Berkel slicing machine arrive, accompanied by a basket of with hot, toasty Italian bread. That is followed by a house antipasto, a terrific beet salad with Gorgonzola, walnuts and a sweet sour dressing, and some of the chef’s charred octopus. Later, a huge, crumb crusted rice ball filled with vegetables, lands on our table.

Thankfully, our friends show up just in time to help us finish it all, and polish off a bottle of Chianti, or two. Five of us dive into meatballs, and an enormous portion of homemade gnocchi, which the chef tops with a sausage Bolognese, after the move.

Later, comes the orrecchiete del sud, ear shaped pasta from Puglia, with rapini and sausage. Finally, mercifully, we are given a giant plate of the chef’s homemade sausage with peppers which we consume in a frenzy. Strawberry cake, lemoncello cake doused with a shot of liqueur and tiny chocolate chip and pistachio cannoli are the Grand Finale.

The bottom line is that this place is really quite good, one of the only real neighborhood Italian places in the city that is putting out quality product. It’s unfortunate for me that I live in Green Valley, because it’s quite a long drive for me to come up here, what is essentially the north east corner of the Valley.

But it’s worth a detour and I plan to return soon, with some frequency. Ritz is doing something worthwhile, and doing it with gusto. I hope the community will take note, and give him some deserved support.

Parma Pastaria, 7591 W. Washington St. Call 233-MARC (6272), or visit his Website, www.parmabychefmarc.com, for more information.

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