A Michelin-starred Arizona chef makes homey Italian food at this neighborhood bistro

Imagine walking into a stylish Airbnb in the Italian countryside and finding a Michelin-starred chef hanging out in the kitchen. That's the feeling I got when I sat down at Campo, a new neighborhood bistro owned by the award-winning Valley chef Alex Stratta.

The space seems to have taken a 180 from its previous concept, Stratta Kitchen, a short-lived lunch cafe with bright, minimalist art gallery vibes. Now it's a dinner haunt with serious date-night potential. Antique landscape paintings in golden frames hang next to funky potted ferns, giving the restaurant a vintage Mediterranean look that works best in the dim, candlelit lighting of the evening.

Alessandro "Alex" Stratta has tested out a range of concepts since moving back to the Valley in 2016 after a decade in Vegas where he earned his restaurants two Michelin stars. The former Iron Chef and James Beard Award winner fronted kitchens at the Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia and the Arizona Biltmore. He also consulted with the FOUND:RE hotel before opening his second namesake restaurant Stratta in 2020 with Jeremy Pacheco of The Vig.

Judging from the healthy weeknight crowd and the simple, approachable food I tasted during my initial visit, this new concept seems like it could be a winning one.

Review: Scott Conant's Scottsdale Italian steakhouse is a wild romp

What's on the menu at Campo?

Earlier in his career, Stratta made a name for himself cooking French cuisine for renowned restaurateurs Alain Ducasse and Daniel Boulud. So it makes sense that his Mediterranean-style cooking draws from both French and Italian cuisines. However, Campo's menu falls firmly in the Italian camp with an eclectic mix of antipastos and pasta dishes that use fresh durum wheat noodles from the local Sonoran Pasta Co.

Campo's pizza is a force to be reckoned with. The team worked with Noble Bread to develop a unique blend of rye and wheat flours along with type 85 pizza flour for the dough, which is then baked on a Hearthstone oven until the sauce is molten. The pies are a cheesy compromise between rustic Italian and decadent New York styles. The crust bubbles and erupts into a chewy puff of bread that holds up to the tomato sauce and generous scatters of mozzarella, which is greasy in the best way.

We ordered the Marco, which came topped with wide slices of Calabrese salami interspersed with crumbles of Schreiner's sausage and flecks of fresh basil. It was like a classic pepperoni with a hint of refinement.

On the pasta menu, the Mafaldini Pescatore, with its bounty of seafood delights in a light tomato broth, stood out among gems like a lasagna Bolognese and a bucatini with pancetta and cherry tomato confit.

More pasta: This downtown restaurant is known for pizza. Don't miss the pasta

The ribbonlike mafaldini noodles, some of them tinged black with squid ink, were loaded with beautiful grilled shrimp and a hefty serving of mussels and clams. The pasta may have needed a little bit more salt or some other kind of zing, but the seafood itself was extremely high quality and plump.

Wild-caught Mexican shrimp also made an appearance on the antipasto menu where it was paired with a cast iron skillet of melted polenta. Blessed with the char from the grill, the beautiful shrimp were buried in a garden of fresh herbs and slices of bitter radish. The polenta could have been creamier and a little less chunky, but the shrimp was on point.

You don't often find Michelin-starred chefs making approachable food like this every day of the week. Campo is a solid neighborhood choice in Scottsdale's sea of excellent pizza and pasta places.

Campo

Where: 8260 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale.

Hours: Tuesday through Thursday 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Closed Monday. The restaurant plans to expand its hours in February and also open Monday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Price: Antipasto $12 to $24; pasta $19 to $32; pizza $16 to $19; mains $26 to $48.

Details: 480-597-9195, campoitalian.com.

Reach reporter Andi Berlin at [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook @andiberlin, Instagram @andiberlin or Twitter @andiberlin.

Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Campo restaurant in Scottsdale: A guide to the best of the menu