JOE’S PASTA HOUSE – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Once a year, despite my protestations and whining, I agree to take my Kim to the Olive Garden. It’s a deal we have, albeit one that makes me feel like Faust in the Christopher Marlowe play. Faust, for the non-English majors among you, was a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. In my case, the deal is a visit to Olive Garden once a year in exchange for all the strange and exotic restaurants I want to visit the rest of the year. I sure got the rotten end of that deal.

On a list of things I’d rather do, my annual visit to the Olive Garden for a meal of cheese glop or tomato torture ranks somewhere below visiting a proctologist or watching The View. Kim likes the salad and bread sticks and I suspect derives a bit of sadistic satisfaction in hearing me mutter polysyllabic epithets about the “Evil Garden’s” food. The cultural anthropologist in me finds it both amusing and tragic that teeming masses congregate for pathetic pasta, mediocre marinara and boring bread sticks. It makes me long for a visit to Joe’s Pasta house in Rio Rancho.

Joe’s Pasta House is the antithesis of the Olive Garden. In the words of Bruce Schor, one of my astute readers (and not solely because our tastes in food are fairly similar), “Joe’s represents real Italian food of the real comfort variety.” The operative word here is “real.” Joe’s is most often thought of as old-fashioned “red sauce” restaurant, the type of which have survived the onslaught of their supposedly more sophisticated brethren, the vaunted Northern Italian restaurants; the type of which remain so popular throughout the East Coast. Perhaps that’s why Joe’s is so beloved in Rio Rancho, the city so many call “little New York.”

To label Joe’s as strictly a “red sauce restaurant” is to do a disservice to one of the most comprehensive Italian restaurants in New Mexico, a restaurant which transcends labels in that it showcases the cuisines of Italy’s three distinct culinary regions: north, south and central. Joe’s also prepares the familiar Italian American dishes developed by Italian immigrants, occasionally spicing things up with green chile, a tribute to the adopted home of proprietors Joe and Kassie Guzzardi.

When he’s not in the kitchen preparing your meal (yes, he can really cook) Joe Guzzardi is a peripatetic presence with a buoyant personality and charm to spare. He visits every table to make sure his customers are enjoying their dining experience. “Mi casa es su casa” seems to be his mantra–and he really means it. I once overheard him tell a guest who didn’t like the entree he ordered, “this is my house. We’ll make you happy.” before proceeding to recommend entrees with a different flavor profile than the dish the guest didn’t like. Joe’s energy, enthusiasm and customer orientation are mirrored by an attentive, well-mannered and highly professional wait staff that is easily among the very best in the metropolitan area.

While Joe manages the restaurant’s day-to-day operations, his pulchritudinous partner Kassie oversees the restaurants social media channels, search engine optimization, blog and Web site presence. In a day and age in which it’s become fashionable for restaurateurs to tout their social consciousness, Kassie was a pioneer in forging relationships with local suppliers to ensure the highest quality, most socially responsible and healthy foods possible. She’s understandably very proud that Joe’s won’t feed guests anything the Guzzardi family wouldn’t eat themselves.

That means hormone- and antibiotic-free meats and to the greatest extent possible GMO (genetically modified organism) free pasta imported from Italy. It means grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, humanely raised veal and sustainably-caught fish. Pastas and sauces are prepared in stainless steel pots, healthier vessels by far than their aluminum counterparts. Only non-hydrogenated oil is used and it’s changed out every day, the remnants given to owners of vegetable oil-powered vehicles. Unfortunately Rio Rancho’s solid waste infrastructure is currently incapable of providing the recycling capabilities to fully comprehend all of Joe’s needs, but the restaurant recycles as much as possible.

As for Joe’s famous red sauce (so good I’ve joked with Joe that he should serve it in a shot glass), the secret is in the tomatoes. Joe’s uses only imported, vine-ripened, hand-picked Italian plum tomatoes which have a wonderful, natural sweetness. Now, there are two schools of thought about preparing sauce. Joe is a proponent of not simmering his sauces for hours on end as opposed to the school of chefs who employ marathon-long simmering sessions (which tend to render tomatoes very acidic). That’s one of the reasons Joe’s red sauce is much lighter in color. It’s much more delicious, too.

In May, 2018 Yelp compiled its first ever Top 50 Places to Eat in Albuquerque. The highest ranked restaurant in this enumeration of exceptional eateries was Joe’s Pasta House. Among the 1,500 or so restaurants in the metropolitan area, none is as beloved by Yelpers as is Joe’s. With nearly 300 reviews (as of 26 May 2018), Joe’s has an average rating of 4.5 stars. Joe, Kassie and their tremendous staff realize that they have to earn those stars each and every day from each and every visitor who dines at their restaurant. They don’t shirk this responsibility. No one does it better!It may be hard to believe that Joe’s Pasta House occupies the former digs of an International House of Pancakes (IHOP), but what’s not surprising is that the restaurant consistently earns flawless ratings on all its restaurant inspections. It’s an immaculate and attractive restaurant. Sophisticated stylings include an exhibition kitchen under the cover of a burnished copper awning. The restaurant’s walls are festooned by artwork provided by the Rio Rancho Art Association.

