The aromas from Michele Savoia's restaurant kitchen remind him of his grandmother in Sicily.

"My training was my grandmother," says the chef-owner of Dish Osteria and Bar on the South Side. "I was born in America, but my mother died when I was 3 years old. Our father took me and my brother to Sicily, where we grew up with my grandmother."

The two boys witnessed "old school" cooking firsthand.

"There always was cooking going on," he says. "Every day (it started) at 6:30 or 7 in the morning, then everything was ready at 1 o'clock, especially the ragus, which cooked for hours over low heat."

He recalls how the family bought nearly everything from street vendors -- eggs from the lady next door; wine from a man who tapped it into smaller containers from big barrels; salami and prosciutto from a woman across the street; and ricotta cheese "so fresh it was warm" from a fellow who delivered it in big bamboo baskets strapped to his motorcycle.

"All you needed to do is spread that ricotta on a piece of bread or toss it with pasta," says Savoia, looking wistful. "I've never tasted ricotta that's the same. I have to make my own."

His grandmother made the dough for the family's bread. The chef remembers taking it to the village baker's ovens, then returning later and picking it up, fresh and warm in his arms, as he walked home.

At age 20, the chef left Sicily to seek adventure in northern Italy, visiting Rome and Florence and finally settling down in Bologna.

"I fell in love with the people and the region and the food," Savoia says, "and I stayed there."

He and his two roommates always were short on cash, so they pooled what they had to buy authentic homemade meals at family eateries -- "not fancy places, just little restaurants in towns that maybe had a population of 100. We ate like kings."

Culinary passion took complete hold of Savoia. But job opportunities were few in Italy for a U.S. native at that time, so Savoia went to visit relatives in New York. They lived in an Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn.

"More food!" he says. "I was excited to be in America."

He and his brother decided to stay, working for the Italian Trade Commission promoting that country's foods and wines. Savoia then started working in restaurants, gaining experience as a waiter and spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

"I always worked with good chefs and good food."

He met his future wife, Cindy -- a Pittsburgh native -- and they decided to settle here and open a restaurant, "just a bar with a little menu, tapas-style." The couple fixed up an old Irish bar on the South Side, and the restaurant "evolved little by little as people asked questions."

Since Dish Osteria opened in September 2000, its menu has grown to include bigger courses.

"We don't do much advertising," the chef says. "It's all word of mouth. It's been a nice, fun process."

The restaurant sticks to a Sicilian menu of dishes reminiscent of Savoia's childhood and what he experienced while working in New York restaurants -- appetizers including wild mushroom bruschetta (the bread is purchased from Mediterra Bakehouse in Robinson), antipasto, grilled calamari with sauteed spinach, and wild shrimp sauteed with garlic, olive oil, cherry tomatoes, white wine and fresh parsley.

Main-dish selections include a seafood linguine toss, aged New York strip steak with sauteed spinach and pan-roasted diced Yukon gold potatoes, wild Atlantic salmon with vegetables and a wine sauce, a center-cut filet in a rosemary red wine demi-glace, and a changing selection of grilled fish and shellfish served with saffron risotto and Sicilian eggplant caponata.

For "Cooking Class," Savoia wants to introduce Western Pennsylvania to tuna bottarga, a classic ingredient in Sardinian and Sicilian cooking and produced in those areas. The egg sacs from tuna or mullet are harvested by fishermen, then they are dried through a multi-step process involving salting, pressing, washing, drying and seasoning.

The result is what some people call "poor man's caviar," although just { 1/4} pound of tuna bottarga sells on the Internet for $40 or more. Whole tuna bottarga can be purchased via the Internet from: chefshop.com, 4 ounces for $39.99; and www.farawayfoods.com, 4.23 ounces for $62. Some gourmet Web sites sell a grated or ground form of tuna bottarga in jars, which chef/owner Michele Savoia of Dish Osteria and Bar says is not as flavorful as when it is cut, crumbled or grated from a whole piece. Also, bottarga made from mullet roe is available -- the flavor is lighter and flavor and can substitute for tuna bottarga.

"You don't need much of it," Savoia says. "It's a very strong flavor. It has many uses -- salads, omelets, sprinkled over pastas. You can use it on crostini bread spread with butter."

New York City chefs are featuring tuna bottarga on their menus.

"We use it as a special at Dish," Savoia says. "Some people known about (the ingredient) and are really happy to find it; some people try it and like it."

Tuna bottarga can be crumbled, flaked or thinly sliced into a variety of dishes. Savoia shares his simple pasta recipe, in which the tuna plays a grand role but manages to let the flavors of the other ingredients, including organic cherry tomatoes, toasted fresh bread crumbs, parsley and extra-virgin olive oil, act as strong support.

Mangia!

Dish Osteria and Bar, 128 S. 17th St., South Side, is open for dinner from 5 p.m.-midnight Mondays through Saturdays; the restaurant stays open until 2 a.m. those nights. Details: 412-390-2012, dishosteria.com

Spaghetti with Tuna Bottarga

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• About 1 cup fresh bread crumbs, preferably made from ciabatta bread, plus more for garnish
• Thumb-size piece of tuna bottarga
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt
• 6 organic cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• Chopped flatleaf parsley
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups hot, cooked, al dente spaghetti, preferably Setaro or other imported brand, drained

Brown the bread crumbs: Pour 2-3 tablespoons olive oil in a saute pan and place over medium-high heat. When hot, add the bread crumbs and press into a single layer (see Photo A). Brown the bread crumbs, turning occasionally and watching closely so they do not burn. When the bread crumbs are golden brown, remove the pan from the heat, but keep stirring for a few minutes to help the mixture cool. Set aside.

Make the sauce: Slice several thin pieces of bottarga the size of a postage stamp. Set aside on a cutting board. Finely chop 2-3 tablespoons more; set aside separately.

Pour enough olive oil -- about 1/4 cup -- into a large skillet to cover the bottom. Set over medium heat until hot, then add the garlic and saute gently; be careful to avoid burning it. When the garlic is light brown, sprinkle in a pinch of salt. Crumble one of the slices of bottarga into the garlic (Photo B) and mix. Add the cherry tomatoes and saute the sauce, shaking the pan. Add about 2 tablespoons chopped parsley and 1 tablespoon of the reserved browned bread crumbs (Photo C).

Add the pasta to the sauce and toss the pasta with the other ingredients in the skillet. Add more parsley to taste, the remaining bread crumbs (Photo D) and a drizzle of olive oil.

Turn the mixture into a large shallow bowl. Garnish with the reserved finely chopped bottarga and place the remaining of thin slices on top. Garnish with more parsley and olive oil, to taste.

Makes 1 generous serving.