Americans love Italian food, and the Italian dishes served at Buona Notte Ristorante are the ones that spark this love affair. Buona Notte, on Mulberry Street in the heart of Little Italy, is a no-apology, Southern Italian, red-sauce restaurant run by a warm Italian family. Full-flavored jumbo portions of hearty golden oldies are the order of the day at this unpretentious, no-nonsense spot with its brick walls, pressed-tin ceiling, bare tables, oversized Italian wine posters, and charming back yard patio.

Traditional diners who can’t find their favorite dish on Buona Notte’s nearly bedsheet-size menu just aren’t paying attention. This storefront spot offers 17 pastas including spaghetti, penne, fettuccine, rigatoni, lasagna, capellini, gnocchi, ravioli, linguine and farfalle. Gently priced from $9.50 to $18, they come with vodka, marinara, cream, fra diavolo, tomato, meat, garlic and oil, and red and white sauces. And that’s just the pastas. Add 13 appetizers, four soups, six salads, ten fish, eight chicken, eight veal, four vegetable, four desserts, and a few special dishes, and you have one of the city’s most comprehensive lists of Italian favorites.

Although a voluminous menu isn’t always a good sign (sometimes quality gets sacrificed for quantity), Buona Notte does a remarkably consistent job on just about every dish. Most of them are popular, basic, and recognizable preparations: marsalas, parmigianas, sorentinas, oreganatas, and the like. Diners who seek cutting-edge, innovative, gourmet fare should head for midtown or better yet, go across the street to Il Cortile, which is owned by the same family (as is nearby Fratelli).

Starters sampled at a recent dinner were tiny, tender oregano-touched baked clams, huge, grit-free mussels in a gutsy, rustic Marinara sauce, an ordinary house salad and a bowl of extraordinary pasta e fagioli, dense with beans, macaroni and tasty prosciutto in a memorably rich broth.

An entrée of pollo alla paesano or boneless chicken in a tangy, garlic, rosemary sauce was invigorated by its snappy sausage and soothing roasted peppers. A Sicilian-style Chilean sea bass (with Gaeta olives, shallots, and white wine sauce) was fresh, flaky, and fine while angel hair pasta covered with tomato sauce and laced with chunks of Brazilian lobster tail meat proved to be too much food for one hearty diner. More delicate and manageable was vitello alla boscaiola or thin slabs of veal blanketed with Portobello strips, sun dried tomatoes and olives.

Desserts past muster. The light, fluffy tiramisu and dense, robust chocolate mousse cake ranked first and second.

120 Mulberry St. btw. Canal & Hester Sts., 212-965-1111.