Faux Italian marble columns, a mural painted by a deceased beloved Rio Rancho city council member, real napkins and linen tablecloths let you know this is more than a casual dining restaurant even though the reasonable prices might belie that fact. Until 2009, the great Bob Morris sang at the Pasta House, his elegant voice delivering beautiful Italian arias and romantic ballads on weekend evenings. Bob now lives in Texas, but is much missed by frequent patrons and the staff at the Pasta House. In August, 2013, Joe’s began featuring delicious, fine, imported foods and confections for those evenings in which you’re craving Italian cuisine, but don’t want to leave home. Almost immediately as you step into the restaurant, you’ll espy shelves replete with imported olive oils, pastas, olives, salts, risotto, nutella, pastas, mustard, cookies and so much more. It’s not quite the next best thing to dining at Joe’s, but Kassie assures me this is excellent stuff.

17 November, 2015: For some restaurants, having a presence in the community means little more than having a brick-and-mortar storefront with an address. For restaurants which become beloved institutions within their communities, having a presence in the community means being part and parcel of the fabric of the community–being involved on a day-to-day basis in promoting all that is great about a community. It means not only providing outstanding food and excellent service to guests, but getting to know them and treating them like family. It means listening to their guests, taking their feedback–good and bad–and using it to continue improving. It means being a neighbor and friend.

That’s what Joe’s Pasta House in Rio Rancho has done. Joe’s isn’t just one of the two or three best Italian restaurants in New Mexico, it’s an exemplar of what it means to be part of a community. Because of her involvement with the community, Kassie Guzzardi, the effervescent co-owner of Joe’s Pasta House, was selected by Yelp as one of 100 owners of top-rated businesses from the U.S. and Canada. With that well-deserved honor, she ws invited to Yelp’s “Coast-to-Coast: Coming Together Because We Mean Business,” a networking opportunity in which Yelp professionals shared marketing techniques with their brethren. There’s no doubt Kassie also taught even Yelp’s marketing experts a thing or two about what it means to be part of the community.

March, 2017: Delish.com, one of the top ten food-related online destinations, knows that buffets are often perceived as “minimal hotel breakfasts and cheesy resort restaurants.” Rather than waste bytes denouncing these denizens of dreariness, Delish celebrated the highest-rated restaurant buffets according to Foursquare City Guide. In its feature “The Buffet Everyone is Talking About in Your State,” Delish certainly picked a great one from New Mexico, selecting Joe’s Pasta House in Rio Rancho as purveyor of the very best buffet in the Land of Enchantment. Joe’s buffet is the apotheosis of deliciousness, a sumptuous array of favorites that will leave you drooling. Although Joe’s spectacular buffet is available only for lunch, the dinner menu is even better.  NOTE: Joe’s is no longer serving a lunch buffet.

There is so much to love at Joe’s Pasta House, an Italian restaurant several orders of magnitude better than the heavily trafficked Olive Garden to which I’m subjected once a year. In 2013 that fact was acknowledged when Joe’s Pasta House was selected by readers of Albuquerque The Magazine as the “best Italian restaurant” in the metropolitan area. That’s proof that Joe’s has become a dining destination drawing diners from throughout the Duke City area and beyond. In 2015, Albuquerque The Magazine readers voted Joe’s “Top Five” in four different categories: Best Italian, Best Wait Staff (a hallmark of Joe’s Pasta House), Best Place to Overindulge and Best Buffet. In 2016, Joe’s earned a coveted best of the city for its service staff. There is none better!

While Joe’s Pasta House has earned popular acclaim from a faithful customer base, Joe’s culinary skills aren’t always as critically acclaimed. Rarely will you hear his name mentioned in discussions about the best chefs in the metropolitan area. Some of that is based on the misbegotten perception that red sauce dishes aren’t as sophisticated and challenging to prepare as the “high-brow” dishes served in “Northern Italian” restaurants. Another reason is Joe’s self-effacing nature. He’s not one to crow about his skills and is modest to a fault. When we lavished praise on his phenomenal rigatoni pasta and pork ribs dish, he dismissed it as “just another dish we ate at home growing up in New York.” If only every chef was as modest…and talented.

Appetizers

Perhaps the only thing at the Pasta House as warm as the Guzzardi’s hospitality is the bread which arrives at your table shortly after you’re comfortably seated. There may be nothing as comforting as a basket of sliced bread and yeasty rolls baked in-house–unless, of course, it’s a dish of seasoned olive oil and various herbs and spices in which to dip that bread. Joe’s Pasta House goes even further with a complementary plate of bruschetta crowned with a mixture of rich, red tomatoes, chopped onions, garlic and other savory ingredients. At most restaurants you would pay handsomely for such a treat.

