Gigi Trattoria in Rhinebeck, New York

The area around Poughkeepsie, New York is not best known as a culinary destination, but it has a thriving Italian food scene, much of it pretty good, though unpretentious. While my brother and I were returning my nephew to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson over the past few days, we took a side trip to Rhinecliff to visit Gigi Trattoria, widely known as a significant cut above the regional average.

Owner and chef Laura Pensiero, whom I had the pleasure of meeting briefly, is developing her own school of "Hudson Valley Mediterranean" cooking (she has a cookbook by that same name). It's traditional Italian, but based very much on farm produce from around the lush, misty Hudson River valley, setting of such literary classics as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Last of the Mohicans.

Gigi is casual but gently upscale; the crowd looked like tenured professors from the college, with perhaps a few junketing Mahattanites. These cell-phone pics don't do justice to the presentation, but I left my real camera in the car; it was pouring rain; we had been driving for most of 13 hours, and the restaurant was closing in 45 minutes, so I went with what I had. We started by sharing a gorgeous bread basket – a selection of home-baked slices including a dark bread stuffed with black olives, and served with a rich green olive oil – and Insalata Stagione, with crisp fresh greens from nearby Sky Farm, notably including arugula and tiny flashes of dill, all lightly dressed with a Sherry-Shallot Vinaigrette.

This is my small order of Panzotti Primavera, ravioli filled with wild greens and ricotta, with Grana Padana cheese and a fresh sage butter sauce that was so buttery and glossy you could have convinced me it was actually a Béarnaise sauce. I was hoping to get my hands on some interesting New York wines on this flying visit, but Gigi has no local wine on the menu, so I consoled myself with a Nemean Moschofilero ("Mountain Sun", Semeli, Nemea, Greece, 2008), whose not-too-sweet floweriness went deliciously with the fresh green flavour of the pasta. (I really like the white wines from Nemea and Santorini, and wish more were available in Toronto restaurants.)

My brother had a small order of traditional Penne Arrabbiata (above). The pasta in both dishes was delightfully fresh and chewy. My brother loved the subtle herbal seasoning of his Arrabbiata; he said it was spicier than he expected, but not too hot.

My nephew has a classic Margherita pizza with an exceptional, delectably thin flatbread crust. We finished by sharing a generous Sontuoso, described as a "dark chocolate pot de crème with fresh mint sorbet". Garnished with a fresh leaf, the sorbet was icy, crumbly, and so strongly infused that my brother remarked it was more like medicine than a dessert – in a good way. The creamy chocolate was indeed very dark, almost without sugariness. A stunning combination for a meal finish. The whole meal was $85, including tax and tip.

Gigi also runs a seasonal farmers' market and café on Greig Farm in nearby Red Hook, New York, promoting local growers and bakers in a relaxed rural ambiance.

Those who don't travel in the US very often may need to be reminded that real food made with lots of fresh vegetables that's not over-salted, over-sugared, running with commercial fats and served in giant indigestible portions is harder to come by in the States than in Canada, so it's doubly pleasant to find such deft, careful cuisine in a modest setting. That having been said, Canada could take a lesson from the New York highway system, where every dreadful roadside rest stop seems to have a mini-farmers' market set up with fresh fruit in season, as well as local honey or maple syrup. Crisp New York apples make for much better on-the-road munching than the amusing but awful Ho Hos and Ding Dongs.