The Ultimate Comfort Food Is a Slice of Pasta Pie

Pasta pie from Mattina

Comfort food can be many things to many people but at its most basic, you can usually count on a meal that’s starchy and nostalgia-inducing, and, perhaps, full of cheese. For some, comfort can be found at the bottom of a bowl of mac and cheese, for others, it’s a heaping pile of mashed potatoes.

But as yet another late winter storm blows into the Bay Area this week, here’s a new front-runner in the contest for the most cozy, comforting food in San Francisco: a slice of pasta pie.

You can find the dish at Mattina, the Cal-Italian all-day cafe from chef Matt Accarrino. He says pasta pie previously has been on the menu at his higher-end restaurant SPQR. But ever since he opened Mattina just up the street, he’s been offering slices of pasta pie as a special and selling out regularly. The recipe riffs on a classic Italian timballo, the labor-intensive baked pasta dish made famous in one of the best food movies of all time, Big Night — though technically, yes, it’s called a timpano in the film.

Accarrino’s version doesn’t stick to tradition. “My whole cooking thought has been to take things from my experience working in Italy, having an Italian family, all that stuff, but not to make it so linear,” Accarrino says. “So I’m not trying to replicate something I’m just making my own thing. So it’s like, if it’s delicious, I don’t I don’t care how traditional it is.”

When it comes to pasta pie that means starting with the basic idea of a dome-shaped pasta dish but enclosing the filling inside a layer of dough. Accarrino’s dough is similar to pie crust, made with butter and flour, but he also uses milk, which makes it a bit more pliable, or “forgiving,” as he puts it. Most often, it’s wrapped around noodles, tomato sauce, cheese, and tightly packed meatballs the size of a child’s fist. But on occasion, the kitchen might switch it up. For Easter, for example, they’ll do a version that draws inspiration from a Torta Pasqualina, so the pie will be filled with greens, eggs, and ricotta cheese.

For anyone who grew up eating baked ziti or chicken pot pie, pasta pie a perfect marriage of both: tender, buttery dough wrapped around warm layers of pasta and cheese. The meatballs give the dish some heft, but not enough to land it in gut-bomb territory. With a cold glass of white wine, and a seat in the restaurant’s narrow dining room, a slice of pasta pie might just have the power to make you forget about a bad day or inclement weather.

To be clear, the pasta pie isn’t technically on the Mattina menu, but Accarrino says it’s available as a special — there’s a menu up at the counter — the majority of the time. Since it requires a good deal of prep and labor to produce, there’s only a limited amount available each day and when it’s gone, it’s gone; so it’s always possible the restaurant could sell out. But Accarrino says he plans to amp up production ahead of this week’s dreary weather, which practically demands San Franciscans seek out a snug indoor respite. Plus, customers can order a whole pasta pie if they provide enough notice. “I think it’s just kind of a fun thing,” Accarrino says. “A lot of people have ordered whole pies.”

Mattina (2232 Bush Street, San Francisco) serves its all-day menu from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.