Extreme care must be taken to ensure you don’t fill up on bread, great as it is. You also have to be doubly cautious so as not to fill up on Pasta House appetizers, some of which arrive in profuse portions which might constitute an entire meal elsewhere. There’s absolutely no way you can leave the Pasta House hungry! The menu features several tempting appetizers and while such options as fried mozzarella, fried zucchini and fried calamari are seemingly standard offerings at most Italian restaurants, live it up and try something unique to Joe’s Pasta House. That something different might be the poppy seed shrimp, ten (yes, 10) jumbo shrimp sautéed with bell peppers, red onions and black olives in a tangy poppy seed sauce. It’s different and it’s delicious.

15 January 2014: The menu offers six salads, most available in half and full sizes. Our favorite is the Caesar salad which is classically interpreted then improved by Joe’s. The traditional touches are large leaf Romain lettuce, shaved Parmesan cheese and croutons topped with Caesar dressing. Joe’s touches include red peppers and a sole cherry pepper. Caesar, after all, was Italian so these small additions are copacetic. The Caesar dressing is applied lightly so you can enjoy the other salad ingredients.

13 November 2012: Another unique appetizer is the hot antipasti for two, an entree-sized portion that features stuffed eggplant (with rich Polly-O Premium Ricotta Cheese from New Jersey), clams, calamari, shrimp and mussels baked and served with marinara sauce. The shrimp have that snap that signifies freshness and a sweet brininess that’s addictive. The marinara is among the best we’ve had in New Mexico–slightly sweet, barely acidic and wholly addictive, but it’s the eggplant that makes me want to sing like Bob Morris. Prepared incorrectly eggplant can leave a “metallic” taste in your mouth that may last for days. The Pasta House chefs know what they’re doing with eggplant! By itself, it’s quite good, but the Pasta House tops it with melted mozzarella and bits of prosciutto.  NOTE:  The fabulous hot antipasti for two is no longer on the menu.  Supply chain issues have made it difficult to ensure the availability and freshness of all the components Joe’s uses to create this masterpiece.

22 January 2017: Addictive is an apt description for the layered eggplant (lightly breaded eggplant stuffed with ricotta cheese, sautéed spinach and bacon, topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. Eggplant is the bane of my kitchen, a dish I’ve never been able to prepare well (hence my aforementioned references to “metallic” taste), but Joe’s rendition comes highly recommended by a trusted fellow gastronome and friend Dave Hurayt who calls it “exquisite…more than a full meal.” Dave knows what he’s talking about. He’s a world-traveler who’s experienced the very best in Italian food throughout Boston, New York City and Italy. Another friend, Bruce “Sr. Plata” Silver calls this the very best dish on Joe’s formidable menu. My Italian sister-in-law Lola Devillo Laws says it’s just like her sainted mama used to make.

The eggplant is indeed exquisite. It’s the type of dish which makes all your synapses fire as your taste buds try to discern the adventure of flavors going on in your mouth. Texturally, the skin of the eggplant is soft, but not mushy. The bacon is porcine candy. The sauce is rich with tomatoes, basil, garlic and other spices. This is an excellent appetizer, a wonderful way to start a meal. Until the Cabrona virus shut down the world,  stuffed eggplant was standard fare on the daily buffet. To offer his patrons more variety Joe removed the eggplant from his buffet and replaced it with another item. That tactic lasted one day, a day he remembers for having made about 75 trips to the kitchen to prepare the beloved eggplant dish for his guests.

23 October 2016: Though Joe doesn’t spent as much time in the kitchen as he might like, he’s certainly honed his chef staff to prepare dishes to his high and exacting standards. He’s got an excellent kitchen staff he can trust. Chef Simon, for example, prepared a baked imported brie dish that is not only delightful in its deliciousness, but plated beautifully. If it’s true that you also eat with your eyes, it was love at first sight when the brie arrived. Served with a fresh cranberry compote, blueberries and crostini, it pairs the mold-ripened pungency of brie with tangy berries, a match made in kitchen heaven. Brie’s somewhat thick rind belies the creamy softness that practically oozes when punctured.

17 January 2016: When we lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, my Kim’s work-commute took her past pristine sandy beaches and spectacular blue waters. Alas, it also took her past several seafood processing plants, the malodorous emanations of which turned her off seafood for years. She won’t partake of seafood unless it is at the peak of freshness with absolutely no “fishy” smell. She loves the seafood at Joe’s Pasta House. It’s unfailingly fresh and delicious. Her new favorite may be the clams casino. Created in a Rhode Island casino near the turn of the 20th century, clams casino (fresh little neck clams steamed in broth with garlic, red onions and bacon) are a magnificent mariner’s favorite. The combination of crispy bacon and sweet clams is addictive.

10 August 2014: One of the menu items which best shows Joe’s versatility and creativity is the sweet and spicy shrimp dish, an appetizer which by name alone you might think would be a Chinese dish. In actuality, Joe concocted this starter as a tribute to the predilection for piquancy among New Mexicans. The piquancy is courtesy of a roasted pineapple Habanero sauce. At about 350,000 Scoville units, the Habanero pepper ranks as one of the most incendiary peppers on Earth. Not always sufficiently appreciated is its citrus-like properties. It’s those properties which complement the roasted pineapple so utterly well. To temper the sweet notes of the pineapple, the sauce is also replete with garlic and red onions. The eight large shrimp are superbly fresh and have a discernible snap when you bite into them. They’re served over a bed of fresh spinach.

