Munchmobile rates Cosimo’s Tops!

 Friday, July 29, 2005

 BY PETER GENOVESE
Star-Ledger Staff

 Cosimo's, Bloomfield

 Our last stop of the night turned out to the best. This small, lively dining room is run by a former lunch truck operator. Cosimo Pensiero manned a lunch truck in Newark until a year and a half ago, when he and wife, Lisa, opened Cosimo's. One daughter, Giovanna, is the head chef; another, Sandra, is the dining room manager.

Top salads of this Munch summer? The list would have to include Cosimo's special salad with mango, and the seafood salad, in a wondrous lemon and olive oil dressing. "Awesome," Mignone said of the latter. "Extraordinary," Burbage said of the special salad. "Colorful and hearty, with a nice mix of greens." 
 
Pining for pizza? The quattro stagioni, a thin-crust pie with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and black olives, is outstanding. The filet mignon, a just-okay cut obscured by a mushroom sauce, seemed like it came out of another kitchen.

You may fall in love with Romeo and Juliet- - chicken and veal stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella. "The best veal we've had today," according to Burbage. Want to go back to the basics? Try the linguine alio e olio, linguine in a light, bright garlic and oil sauce.  

Mignone said the chicken margherita (chicken layered with eggplant, tomatoes and ricotta) was "to die for ... a great dish if you can't make up your mind what to get, because you get it all."

 "The reason God created cardiologists," said an awestruck Farrell.

Our hearts were aflutter. We saved room for dessert -- try the apple brown betty -- and sunk back in our chairs, sated.