Primped Pasta: Johnny’s Pizza & Pasta Ristorante Italiano

Set back from the is the ready-to-serve Johnny’s Pizza & Pasta Ristorante Italiano, formerly Joe's Pizza.

Hitting the table in a plush sweep, the iconic Johnny’s Salad—which can be shared or devoured by one very hungry, greens-craving local--boasts of spring mix dappled with balsamic vinaigrette. Tongue-sly goat cheese joins with thinned hoops of red onions, pendants of cucumbers, the dark throw of kalamata olives, tomato wedges and airy squares of croutons—stirring the palate’s whims for the better with each and every bite.

A hearty black bean soup suits up an anxious belly well before the antipasto delight of perfectly cooked calamari. With calamari as an infamously difficult-to-fry fish, because just a few seconds too long in hot oil leads to a rubbery, less than likable texture, Johnny’s kitchen connoisseurs accomplish a feat rarely seen in even the most respected of restaurants, in this effort.

The pescatore, tucked with a linguini-tortellini juxtaposition and surrounded by a parade of nighttime-hued mussel shells, clams, shrimp and more calamari, walks the plate between pasta-hugging marinara sauce, with an amiable blend of flavors where, kindly enough, none overpowers any others.

The more basic but still fork-worthy fettuccine alfredo with shrimp satiates the palate that was aching for creamily done pasta workings. Five shrimp dance the parameters of this dish, mingling around scoops of pasta, easily filling one’s insides before the plate’s bottom makes its appearance close to meal’s end.

Find Johnny’s Pizza & Pasta Ristorante Italiano at 5 Main Street in Schwenksville, PA 19473.

Basta Pasta Italian Café, with its Pennette Harry’s Bar, plays a close game of hard-to-pick favorites when considered next to the gorgonzola sauce entrée done with gatherings of gnocchi at Osteria Restaurant. Away from the pasta persuasion, Johnny’s electrifies the dining landscape with its impressively ideal end factor of pristinely done calamari. But within competitively pasta-swept minutes out on the town, Basta Pasta and Osteria break a tough tie, pairing the win on this one.