29 August 2014: In recent years the seemingly de rigueur calamari appetizer has fallen out of fashion, largely because it’s almost always prepared exactly the same way–strips or ringlets of breaded calamari served with a side of marinara. Joe’s dares to be different, offering a “Mediterranean style” calamari that brings personality and zest to an appetizer which too often earns the adjective “boring.” At Joe’s, this is one exciting calamari dish redolent with tangy and invigorating flavors. The fried calamari is topped with warm feta cheese, capers, artichoke hearts, red onions and kalamata olives in a lemon-butter sauce. It’s even better than it sounds and thankfully Joe’s serves it in a characteristically large portion size because you and your dining companion will be vying for as much of it as you can get.

29 August 2014: What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you read “fried lasagna?” More than a few of you will probably cringe in terror at the thought of Paula Deene slathering up a perfectly good lasagna with butter then frying it. History recounts that lasagna has actually been fried well before the popular pasta dish was even called lasagna. In fact a First Century recipe describes “lagana” as thin sheets of wheat flour dough with crushed lettuce juice, flavored with spices, then fried.

Fast forward some twenty centuries and innovative restaurants such as Joe’s Pasta House are preparing the most indulgent and delicious fried lasagna you can imagine. As expected, your fork will penetrate past a blanket of molten cheese and sink down into layers of delicious strips of lasagna noodles and ground sausage resplendent in one of Joe’s famous red sauces. Much less expected is the piquant bite, the genesis of which is actually the sausage. It’s not New Mexico chile piquant, but it’s got a bite to it.

12 July 2015: In recent years the term “fusion” has been widely used to describe the blending of two or more cuisines to create innovative and sometimes quite delicious dishes. Though Joe would probably dismiss the term fusion, he does marry Italian ingredients and culinary techniques with those of his adopted home state to create uniquely delicious dishes which bring great credit to both cultures. Among them is the fried breaded meatballs, a special offered in July, 2015.

The name “fried breaded meatballs” in and of itself may not sound especially interesting or delicious, but at the hands of Joe’s kitchen staff, these meaty orbs are quite wonderful. Take four traditional breaded and fried meatballs, top them with a New Mexico green chile spinach cream sauce and melted mozzarella and you’ve got a rich, indulgent, absolutely decadent adventure in deliciousness. While dense and coarse, the meatballs are mostly meat, not some filler. They’d be terrific by themselves, but the green chile spinach sauce elevates them to rarefied status…and that sauce. Oh, that sauce. Bill Gates isn’t that rich.

16 November 2013: Joe’s fried breaded butternut squash and ricotta ravioli is one of those seasonal appetizers which may have you wishing it was autumn all year round. Four raviolis, each the size of an iPhone are served with a piñon cream sauce so rich and decadent, it should come with a warning. As addictive as the ravioli are, they’re also so rich you couldn’t possibly eat more than two, but you’ll relish every single morsel. The butternut squash and ricotta combination is a perfect blend of semi-sweet and savory, buttery and creamy. The sauce features not only woodsy New Mexico piñon, but nutmeg and cinnamon to accentuate the squash. This is one seriously good, ultra rich, ultra delicious appetizer.

Entrees

13 November 2020: In November, 2012, four time James Beard award-winning author Cheryl Alters Jamison published an article entitled “Tasting New Mexico: 5 Top New Mexico Spots for Divine Gnocchi”  on her wonderful Tasting New Mexico blog. Cheryl lamented that for years she tended to avoid gnocchi in restaurants because “most I’d sampled in such settings were heavy with a gluey quality I associate with eating paste in kindergarten.” She elaborated that “gnocchi should be hearty but have an ethereal lightness about them, too.” The traditional gnocchi at Joe’s would make my top five. Traditional means the gnocchi are made from potato, not semolina flour as prepared at some restaurants. Potatoes is the way gnocchi are made in the Piedmont region of Italy and it’s the way gnocchi tastes best. At Joe’s the gnocchi are topped with a superb tomato sauce and topped with meatballs and Italian sausage.

7 April 2007: The menu is broken into several sections: fresh salads, appetizers, local favorites, traditional favorites, house specialties, seafood favorites and grilled entrees. Within each section are various options, all sure to please the most discerning diners. From the “Local Favorites” section comes a Mediterranean Pasta entree as good as you might expect to find at an upscale Greek restaurant. This dish is crafted with artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, fresh tomatoes, garlic and feta cheese sautéed in a white wine butter sauce all served atop linguine pasta (or you can substitute penne). Available with chicken or shrimp, it is richly calorific and served in a deep dish. You’re sure to have some left over.

