RESTAURANT REVIEW CUCINA D’ITALIA : Pasta Pals : The modest menu offers spaghetti, minestrone and salad along with four specials, changed weekly.

The words small and unpretentious must have been coined for Cucina d’Italia, a family-run restaurant tucked into in a modest stucco bungalow in a residential neighborhood of Ventura.

With its funky paneling, linoleum floors, vinyl chairs and red-checked table cloths, it reminds me of somebody’s rec room or a cozy little spot on the Russian River catering to fishermen on vacation.

Owners and cooks Mirna and Jim Cambianica open their restaurant for a brief 20 hours a week, serving moderately priced dinners Tuesdays through Fridays. The first time I went there, they had just opened after a three-week hiatus. They had obviously been missed during that time because the place had been packed all night with regulars. In fact, most of the specials were gone by the time we arrived. But we put our names on the clipboard anyway and found ourselves a comfortable spot to wait out on the front porch.

When we asked for three glasses of Chianti, our waitress pointed out that a liter would be more economical. The service was like that all night. I’ve had service that reached remarkable levels of efficiency, but I’ve never had any that matched Cucina d’Italia for sheer kindness.

The restaurant features a modest menu with a choice of three kinds of spaghetti--meat sauce, tomato sauce or garlic and oil, all under $7. These can be augmented, if you like, with side orders of sausage or big, soft meatballs flavored with herbs. The spaghetti was good and satisfying, but you’d never call it pasta: It reminded me of spaghetti served in restaurants that are more American than Italian.

Don’t miss either the salad or the minestrone. The salad was put together with great organic lettuce and a dynamic vinaigrette. One night, it came with a sweet shredded cabbage salad on the side, making a delicious contrast to the more assertive greens.

Minestrone was a first-class, homemade soup with a clear, not-too-salty broth and a plethora of vegetables including potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes and carrots, as well as rice and beans. One could do very well here with salad and soup alone--and a basket of the soft chewy fresh bread, but the prices are so reasonable it doesn’t hurt to keep eating.

Every week, there are four new specials on the chalkboard. Chicken zingaro came with fettuccine and the entire dish was smothered with a tomato sauce fragrant with rosemary. Homemade ravioli, filled with meat and fresh spinach, although somewhat watery, were obviously freshly made. The fettuccine with clam sauce was superb--subtle but savory. I would have liked a few vegetables along with these dishes, and next time I may have the salad along with the entree.

Make no mistake, there will be a next time.

The wine was definitely on the unpretentious side and, at $1.50 a glass, it was downright cheap. The corkage fee if you bring your own is $2.80.

Desserts were fairly simple, consisting mostly of ice cream, with toppings including amaretto or fresh fruit. They offer a dessert of the week, such as fresh nectarine shortcake, and make their own version of spumoni by mixing tantalizing flavors into commercial ice cream and layering it to form an ice cream pie.

People sit elbow to elbow at Cucina d’Italia and, by the end of the evening, amiable conversations are flowing between tables, with discussions ranging from death to celebrities to local secondhand stores. It’s basically just a neighborhood hangout, but if you lived in this neighborhood, you’d consider yourself pretty lucky.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Cucina d’Italia, 1497 E. Thompson Blvd., Ventura, is open for dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. 648-1422. Wine and beer, street parking, no credit cards. Dinner for two, food only $15 to 26.