Please your palate with seafood pasta

Phil Lempert TODAY Food Editor • Profile • E-mail

Stolen from executive chef Geno Bernardo who presides over the upscale, contemporary Italian dining room at NOVE Italiano, this week’s seafood pasta recipe offers a mouthwatering array of oceanic delights.

Located on one of the top floors of the Palms’ new Fantasy Tower in Las Vegas, NOVE Italiano is a unique blend of classical and modern elements. The decor features a curtain of hand-strung crystals and handcrafted LED Swarovski chandeliers juxtaposed against plasma television screens with gilded frames that display electronic art — elements of classical Italian design and sleek modernism sit side by side.

The menu at NOVE Italiano reflects the same juxtaposition: classic Italian fare with contemporary accents, including an extensive selection of seafood crudos (Italy’s answer to sashimi or ceviche, cured with sea salt, citrus or infused oils), freshly made pastas, tableside Caesar salad, bistecca fiorentina, fresh fish and shellfish.

Spaghetti NOVE, a house specialty, is prepared at a station in the dining room, but thanks to Bernardo's generosity you can also make this seafood pasta dish at home!

About the chef: Geno Bernardo was born in New York to a northern Italian mother and Sicilian father. His rich Italian heritage has always been an inspiration to him, and his fondest childhood memories are of cooking with “Nana” as a young boy. Those early Sundays with Nana were the humble beginnings of his lifelong journey through the culinary world.

Bernardo began his professional career at just 16 years old, cooking at Massimo’s, an Italian restaurant in his New Jersey neighborhood. The aspiring chef attended culinary school at the prestigious Johnson & Wales University, in Providence, R.I., from which he graduated at the top of his class. After graduation, he was recruited by Boston’s Fellini’s Italian Restaurant, where he worked for two years before accepting a position with Restaurant Associates in New York.

His affinity for seafood led him to San Diego, where he boldly broke from his Italian heritage to learn the craft of a sushi chef.

Bernardo joined the N9NE Group to develop NOVE Italiano, and with Bernardo in the kitchen, NOVE Italiano has become one of Las Vegas’ most acclaimed Italian restaurants.

NOVE Italiano
Palms Casino Resort
4321 W. Flamingo Road
Las Vegas, NV 89103
702-942-6800
www.n9negroup.com

Spaghetti NOVE is served at NOVE Italiano, Las Vegas for $43 and serves 2 people.

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