9 January 2014: Another local favorite not commonly found in Albuquerque area Italian restaurants (but extremely popular in New York City and which we’ve also had in the deep South) is the beguiling Ziti alla Vodka, Ziti pasta with prosciutto and scallions in a vodka pink sauce. The sauce appears to be combination of the restaurant’s rich Alfredo sauce and its meatless marinara with a bit of vodka splashed in and the alcohol cooked out. It’s inventive and unconventional, creamy and rich, sweet and savory…and absolutely delicious. The pasta is slightly more than al dente and the scallions appear to have been added after the entree is put together, offering a nice contrast. The prosciutto is sliced into tiny morsels and offers a startling taste and texture difference that you can’t help but take notice. This is an excellent entree.

4 August 2007: One of the restaurant’s richest entrees is the Fettuccini Carbonara  made with green peas, pancetta and a heavy cream sauce that will put weight on you just by looking at it. There are two Albuquerque area restaurants whose carbonara I recommend highly–Paisano’s Italian Restaurant and Joe’s Pasta House. The commonality is a subtle balance of rich flavors and perfectly prepared pasta crafted from complementary ingredients.

14 May 2016: Though it’s easy to characterize Joe’s Pasta House as a “red sauce” restaurant, in truth the restaurant excels at a variety of sauces, some complex and some simple, but all delicious. During a visit in January, 2011, we happened upon the former, a special of the evening my Kim’s friend Rosalie Marella makes in Chicago. The label “special” certainly fits. It’s rigatoni pasta and pork ribs, (old-world-style tender pork ribs slow-cooked in Joe’s homemade tomato sauce with fresh basil, olive oil and Romano cheese served over imported rigatoni pasta), an Italian dish showcasing a simple, but magnificently executed tomato sauce. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of this addictive dish is the interplay between the acidic tomato sauce and the rich, creamy, sharp flavor of the Romano cheese which Joe applies in perfect proportion to impart a discernibly magnificent contrast.

The pork ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender and meaty (porky?) enough for Fred Flintstone. It’s easy to extricate the pork off the bone, but your inclination will probably be to pick them up and gnaw off that pork with your hands. It’s a messy proposition considering the tomato sauce, but then that’s what napkins are for. The rigatoni pasta is prepared at just slightly past al dente, but certainly not nearly to the level of the squishy, mushy overdone pasta served at the restaurant at which I’m forced to eat once a year.

31 March 2022:  According to Taste Atlas, spaghetti and meatballs is the third most popular Italian-American dish.  According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Nothing says comfort like a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. And, nothing says Italian food like a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs—unless you are Italian.”   Smithsonian contends “If you go to Italy, you will not find a dish called spaghetti and meatballs. And if you do, it is probably to satisfy the palate of the American tourist.”  Spaghetti and meatballs is a dish created during the immigration of some four-million Italians to America.  Lady and the Tramp aren’t the only ones grateful for that.  My Kim often eschews other dishes for her beloved spaghetti and meatballs.  Joe’s version is her very favorite.

23 January 2011: As smooth as degustation (a sensory (taste, smell, tactile, experience) appreciation of a meal, especially with good company) tends to be at Joe’s, there are some meals which are thoroughly enjoyable while you partake of them at the restaurant, but not so enjoyable if you’re prone to indigestion later. One of these is the Lobster Ravioli and Shrimp special, a sinfully rich dish of lobster and ricotta engorged ravioli topped with sauteed shrimp, fresh peas and sun-dried tomatoes in a brandy cream sauce. It’s the brandy cream sauce which will get you. It’s ultra rich, but also ultra-delicious which means you’ll probably polish off the entire plate. Then there’s the lobster. Each ravioli (tablet-sized) is engorged with fresh, delicious and rich lobster meat.

26 May 2018: If ravioli is what you crave, there are a variety of ways in which you can have it at Joe’s. It’s available as a breaded and deep-fried appetizer served with a mushroom cream sauce. It’s available as an entree where it’s stuffed with cheese and topped with marinara sauce. It’s also available off-the-menu as an entree called the Giovanni Special. Invented by John, one of Joe’s long-time waiters, this dish is the mother lode for ravioli lovers. It features six round cheese stuffed raviolis, three meatballs and two sausages topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella. This is one of those dishes only regular guests know about. We’ve had to describe it to members of the wait staff who have never heard of it; fortunately Joe knows precisely what it is.

13 November 2012: The Baked Cannelloni, homemade pasta stuffed with seasoned beef and topped with homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella is akin to having one large ravioli. The season beef is an excellent counterpoint to the rich, melted mozzarella and the tangy sauce. Roughly the size of a baked potato, it’s a red sauce dish with the richness of an Alfredo sauce. As with all entrees at Joe’s, it’s an archetypal example of how good this specific dish can be.

16 November 2013: Every once in a while Joe’s will feature a special which proves just how much the restaurant’s cuisine has also been influenced by the Land of Enchantment. Now, green chile on Italian pasta dishes isn’t exactly a novel concept in New Mexico, but rarely is it done as well as the Green Chili (sic) Chicken Ravioli, ricotta-filled ravioli topped with sauteed chicken and green chili Alfredo sauce. The piquancy (discernible, but not overwhelming) and roasted flavor of the green chile are a perfect foil for the richness of the Alfredo sauce…and it is rich. It’s also delicious, a fine departure from the tried and true sauce. In its annual Food & Wine issue for 2018, Albuquerque The Magazine awarded Joe’s Pasta House a Hot Plate Award signifying the selection of its Green Chili Chicken Ravioli as one of the “dishes…that’s lighting a fire under the city’s culinary scene.” Considering the thousands of potential selections, to be singled out is quite an honor.

