TRANSPLANTED LITTLE ORANGE.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

L'arancino is a small deep-fried, batter-coated, rice ball that gets its name in Italian from the baby orange.

When made with the correct rice and cooked properly and quickly, it's a lovely tidbit. At the new L'Arancino in West Hollywood, entrepreneurial chef Celestino Drago's latest restaurant, it's exactly that.

Diners are proffered these little tasties as a complimentary nibble at L'Arancino after being seated.

And their orangy-golden hue truly does make them look orangelike.

So it makes sense for the orange theme to continue in the dining room in the form of sprightly artworks and of real oranges bunched in clusters, hanging in baskets in the view kitchen.

There's also an orange glow cast from each of the clever wooden lampshades affixed to the walls and strategically located around the interior.

Formerly the site of Jackson's, L'Arancino is a comforting place, nicely decorated in a restrained sort of way, pleasantly lit, not too loud, featuring handsome slip-covered chairs in a trio of shades.

And Celestino Drago, with his flagship Drago in Santa Monica, casual Pastaio in Beverly Hills, and recently revived Celestino in Pasadena, dedicates this, his fourth Los Angeles-area restaurant, to his native Sicily and the cucina of that food-impassioned island.

A Sicilian meal often begins with something bean-inspired.

A cousin to falafel, panelli ($5.50) is Drago's neatly crafted, Sicilian-style sauteed garbanzo bean flour cake. It's a deliciously simple way to start.

His maccu ($5) is a delightful soup made with dry fava beans and wild fennel.

He layers marinated tuna with grilled vegetables for millifogghi di tunnu ($12) and while staying with one of Sicily's favorite denizens, keeps this town's tuna bandwagon a-rolling.

With all these goodies are welcome bites of focaccia baked on the premises and ciabatta breads made with spelt flour, crispy breadsticks, also olive, flat and traditional Sicilian breads.

Many of Drago's cooked dishes use green olives as a flavoring agent. They work nicely with his juicy roasted rabbit recipe ($19).

But they somehow lose their pungency in a bland cod dish, baccala in umidu a missinisa ($18), even with capers involved.

Yes, you'd expect a somewhat salty, assertively olive- and caper-flavored fish plate when you order the baccala.

Unfortunately, and unaccountably, those expected flavors are missing.

But Drago's kitchen, under the direction of Craig D'Allesandro, makes up for its only gaffe with its wild fennel-seasoned, pan-roasted, free-range baby chicken ($17), a resoundingly delicious plate of food; and its herbal, grilled lamb chops ($18.50) - you'd better like plenty of rosemary - paired with a clever vegetable timbale.

Noted as one of the star pasta chefs in Los Angeles, Drago doesn't lose any ground with his ``primi piatti'' L'Arancino pastas.

A superb example is his pasta 'ncaciata ($13), once again utilizing the cakelike timbale arrangement, this time of formed tubed noodles with a light meat sauce, cheese and peas wrapped in a thin eggplant coat and arriving with impressive, food magazine cover-dish looks.

Incidentally, this designated first-course pasta is big enough for a solo main dish or a shared starter.

And you know that this is no clip joint when you see pasta plates as low as $9 or $10.

You'll also notice some very fairly priced wines of good quality on L'Arancino's extensive list, my favorite red here being the 1990 Dr. Taurino Notarpanaro Rosso from Puglia at $24.

And look no further for that famous Sicilian dessert, cassata ($6), a classic sweet ricotta cheese, candied fruit and marzipan cake concoction that seems to have disappeared from local Italian restaurant menus. And savor the cannoli ($6) here, with the shell freshly baked in-house - a rare occurrence indeed - and a soft, fresh-tasting, ricotta filling.

In the Big Orange, we welcome the little one - L'Arancino.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: L'Arancino.

Where: 8908 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood.

When: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, for dinner from 5:30 to 11 p.m. nightly.

Behind the scenes: Celestino Drago is chef-owner.

Recommended items: Panelli garbanzo bean flour cakes, maccu fava bean and wild fennel soup, layered marinated tuna and vegetables, roasted rabbit with olives, eggplant-wrapped timbale of pasta, grilled lamb chops, fennel-seasoned free range chicken, house-baked cannoli and cassata.

How much: Soups and starters from $5 to $16, pastas and entrees from $9 to $30, desserts $6 each. Full bar. Major credit cards.

Wine list: Extensive 12-page list has 25 Sicilian wines on two pages, a full range of Italian regional wines and a healthy representation of Californians. There are only six wines at $20 or less, all Sicilian. Best buys are the Ferrari Carano '97 fume blanc ($22) and the '90 Notarpanaro Rosso of Dr. Taurino. Corkage: $18.

Reservations: Suggested. [phone].

Our rating: Three and One Half Stars for food; Three Stars for service; Three Stars for wine.

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Photo

Photo: Chef Craig D'Alessandro, left, and chef-owner Celestino Drago serve Sicilian cuisine at L'Arancino in West Hollywood.

David Sprague/Daily News