You like your pasta al dente, you say? Well, exactly what kind of pasta are we talking about here? Enter Uptown Café, a cozy nook overlooking the city’s hulking cement complexes, and chances are good you’ll find owner John Paolo perched expectantly at the counter. " Go on, I’m ready for you, " he challenges. You’ll welcome the provocative greeting. After all, you’re about to eat a cooked-from-scratch meal courtesy of Paolo, who formerly cooked at Dino’s in the North End. But there’s a small toll to pay: the decision. First, choose a pasta. Maybe penne, your basic naked noodle ($5.45). Those not afraid of frills or fillers might narrow their choice down to the spinach Florentine ravioli, five-cheese tortellini, or ricotta gnocchi ($6.45). Then comes the fun part, the culinary equivalent of fashion accessories: the sauce. You can coordinate your carbohydrates with marinara, pesto, pink cream, or scampi, each cooked from scratch on stoves behind the counter. There are also daily specials, predetermined combos that range from chicken Marsala to shrimp scampi ($6.95), served over ziti, of course.

But first, get your appetite flowing with homemade soup ($3.50). They may be called soups, but they’re more like stews, considering each bowl is more substantial than slurp-able. Again, offerings rotate daily, but they’re consistently traditional. Past choices have included chicken noodle, a distinctly creamy pasta and bean, and clam chowder.

Paolo knows there’s not always time in the day for an afternoon pasta-twirling feast, so sandwiches like eggplant parmesan, chicken pesto, and Sicilian steak ($5.95/whole, $3.75/half) are made with the same home-comfort care, on bread fresh from the oven.

Uptown Café, located at 120 Cambridge Street, in Boston, is open Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (617) 227-1181.