29 August 2014: One of the most traditional “red sauce” entrees is the almost anachronistic veal parmigiana which the vaunted Northern Italian restaurants don’t even deign to put on their menus. Veal parmigiana is a circa 1960s favorite of Italian restaurants throughout the East Coast where it’s referred to simply as “veal parm.” Perhaps one of the reasons this wonderful dish has fallen out of favor is because it’s not always prepared well. At Joe’s, the veal parmigiana is the stuff of which dreams are made. The veal is lightly breaded and perfectly prepared. It’s fork tender and delicious with a blanket of molten Parmesan and Mozzarella and rich, tangy red sauce providing a delicious cover

26 July 2015: With a veritable compendium of a menu, not to mention specials that live up to that distinction, you’re bound to find something you’ve never had before or haven’t had in quite a while. For me, the entree fitting the latter is Veal Saltimbocca, veal scallopini with red onions, garlic, mushrooms and prosciutto topped with melted mozzarella and served with a pesto cream sauce. In Italian, the term saltimbocca means “to jump in the mouth,” supposedly a reference to the dish being so good that it literally jumps into the diner’s mouth. This isn’t just hyperbole; it literally is that good. The tender, moist veal is pounded into thin medallions that would be excellent by themselves. The herbaceous pesto renders them even more delicious.

14 May 2016: We’re convinced there’s nothing Joe can’t do. Want pizza? The housemade Sicilian-style pizza, available on the daily lunch buffet, is terrific. Two or seven slices of pizza and a serving or five of the eggplant parmigiana and you’ll be smiling for a week. The lunch menu also includes a third-pound burger and a number of hero sandwich, the best of which may just be the Salami and Cheese Hero Sandwich, a beauteous behemoth as good as any sandwich in New Mexico. Greatness is destined for any sandwich lucky enough to be made on the exceptional bread which comes fresh from Joe’s bread ovens every day. Nestled between the pillow-soft bread are generous slices of delightfully seasoned salami and sharp, creamy cheese dressed your way.

Steak & Chops

While the pasta dishes are infused with flavor, it’s apparent the chef’s culinary skills are as plentiful as are the portions. Joe’s Pasta House is by no means a one-trick pasta. In August, 2009, the menu was upscaled with the addition of an admirable cavalcade of chops: Porterhouse steak, French style pork chops, lamb chops and more. These are chops the type of which you might expect to find in Chicago, the “City of Big Shoulders.” If Joe has his way, perhaps Rio Rancho should be called “City of Big Chops.” Lamb chops. Pork chops. Porterhouse steaks.

15 January 2014: The Colorado lamb chops are cloud-like luscious and redolent with grilled flavor. At about an inch thick, they’re the antithesis of the tiny, emasculated chops so many restaurants serve and each order includes four prepared to your exacting specifications. At medium rare as the chef recommends they be prepared, the flavorful juices flow as you cut into them. As with much of the lamb served in restaurants, the inherent gaminess associated with lamb has been somewhat bred out which is why medium rare works so well. These chops are tender and succulent with just the slightest hint of fat for additional flavor. They’re also not served in the “Frenched” style with the bone “handle” for easy handling. The lamb chops are served with creamy mashed Klondike Rose potatoes and a ramekin of delicious gravy made from pan drippings.

Porcine perfection can be found in the form of juicy French cut grilled pork chops in a Chianti mushroom sauce. Chianti is a full and rich red wine that couples well with the mushrooms to imbue the inch-thick chops with a complementary flavor that doesn’t detract from their native pork flavor in any way. Two chops for under twenty dollars is an additional bonus.

26 July 2015: It seems ironic that a proud Italian restaurant would serve French-cut pork chops…and no, “French cut,” in this case, has nothing to do with cutting women’s underwear so as to emphasize a woman’s thigh. You don’t have to be a Francophile to understand that “French-cut” means to slice food lengthwise into long, thin strips. Easily three-quarters of an inch thick, Joe’s pork chops are grilled and topped with a Chianti mushroom pan sauce you might be tempted to lap up when you’re done. The chops are grilled to your exacting specification and at medium, have plenty of moistness while retaining a fork tenderness. This is a white meat dish sure to appease all carnivores.

17 January 2016: Jonesing for a steak on a Sunday morning, we rattled off one steakhouse after the other before it dawned on me that the Joe’s weekend dinner special for January 15, 16 and 17 was a grilled New York Strip steak topped with sauteed mushrooms, sweet onions and melted Provolone cheese served with battered onion rings. No steakhouse would have done it better. Better than a one-inch cut and easily twelve-ounces, it is a moist and tender slab of beef prepared to your exacting specifications (for optimum juiciness go for no more than medium-rare). The sauteed fleshy fungi are earthy and sweet, counterbalanced by the melted molten blanket of Provolone. Then there are the onion rings, a stack of golden fried orbs and for great measure, wonderfully prepared asparagus spears.

22 January 2017: Joe’s weekend dinner specials are so popular that they sometimes sell out early Saturday night. On occasion, however, one or two specials might be left over for early birds who arrive on Sunday at precisely noon. Such was the case when a 24-ounce Porterhouse steak was the weekend dinner special. For my carnivorous Kim, ordering the very last Porterhouse steak is akin to winning the lottery. Martha Stewart LivingMagazine once declared “Only a few steaks can be classified as perfect. The porterhouse is one of them.” Indeed, Porterhouse is a peerless cut consisting of a supple, ample-sized filet and a robust strip joined by the T-bone. It compromises nothing in taste or presentation. Joe’s seasons it with salt and pepper and cooks it to your notion of perfection. For Kim, only medium-well will do. Though usually accompanied by a baked potato, during our Sunday visit she opted instead for a side of spaghetti with meat sauce which she admits is much better than what Olive Garden can prepare.

15 January 2014: The prime rib is available in ten- and twelve-ounce sizes. It’s become so popular that you’re well advised to get to Joe’s early (the prime rib special is available from 4PM to 9PM) because once it runs out, you’re out of luck. Because of the demand, Joe’s roasts some four prime rib roasts. It’s easy to see why the prime rib is so popular. It’s very tender, cutting almost like butter and revealing a perfectly pink center (at medium) with rich juices flowing copiously onto your plate. As with great prime rib, the “crust” is seared to perfection. Seasoning is earthy and natural, accentuating the terrific grass-fed flavor of the beef. The accompanying horseradish sauce has some bite, but not so much that it detracts from the starring attraction.

23 October 2016: Flat iron steaks are a value-priced cut that is tender, juicy and which some experts say has the “beefiest” flavor of any cut of beef on any steak. Joe Pasta House exploits these qualities to their utmost, serving a fork-tender steak that is juicy, delicious and absolutely beefy. The steak is prepared to your exacting specifications (it’s outstanding at medium-rare) and served with a light, innocuous sauce that does nothing to detract from the flavor of the beef. The flat iron steak is served with sauteed red peppers and onions, a surprisingly natural complement to what is increasingly a favored cut of steak.

Seafood

15 January 2014: You can add a dinner or Caesar salad with your entree for a pittance or top your steak with sauteed sliced mushrooms, melted mozzarella cheese or sauteed sweet onions for just a bit more. If you’re tastes are more inclined toward surf and turf, you can also top any of your steak or chop entrees with garlic scallops. Because scallops are delicately flavored and sweet, you might think garlic would overwhelm those qualities, but that’s not the case. The garlic kisses the scallops softly so as not to change their flavor profile. This is a surprisingly nice dish.

4 April 2014: During my years in New England, I consumed boatloads of creamy, comforting, delicious seafood bisques and chowders from Maine to Connecticut. Nothing in the world compares to a thick, sweet, creamy bisque served at a waterfront restaurant with the advantage of being able to use freshly caught, just off the boat seafood. There’s also no equal for enjoying such a repast while the salty sea air and balmy ocean breeze lulls you into a state of blissful relaxation.

Joe’s Pasta House has none of those advantages, but somehow manages to serve a seafood bisque which transports me back to so many wonderful afternoons on the wharf at Gloucester, Massachusetts. The bisque isn’t always on the menu, but when it is, it quickly sells out. That’s because Rio Rancho may be a landlocked city several hundred miles from the sea, but its citizenry knows great seafood. A large soup cup is brimming with fresh crab, mussels and clams sharing a creamy home with carrots, scallions, celery and a single crostini. The seafood is unbelievably fresh and surprisingly plentiful with sweet crab being especially cherished. The bisque is creamy and thick and is served at the perfect height of steaminess. See where it ranks among my favorite soups in New Mexico here.

10 August 2014: Blessed with 5,000 miles of coastline, Italy is a nation which cherishes the frutti di mari (fruits of the sea). Pairing pasta with luscious seafood is virtually a culinary sport for Italian chefs. There are hundreds of potential variations for something which sounds as simple and basic as a seafood stew or zuppa di pesci. Italian chefs have learned to exercise restraint to balance the briny seafood with the delicate pasta. A great seafood stew isn’t about mixing a net full of seafood with a bowl of pasta. It’s about complementary ingredients melding together well.

Joe’s version of seafood stew is a wonderful balance of fresh seafood with perfectly prepared pasta served in a large boat…er, bowl. The seafood–shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, lump crab and Atlantic salmon–are so fresh you might forget you’re in a landlocked state and not dockside. The seafood is served atop a linguini pasta in a tomato basil bullion which allows all ingredients to sing. A sweeter sauce or one more acerbic would not have gone so well with the delicate, delicious, briny seafood, but the tomato basil brings out the seafood’s natural flavors. Joe served this dish on the first Sunday in which his magnificent restaurant opened for lunch.

12 July 2015: While I was raving effusively about Joe’s red sauces, my Kim once retorted “if you love them so much, you should marry them.” I tell her she was being ridiculous. The state of New Mexico prohibits polygamy. You know when I eschew a red sauce dish at Joe’s, what I order instead has got to be very special. Special is a good way to describe the linguini pasta with fried breaded clams and strips, a weekend special during the second week of July, 2015. A very delicate pasta is tossed with red and orange cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil and Romano cheese then topped with fried breaded clam strips and scallops. Fried clams are extremely rare in the Land of Enchantment. Leave it to Joe to prepare them in the manner and style of my favorite New England clam shacks. Even if they weren’t the sublime clam bellies I prefer, the clams transported me back to Essex in Massachusetts. Joe’s has a way of transporting diners to better places and states of satisfaction.

17 January 2016: All along the coast of Italy, frutti di mare which translates from Italian to “fruit of the sea” offers a beloved multi-seafood soiree. The myriad of seafood flavors at Joe’s includes shrimp, clams, calamari, mussels and scallops over a best of linguine in your choice of spicy marinara sauce or garlic butter white wine sauce. At Joe’s the “spicy” marinara sauce isn’t so spicy or piquant that it detracts from the freshness and sweetness of the seafood. If anything, the marinara brings out those qualities. There’s a netful of seafood in each swimming pool-sized bowl of the fruits of the sea. The next time someone tells you there isn’t good seafood in the Duke City area, bring them to Joe’s and order this dish for them.

28 April 2017: Joe’s offers four salmon dishes: Romano encrusted salmon, piñon pesto salmon, salmon Florentine and your choice of grilled or poached salmon served atop a bed of fresh spinach. One definition of the word “faith” is “confidence or trust in someone or something.” Even though the Romano encrusted salmon (fresh salmon encrusted with imported Romano cheese then oven baked and topped with a sweet pepper cream sauce) didn’t sound especially good to me, my trust in Joe’s chefs is such that I just knew it would be a fabulous dish. That belief was reinforced by Chuck, the affable floor manager who confirmed the dish’s popularity. My faith was well placed. This is an excellent dish. The sweet pepper cream sauce I had feared would be too sweet and too contradictory to the salmon is a perfect complement to the fresh, perfectly prepared salmon. The Romano crust is a perfect counterbalance for the rich, creamy sweetness of the sauce. Although generally served with a side of sauteed vegetables, Joe’s outstanding wait staff can substitute a side of spaghetti (with that outstanding red sauce) if you’d like.

Desserts

Not surprisingly, the Pasta House also has a stellar dessert tray with palate-pleasing options galore: German chocolate cake, chocolate cake, lemon cake, chocolate cannoli, red velvet cheesecake and oh, so much more. It’s all tempting and likely all delicious. Only the tiramisu and cannoli are prepared in-house. Other desserts are sourced from a high quality vendor. Both the tiramisu and the cannoli are absolute must-have desserts. In the inaugural Taste of Rio Rancho (held in 2014), the tiramisu was acclaimed the City of Vision’s very best dessert. I was fortunate enough to have served as a judge along with my friend Larry McGoldrick. When the tiramisu was brought to us, we knew there aren’t many desserts in New Mexico as good as Joe’s terrific tiramisu.

The Italian Dream Cake will inspire nocturnal smiles. It’s rich, creamy and delicious. The cannoli is among the best in the city, replete with rich ricotta brought in from New Jersey. The lemon cake zings with a nice tanginess while the German chocolate cake is the perfect marriage of coconut, pecans and chocolate. Desserts are decadent, delicious and dreamy.

Though they’re absolutely indefatigable ambassadors for their establishment, Joe and Kassie also rave about other restaurants in the City of Vision, an act of class so very typical of this dynamic couple who win the hearts and stomachs of their guests one delicious dining experience at a time.

10 AUGUST 2014: By popular demand, Joe’s Pasta House is now open on Sundays from 12PM to 7:30PM. Treat yourself to the Albuquerque area’s favorite Italian restaurant where you’ll be well taken care of by the most professional staff in New Mexico.

JOE’S PASTA HOUSE
3201 Southern Blvd.
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
(505) 892-3333
Web Site | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 13 November 2020
# OF VISITS: 32
RATING: 25
COST: $$ – $$$
BEST BET: Pesto, Mediterranean Pasta, Hot Antipasti for Two, Lasagna, Cannelloni, Giovanni Special, Fetuccini Carbonara, Zita Alla Vodka, Gnocchi, Butternut Squash and Ricotta Stuffed Ravioli, Tiramisu, Cannoli, Italian Cream Cake, Green Chili Chicken Ravioli, Colorado Lamb Chops, Prime Rib, Seafood Bisque, Veal Parmigiano, Fried Lasagna, Calamari Mediterranean Style, Sweet and Spicy Shrimp, French-Style Pork Chops, Veal Saltimbocca, Fruitti De Mare, Steamed Clams Casino, Grilled New York Strip Steak, Rigatoni Pasta and Pork Ribs, Salami and Cheese Hero Sandwich, Porterhouse Steak, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce